Part 9

Place the indoor camp stove on a concrete base with zinc back of it.

In building the mess hall chimney, be sure that two flues are built, in case one needs to be used for the kitchen stove pipe, as one flue cannot be used for two fires.

4. THE HEALTH WINNER IN CAMP

Before any child is admitted to a Girl Scout camp she should have been thoroughly examined by a competent physician. These examinations should be arranged for by the Local Councils. With very slight effort it is possible to enlist the interest of physicians, particularly women physicians, in making these examinations.

The accompanying certificate (p. 52) is particularly recommended as preferable to an informal statement. This certificate, properly filled out, should be of great assistance to the Camp Director in safeguarding the health of the Scouts in camp. It must be remembered that young girls are ambitious to do all that their fellows do, and very seldom are willing to admit any physical disability. The responsibility should not be on their shoulders. Camp life subjects each person to quite unusual physical exertion which in some cases may amount to a strain. The things to be especially guarded against are heart disturbances, either functional or organic; painful or too profuse menstruation; flat foot, weak backs and prolapsed intestine. Under-nutrition and anemia will usually be automatically corrected by life in the open and the consequent increased appetite. No child who is markedly undernourished, however, should be allowed to take extraordinary exercise until she has begun to gain.

Before the Scouts start for camp they should be assembled and inspected in a group by a nurse, or some other person competent to detect body and head lice. No Scout should be allowed to come to camp infested with vermin, and yet this happens repeatedly unless definite precautions are taken. As a rule this cannot be left to the examining physician. If this examination is made as early as a week ahead of the time to start for camp the children's heads can be cleansed.

To cleanse the head from lice, rub the scalp and saturate the hair with kerosene. Tie the head up in a thick, clean cloth held in place with safety pins. Leave the bandage on over night. After removing the bandage it should be plunged at once into hot soap suds, and thoroughly washed. Wash the scalp and hair with castile or ivory soap, rinsing thoroughly. Dry with clean towels. Combs and brushes should be thoroughly cleansed before using. It may be necessary to repeat this process once.

The ideal should be held before each Scout of having her health record while in camp a perfect one. Should any unforeseen trouble arise, however, she must report at once to the nurse or Director.

Whenever possible, sleep with tent sides and flaps up; never with the tent closed except in case of a severe storm.

Indigestion, constipation, diarrhea, headaches, bruises, blisters, strains and sprains, insect bites, sunburn and ivy poisoning are some of the common camp ailments that have to be dealt with.

Observing the Scout Health requirements as discussed in the Handbook, "Scouting for Girls," helps very much in establishing a healthy Scout camp and keeping out of it conditions which are often due to carelessness.

XII

FEEDING THE MULTITUDE

1. PROVISIONING

To buy in large quantities at wholesale and pay for the order within ten days is economy. To ship by boat and not by rail, when possible, also saves money. To have a dry, well ventilated store room and an ice room is to save still more. It is possible and feasible to order before camp opens, the necessary dry groceries and canned goods to be used in a camp of 150 during a period of four to five weeks, and to care for same in a comparatively small space.

The amounts needed can be computed from the amounts necessary for a family of four or six. In fact, the knowledge necessary to provide properly for a family under ordinary circumstances is of the greatest help in providing for a camp be it large or small. There are many good cook books which specify quantities for given numbers of people; knowing these, the numbers of campers to be fed per day, the amounts in which various kinds of dry provisions are sold at wholesale, gives one the key to the situation. By making out roughly a week's menus, a close estimate can be made.

