1914 girls club, tomato club booklet by Maud Kendrick

1914 [image of tomato on a vine] Maud Kendrick Fallston NC

First year Experience in club work.

Tomato History

I joined the tomato club to learn how to grow and can vegetables for home use. I had never canned anything before this year.

This being the first year we ever used tin cans I knew nothing of what I had to have. My father went to get my things to can with and the tinner told him all we needed was soldern and English rosin. I found out later that I needed salimoniac to tin my irons with. I was told that soldern flux was poison but the demonstrator said it was not.

My garden contains one tenth of an acre. It is in a swamp and has sandy soil with red clay underneath. I selected this because it was far enough away from the house the chickens would not bother my tomatoes.

My garden was broken with a bulb tongue plow five inches deep. Harrowed well and one third of a sack of quano and one one horse load of manure was put on it.

The quano was 8-2-2. The rows were laid off three ft. apart.

I did not spray, prune or stake my plants. They made nice firm tomatoes. after about half of the tomatoes were gone the leaves began to fall off and the tomatoes looked like they had been scalded. I did not can these tomotoes. My stone tomatoes were lateand did not get ripe until after school started.

On the club lable is found the club moto, "To make the best better". The emblem is: The book for back ground, Tomato, four leaf clover, upon the top of the book is the word "Demonstrator". On the lower part of the book is found the works, "Girls C & P club", meaning canning and poultry club. The four H's mean equal training for the Head, Hands, Heart and Health. I didn't plant any thing but tomatoes on my tenth. I canned 223 cans of tomatoes and sold one bu. for $.80, one pk for $.20 and one pk for $.15.

I made two diferent kinds of catsup, 6 bottles of catsup with seed and 9 bottles of catsup with out the seed. When I made my catsup with out the seed I used the receipt in a letter that was sent to us, only I just used half the sugar and salt and spice. I like the catsup with out the seed fine. It takes about twice as much tomatoes.

Besides my tomatoes I have canned 3 qt okra and tomatoes 13 qt apples 3 qt black berry jelly 3 qt plumb jelly 2 qt mixed vegetables 2 qt pear 5 qt corn 4 qt green tomato pickles 13 qt cucumber pickles 2 qt chili sauce 2 qt chow chow 1 qt beet pickles 1 qt pears