Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

Growing acorns, either suspended by a thin wire in a bottle, or planted in wet moss — five or six of them together —in flat pans, are pretty. If put into heat in October, they are in full leaf in the middle of January ; but if grown in a cool room, the leaves only expand later. I think it may be desirable for me to say something each month about cooking. Many people neglect to use things which are now so easily got with or without a garden. This foreign way of cooking Potatoes makes a nice variety: — After partially boiling them, cut the Potatoes into slices when cold, and put them into a saucepan. Cover them with milk to finish cooking them, and add fresh butter, Parsley, pepper, and salt. Salsifys are quite easily grown, and are very good if thrown into vinegar and water, well oiled, cut into small slices, and warmed up with a white sauce in shells, like scalloped oysters. Add a little cheese and breadcrumbs, and brown in the oven. No one who cares for vegetables and has a garden should fail to refer constantly to ' The Vegetable Garden,' already mentioned. It is an invaluable book, and the number and variety of the vegetables it describes is a 14 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN revelation to those who have only the ordinary English idea of the vegetables that are worth growing. Celeriac is an excellent vegetable, not very common in England, and, when carefully cooked, with a good brown sauce, forms a valuable contribution to the winter supply. One of the constant difficulties in the management of a house, whether large or small, where the vegetables are grown and not bought, is that the gardener brings them in, and the cook throws them away into a corner of the scullery or into the pig-tub. Only last summer a gardener from a large place in the neighbourhood said to me while walking round my small garden : ' What ! you grow Cardoons ? I took in beautiful ones last year, but they were never used; the cook said she didn't know how to cook them.' The following is a good receipt : — The length of time Cardoons require in cooking depends on age and size, and varies from half an hour to three or four hours. Scrape the stalks, and pull off all that is thready outside. Cut them into bits about four or five inches long, or longer if served in a long narrow dish with marrow on toast at each end. As you cut them, throw them into a basin full of water, into which you put a little flour to keep them a good colour. When all are prepared, have ready a large crockery stewpan with boiling water, herbs, a little salt and pepper, and a good-sized piece of raw bacon. The rind of the bacon should be cut in little bits, but not so small as to get mixed with the Cardoons. Boil the whole slowly, and prepare a brown sauce apart with well- flavoured stock. Thicken this with flour (burnt to a light- coffee colour), butter, and a little sherry. Let it simmer for two hours, skimming it well. Strain it half an hour before serving. The American Cranberries, so generally and so cheaply sold in London, are very pretty and very nice if well stewed in a crockery saucepan with water and sugar ; a small JANUARY 15