Cereals, flours and meals can be bought by the sack and range in weight from 50 to 100 pounds. Sugar can be bought by the bag or barrel, the latter being better because it is cleaner. Navvy beans, to be used for baking, are sold in bags, 150 or 160 pounds in a bag. Baking powder is bought in 5-lb. tins. Cocoa is bought in 25-lb. drums. Macaroni comes in 22-lb. boxes. Peanut butter in 10-lb. pails. Crisco comes in 6-lb. cans; molasses in No. 10 tins, 6 tins in a case; tomatoes in No. 10 tins, 6 in a case; apple butter in 30-lb. pails; cod fish in 20-lb. boxes; soap, 1 case of 100 bars; butter in 63-lb. tubs; eggs in a case of 30 dozen; prunes, apricots, peaches in 25-lb. boxes; raisins in 25-lb. boxes; cheese, 30 lbs. (whole cheese); split peas in 60-lb. bag; vanilla in pint or quart bottles; salt, 25-lb. bag; corn starch, 1 package of 2 dozen boxes; soda, cinnamon, nut meg, ginger, pepper and mustard to be bought in small quantities as needed.

Fresh milk, if obtained from a dairy, is delivered in 40-qt. cans. A quart and a cup per person per day is a good allowance for drinking and cooking purposes. If fresh milk is not obtainable, or can be had only in small quantities, a good brand of evaporated milk should be kept on hand.

Fresh vegetables are bought either by the pound, bunch, quart, peck or bushel. In so far as is possible they should be cooked the day they are delivered. If, however, it is necessary to buy vegetables at one time for two or three days' supply, use first such things as spinach, peas, beans and corn, for cabbages, carrots, beets, tomatoes and squash are more easily kept and are not so impaired in flavor by keeping.

If fresh meat or chicken is to be served it should be cooked the day it is delivered, or kept on ice until such time as it will be needed. Fresh fish should be handled with great care and not allowed to remain off the ice for any length of time. There are so many wholesome substitutes for meat that it seems entirely unnecessary for campers to have meat more than once or at most twice a week. In the summer time, it is very heating, and also the meat which is obtainable in small communities is very often not the best quality, to say nothing of being very expensive. An occasional pot roast of the top of the round, or a roast of lamb, or a piece of corned beef can be used. Fresh fish when obtainable and well cooked is always most acceptable.

Canned meat and canned fish are not recommended.

Care of Provisions

All bags of cereal, meals or flour should be placed in covered barrels, boxes or tubs stood on a platform raised from the floor. Boxes of dried foods such as fruit, cod fish and so forth should be stacked, each kind in a pile and placed on the platform. All tinned goods should be taken out of their cases and laid on shelves. Butter, crisco, eggs, peanut butter, apple butter, and so forth, should be kept in the ice house. Cheese should be wrapped in cheese cloth wrung out in vinegar and kept in a box on a shelf in the store room, not in the ice box.

The handling of fresh milk is something which should be done with great care. After opening a large can, the milk should be stirred with a long ladle which reaches to the bottom of the can. The quantity of milk needed should be taken out and put in a pitcher. For dipping out the milk use a dipper which has been sterilized by placing it in boiling water and cooled by allowing cold water to run over it. This dipper should not be used for any other purpose than taking milk from the large can and when not in use can hang in the ice room. Milk cans should always be kept covered and no milk which has once been taken out of a can should ever be poured back into it. What is left from the table should be put in a pitcher and stood in the ice house to be used for cooking. Milk which is handled in this way and which comes from a first class dairy will keep sweet for three days. It is not essential to keep fresh vegetables in an ice house. If the tops are cut off, vegetables can be kept in baskets in the store room. Under no circumstances should anything hot or even warm be put into the ice box, as the steam which arises from the combination of cold and heat will decompose food very quickly, or cause it to sour. Anything that is hot and needs to be cooled before placing in the ice box should be covered with cheese cloth kept for the purpose and stood on the store room shelves.

Bread, if bought from a bakery, can be kept in a barrel or on shelves and covered with cheese cloth. The sandwich loaves are recommended as they cut to better advantage in the bread cutter, and are more economical in the long run. These loaves weigh about three pounds apiece and cut into from 40 to 45 slices.

Ice cream salt should not be kept in the store room, but in a half-barrel or tub outside of the kitchen door. Salt causes dampness, which is not desirable. The bag of table salt should stand in a tub or box of some kind. Fruit, especially tomatoes and peaches, should be watched closely as little flies are apt to collect on them.

