Page:Wood - Foods of the Foreign-Born.djvu/65

 POLES AND OTHER SLAVIC PEOPLES

Polish people introduce us to a northern climate in which the summers are not so long as the winters. Very few of the people from the cities of Poland come to America. Those we find here are the peasant class. They have lived on farms where they raised grain and vegetables that develop during a short season, such as beans, carrots, turnips, parsnips, cabbage, lettuce, and other summer vegetables. Tomatoes are not raised, nor are they known to the people outside of Warsaw. They raise stock from which they get milk and meat. In the winter they are fond of hunting, and they know many ways of cooking game. Many spend their summers farming and their winters lumbering. Wood is used almost exclusively for fuel. Great ovens are built out-of-doors, in which quantities of food are prepared to be stored away for winter use.

Meat has a prominent place in the Polish diet, beef, veal, and pork being the kinds most commonly used. These are roasted or used in combination and boiled. Pork is perhaps the favorite kind, and they have many ways of making it into sausage and of smoking it. When smoked it is often covered with mace to add flavor. This is true not only among the Poles, but also among other Slavic people. Pork is frequently used with beef and made into puddings or loaves.

In the winter the only fresh meat used is game, and it is customary to roast this over an open fire. The skins are used for clothing, including shoes. 49