This process should not be discarded if there is a supply of fruit in the orchard or garden. Place thinly sliced apples and peaches upon plates or trays, protect by clean cheesecloth, and dry in the sun. The color may be dark, but the flavor is excellent. _Laboratory management._——The fruit selected for use in the school kitchen depends upon the time of year. The autumn is the season for preserving, but some fruit is available at any time of year: in the winter, apple and peach butter from the dried fruit; in the spring rhubarb jam or jelly; in the late spring or early summer, strawberry jam. If the school program and the equipment permit the serving of meals by the class, fruit may be preserved in the fall for these occasions. EXERCISES 1. Explain the value of fruit in the diet. 2. Why is cooked fruit sometimes better than raw? 3. Inquire the price of fresh fruit in the market, and compute the cost of a 100-Calorie portion of two of the most common and cheapest. 4. The same with one or two of the dried fruits. 5. What are the important points in the preparation of fresh fruit for the table? 6. What changes are effected in baking an apple? 7. What are the principles of the preservation of food? 8. What is meant by a preservative? 9. What is meant by sterilization? 10. What is mold? Decay? Fermentation? 11. What are the important points in canning? 12. What is the difference between canned fruit and “preserves”? 13. How does jelly making differ from the other processes? 14. What is one of the most important points in cooking dried fruits? 15. Find the cost of a can of peaches at the grocery. Weigh the contents and count the peaches. Compare with the cost of an equal amount of home-canned peaches. What points in the problem must be taken into account? 16. The same problem with jelly bought at the grocery and made at home. 17. Work out the problem of estimating the comparative cost of canned peaches and dried peaches, when calculated to the same food value. CHAPTER VII VEGETABLES AND VEGETABLE COOKERY The distinction between the fruit and the vegetable is purely arbitrary, since both are parts of plants and have the same general composition. Botanically the tomato is as truly a fruit as the apple; but when it is stewed and served with meat, it is classed as a vegetable. Other parts of plants, however, besides the fruit are used as vegetables.