It is most essential that the store room be swept, the shelves brushed, and everything not of use removed from it every morning. This is true with the care of an ice box or room. Not a day should pass that it is not thoroughly inspected and all that is not usable removed from it, and the room left in a perfectly clean, wholesome condition. The ice compartment should be washed out two or three times a week before the fresh ice is put into the box.

Do not buy more perishable food than can be properly taken care of and used within a day or two. Watch it closely, pick it over each day and throw out any part which shows signs of decay.

Do not neglect to replenish the larder before supplies are out, as transportation is slow. Do not forget that large quantities take much more time to cook than small quantities. Many times meals are not served on time for this reason.

Make a point of weighing, measuring and apportioning. It is economy to do so.

Nail a card in the kitchen on which is given the quantities of those things which are used constantly and the number of people each quantity will supply: sugar, butter, bread, cereal, cocoa, dried fruit.

Buy only what is needed and can be properly stored. The second grade of many foods is as good as the first in taste, and as nourishing. It costs less, and many times simply because it is not perfect in size or uniformity.

To buy in bulk is less expensive than to purchase boxed or tinned goods. This rule for campers pertains particularly to cereals, crackers, meals, flours, sugar, cocoa, raisins, etc.

When buying fresh fruits, vegetables or meat, take advantage of the market, even if it means a quick change of menus. A surplus means low prices.

Having bought what is the best or the best that can be afforded, do not spoil it in the preparation, cooking or serving. A deplorable condition exists in many homes and doubtless camps as well, because the art of provisioning from first to last is not better understood.

The Girl Scout camps must prove that thrift and good food go hand in hand; also that in every department related in any way to our food, which is of such importance to health and happiness, the most approved methods are used.

2. CAMP MENUS AND RECIPES

The condition of one's health is probably more dependent on what one eats than on any other single thing. Certain foods are necessary to keep the body in good physical condition and certain combinations of foods are not only better for the body but more pleasing to the palate than others. There is a psychology of food which, if studied, is interesting, and which, if applied, is most helpful. How many times _quantity_ has not satisfied an appetite when _quality_ has. Living in the open creates an appetite, generally for quantity rather than quality; but this is no reason why the latter should be overlooked.

The facilities for cooking and preparing food for obtaining variety are limited, and for this reason the deficit must be made up in other ways. Cereals, fats, liquids, fresh vegetables, fruits and sweets are necessary, and a little meat may be added. Starchy foods are used for bulk and should include the cereals, such as rice, hominy, oatmeal, shredded wheat, cornmeal and macaroni, and potatoes.

For fat, butter of the _best_ quality should be used on the table, and crisco for cooking. Liquids, fresh milk, the best that can be obtained, cocoa and plenty of pure water; fresh vegetables, any and all kinds procurable; those which are camp standbys are string beans, beets, carrots, spinach, peas, squash, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce.

Fresh fruit, if not too expensive, as it is in some parts of the country, is desirable; otherwise dried fruits must be used--apricots, peaches, prunes, apples. It is sometimes possible to secure fresh berries.

_Lamb_: For small groups buy a leg or hind quarter of lamb for roasting, the shoulder for stews, chops for broiling. For a large group, buy whole lambs and cut at camp; 40 or 50 pounds is enough for one meal. Before cooking, wipe off with a damp cloth and rub with salt.

_Beef_: A pot roast is best. Use the top of the round which can also be used for roasting or making meat pies. Twenty-five or thirty pounds for a pot roast is sufficient for 130 people. When buying beef make sure that it is not too fresh, for it will be tough; also, the fibre should not be coarse. The meat should be deep red in color and juicy.

For soup, buy shin beef.

_Fowl_: Chickens are too expensive for camp use. Fowl properly cooked are very nice. Buy those that are fat and yellow in color. Four pounds will serve five campers. Cut the meat from the bones before serving and use the bones for soup.

_Fish_: Fish must be fresh or it is not fit even to be cooked. It should be firm and look fresh. Small fish, cod, halibut or special fish in special localities are good for camp use.

