food." Its cheapness comes from the fact that it is easy to grow and easy
to keep through the winter and should not blind us to its merits. A
good-sized carrot (weight one-fourth pound) will have only about half the
fuel value of a medium-sized potato, but nearly ten times as much calcium
as the potato and about one-third more phosphorus. While actual figures
show that other vegetables, especially parsnips, turnips, celery,
cauliflower, and lettuce, are richer in calcium than the carrot, its
cheapness and fuel value make it worthy of emphasis. Everyone who has a
garden should devote some space to this pretty and palatable vegetable. It
is perhaps at its best when steamed till soft without salting and then cut
up into a nicely seasoned white sauce; its sweetness will not then be
destroyed nor its salts lost in the cooking water. It is not only useful
as a hot vegetable, but in salads, in the form of a toothsome marmalade,
and as the foundation of a steamed pudding. For little children it is most
wholesome and they should make its acquaintance by the time they are a
year and a half old, in the form of a cream soup. A dish of carrots and
peas (one-half cup peas, one-fourth cup carrot cubes, one-half cup white
sauce) will have almost the same food values (for fuel, calcium,
phosphorus, and iron) as an equivalent serving of oatmeal, milk, and sugar
(three-fourths cup cooked oatmeal, one-half cup milk, one rounding
teaspoon sugar) and will add variety to the diet without costing a great
deal more unless one pays a fancy price for peas.

Even when meat and eggs are not prohibitive in price, fruit and green
vegetables are an important source of iron in the diet. And when war
conditions make the free consumption of meat unpatriotic, it is reassuring
to think that we really can get along without meat very well if we know
how. Two ounces of lean beef will furnish no more iron than a quarter of a
cup of cooked spinach or half a cup of cooked string beans or dried beans,
or one-sixth of a cup of raisins, or half a dozen good-sized prunes.