Very fine drinks for summer are prepared by putting strawberries, raspberries, or blackberries into good vinegar and then straining it off, and adding a new supply of fruit till enough flavor is secured. Keep the vinegar bottled, and in hot weather use it thus. Dissolve half a teaspoonful or less of saleratus, or soda in a tumbler, very little water, till the lumps are all out.

Then fill the tumbler two-thirds full of water, then add the fruit vinegar. If several are to drink, put the soda, or saleratus into the pitcher, and then put the fruit vinegar into each tumbler, and pour the alkali water from the pitcher into each tumbler, as each person is all ready to drink, as delay spoils it.

Jelly Drinks

When jams or jellies are too old to be good for table use, mix them with good vinegar, and then use them with soda or saleratus, as directed above.

Summer Beverage

Ten drops of oil of sassafras, ten drops of oil of spruce, ten drops of oil of wintergreen, two quarts of boiling water, poured on to two great spoonfuls of cream-tartar. Then add eight quarts of cold water, the oils, three gills of distillery yeast (or twice as much home-brewed), and sweeten it to taste. In twenty-four hours, bottle it; it is a delicious beverage.

Strawberry Acid

Take three pounds of ripe strawberries, two ounces of citric acid, and one quart of spring water. Dissolve the acid in the water and pour it on the strawberries, and let them stand in a cool place twenty-four hours. Then add to the liquid its own weight of sugar, boil it three or four minutes (in a porcelain kettle, lest metal may effect the taste), and when cool, cork it in bottles lightly for three days, and then tight and seal them. Keep it in a dry and cool place, where it will not freeze. It is very delicious for the sick, or for the well.

Raspberry Vinegar

Fill a stone jar with ripe raspberries, cover with the purest and strongest vinegar, let it stand for a week, pour the whole through a sieve or strainer, crushing out all the juice of the berries; to each pint of this vinegar, add one and a half pounds of lump sugar and let it boil long enough to dissolve, removing scum which may arise; then remove from the fire, let cool, bottle and cork tightly. Two tablespoonfuls of this vinegar, stirred into a tumbler of iced water, makes a delicious drink, or a little soda may be added.

Grape Syrup

Squeeze the grapes; be careful not to crush the seeds, for that would impart a bitter flavor to the juice. Boil it down to a thin syrup, bottle, and seal tight. This is nice to flavor sauces, puddings, fruit cake and mince meat. One tablespoonful of this syrup in a glassful of water, makes a nice summer drink.

Orange Or Lemon Syrup

Put a pound and a half of white sugar to each pint of juice, add some of the peel, boil ten minutes, then strain, bottle, and cork it tightly. Makes a fine beverage, and is useful for flavoring pies, puddings, etc.

Strawberry Syrup

Squeeze the juice from nice, ripe strawberries, and put one tea-cupful of sugar to each pint of the juice; boil to a thin syrup, bottle, and seal hot. Nice for flavoring pudding, sauce and mince pies. Blackberries, raspberries, currants, quinces, plums, and any kind of fruit may be prepared in the same way.