_Sweets_: Simple desserts, such as bread pudding, rice pudding, cottage pudding, apple pudding, Indian pudding, corn starch, blanc mange, ice cream, apple butter and jam, sherbets, chocolate pudding, ginger bread and cookies are used; of course, raw sugar and syrup in moderate quantities.

_Meat substitutes_: Baked beans, cheese, eggs.

_Soups_: Soup is wholesome, economical and, when well made, palatable. It is particularly good on cold days for supper. Vegetable soups without meat, and cream soups are the best for campers.

Save the water in which vegetables have been boiled for making soup; that drained from rice, potatoes, spinach, peas or string beans is best. The rice water may have added to it tomatoes and seasoning. To potato and spinach water, add milk, thickening and seasoning.

_Breads_: Serve rye bread, whole wheat, graham, corn bread and a limited amount of white bread; too much of the latter is not healthful.

_Menus_: A menu is merely a combination of a few of the above-listed foods prepared in a variety of ways. Do not serve two starches at the same time, or two creamed vegetables, or a starch and vegetables without a sauce or gravy. Bread of some kind, a liquid and a fat are served with every meal. For breakfast there should be cereal, and if desired a stewed fruit, perhaps eggs in some form, but they are not necessary. Dinner should include one starch, two fresh vegetables and a dessert, or, fish, a starch, one green vegetable and a dessert; or, meat, two vegetables and a dessert; or a meat substitute, a vegetable, and a dessert. For supper, fresh or stewed fruit, plenty of milk if possible, a sweet, and either cheese, peanut butter, a salad or a soup.

CAMP FOODS

_Soups_ Potato and Onion Corn Chowder Tomato Vegetable Split Pea Clam or Fish Chowder

_Fish_ Flounder Weak Fish Salt Cod Butter Fish Salmon (fresh) Mackerel

_Meat Substitutes_ Baked Beans Cheese Omelet Peanut Butter Komac Stew Eggs Brunswick Stew

_Meats_ Roast Lamb Lamb Stew Pot Roast Roast Beef Corned Beef Beef Pie Meat Loaf Bacon Ham Salt Pork

_Vegetables_ Peas String Beans Beets Carrots Cabbage Potatoes Squash Onions Spinach Cucumbers Tomatoes Green Peppers Corn Cauliflower Macaroni Spaghetti Rice Baked Hominy

_Breads_ Brown Bread Rye Bread Corn Bread Baking Powder Biscuit Graham Bread White Bread (in small quantities) Spoon Bread Whole Wheat Bread Toast Griddle Cakes

_Desserts_ Indian Pudding Chocolate Pudding Rice Pudding Apple Cake Brown Betty Apple Tapioca Bread Pudding Berry Pudding Ice Cream Milk Sherbet Fruit Sherbets Ginger Bread French Toast Cornstarch Pudding Apple Slump Stewed Fruits Apple Butter Jam Cookies

_Cereals_ Oatmeal Hominy Corn Meal Post Toasties Shredded Wheat Wheatena

_Beverages_ Cocoa Milk Lemonade Postum

NOTE: It is suggested that a convenient form for keeping these foods will be a card index with a separate card for each food, together with a recipe, and quantities needed for the camp in question.

RECIPES

_Bread and Cereals_

_Biscuit, Baking Powder_ For 4 persons 1 large cup flour 1 heaping teaspoonful baking powder 1 teaspoonful salt Crisco, bacon fat or butter and lard mixed, piece size of an egg Milk

With knife chop the fat into the dry mixture thoroughly, add slowly the milk, stirring gently with a spoon. Make the dough soft and spongy but not thin enough to run. With a very little fat grease the bottom of a pan. Drop the dough from the end of a spoon onto the pan in quantities the size of a Uneeda lunch biscuit and about 3/4 of an inch thick, leaving space between them. Bake in a reflector oven before a hot fire for 20 minutes, or cover tight with another pan and bury in hot ashes under a fire.

_Bread for Hikers._--1/2 white flour, 1/2 yellow meal; 1-5 powdered milk; 1/10 powdered egg; salt and baking powder; bake in frying pan tightly covered and buried in ashes.

