Purchase

As in the case of other foods, the purchase of vegetables in the market requires special knowledge and attention in order that the best value may be obtained for the money expended. The housewife who has a limited amount of money to spend for food does not buy wisely when she purchases vegetables out of season or those which must be shipped long distances. On the other hand, it will be found that vegetables bought in season as well as those which are plentiful in the particular locality in which they are sold, especially if they are perishable vegetables, are lowest in price and are in the best condition for food. Therefore, whether the income is limited or not, it is wisdom on the part of the housewife to buy vegetables that grow in the neighboring region and to purchase them when they are in season.

A very important point for the housewife to keep in mind regarding the purchase of vegetables is that their price is determined not by their value as food, but by their scarcity and the demand for them. Take, for example, the case of mushrooms. As shown in Table I, this vegetable is low in food value, containing only 210 calories to the pound, but, if purchased, they are always an expensive food. The high price asked for mushrooms is entirely dependent on their scarcity. If there is much demand in a certain community for a food that is not plentiful in the market, the price of that food always goes up. As in the case of mushrooms, many expensive foods add practically nothing in the way of nourishment, their only value being in the variety of flavor they supply.

Furthermore, in order to provide wisely, the person who purchases vegetables for the family should be able to judge whether she is getting full value in food for the money she invests. She cannot always do this with each particular vegetable purchased, but she can buy in such a way that what she purchases will average correctly in this respect. The perishable vegetables should be bought as fresh as possible. No difficulty will be experienced in determining this, for they will soon wither or rot if they are not fresh, but the point is to find out their condition before they are bought. The housewife should be ever on the alert and should examine carefully the vegetables she buys before they are accepted from the grocer or taken from the market. In the case of certain vegetables, it is possible to conceal the fact that they are stale. For instance, the outside leaves of a head of lettuce or endive are sometimes removed and only the bleached center is offered for sale; but this always indicates that the outside leaves were either withered or spoiled or they would not have been taken off.

Much of the spoiling of vegetables can be avoided if proper attention is given to them in the market. Food of this kind should be so displayed that it is not exposed to the dirt and dust of the street, nor to flies and other destructive vermin. The practice of displaying vegetables on a stand in front of a store is gradually losing favor with the housewife who understands the sanitary precautions that should be taken with foods. On the other hand, housewives owe it to the merchant not to handle the foods they are going to buy, for the handling of them not only injures them so that they will not keep well, but renders them unfit to be accepted by the next purchaser.

The manner in which vegetables are sold should also receive consideration. It has been the custom to sell them by measure, but both housewives and merchants have come to realize that it is fairer to sell them by weight. Experience has shown that a pound is much more likely to be always uniform than is a quart or a peck. This is due to the fact that no two dealers are likely to measure in exactly the same way, even though the measures they use are up to the standard in size. Then, too, especially in the case of vegetables that are of various sizes and shapes, it is impossible to fill a measure properly because of the shape of the vegetables, and so either the housewife often receives short measure or the merchant gives more than the measure requires. All difficulty of this kind is entirely overcome when vegetables are weighed.