_Cereals_

_Cornmeal_ 1 cup meal 1 teaspoonful salt

Pour boiling water onto the meal a little at a time, beating fast and hard. When the mixture is the consistency of mush, cover the kettle, place it in the outer kettle and cook all night.

Cereals prepared in this way are much more digestible and palatable than when boiled quickly over a hot fire and stirred constantly.

Hominy can be cooked in this way, using I cup hominy and four cups of water; small amount of salt.

Rice also may be cooked this way. Wash the rice carefully, 1/2 cup to 3 cups of water, 1 scant teaspoonful of salt.

Rolled Oats for 4 persons

Two small pieces of wood an inch thick to serve as a pot rest. 3 cups of cold water 1 teaspoonful salt 1 cup oat meal

Bring water to boiling in small kettle, add salt, add oatmeal very slowly. Boil over fire 5 minutes stirring occasionally; cover tight.

Place the pieces of wood in the larger kettle, stand cereal kettle on them and pour hot water to the depth of 3 inches into larger kettle. Cover, hang over slow fire for all night. Do not uncover until ready to use.

_Dumplings_

3/4 cup of flour 1 scant teaspoonful baking powder 1 teaspoonful salt Enough milk to make a spongy dough

Add baking powder and salt to flour. Add milk slowly, drop mixture from end of spoon onto the boiling stew, cover tightly and cook for 15 minutes.

_Toast_

Cut the bread not less than 1/2 inch thick. Brown over coals, not flames. Use a fork, wire toaster, or two green wood sticks.

_Cocoa_

1 heaping teaspoonful sweetened cocoa 3/4 cup water 1/2 cup milk

Boil the water, put cocoa in cup, add part of the boiled water, mix thoroughly. Add to rest of water, boil 2 minutes, add milk, heat to boiling point but do not boil. Be careful not to burn. If condensed milk is used, mix cocoa and two teaspoonfuls of condensed milk together and add the water, bring to the boiling point.

_Desserts_

_Apple Cake_

For 4 persons

Make a baking-powder biscuit dough (see rule) and spread it in an oblong pan having the dough about 2 inches thick. The pan should be greased slightly. Peel and core and cut in quarters 2 large apples. Slice these thin, and place on the dough in rows, each slice held in place by pressing it down into the dough a little. The slices should be near together. Sprinkle 3/4 of a cup of sugar over the top, add small pieces of butter and a little grated nutmeg. Bake in a reflector oven in front of hot fire until the apples are soft--about 1/2 hour.

_Apples, Fried_

For 4 persons 2 large apples Small piece of butter or bacon fat

Wash apples, remove stems and blossoms, cut across the core in slices 1/2 inch thick; heat pan, melt fat in it, put in apple slices, brown on one side, turn and brown on the other. Or, grease a broiler, place the slices on it and broil the apples over hot coals until tender and brown.

_Apple Slump_

For 4 persons

Peel and cut in eighths, 4 apples. Put in a kettle with 1 cup of water, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of molasses; cover and place on the stove or over a slow fire. Make a dough as for dumplings (see rule). Drop the dough onto the hot apples. Cover tight and cook 20 minutes. Serve with cream, milk or hard sauce. Blue berries, huckleberries, peaches, can be used in place of apples, omitting the molasses and adding a little more sugar.

_Dried Fruit_

All dried fruit should be thoroughly washed in cold water, covered with fresh cold water and allowed to soak all night, stewed slowly over a low fire or on the back of the stove for an hour. Add, if necessary, sugar; stew 15 minutes longer and set away to cool. Do not stew fruit in tin receptacles; use enamel or agate.

_Indian Pudding_

For 5 persons 1/2 cup of Indian meal 3/4 cup of molasses 1 teaspoonful of salt

Mix thoroughly, add to 1 quart of scalded milk, cook in double boiler 1/2 hour, stir often. Pour into buttered baking dish; allow to cool. Pour 1 cup cold water on top of pudding. Do not stir it in. Bake in a slow oven 3 hours.

_Rice Pudding_

For 4 persons