Easter brings gift-giving into full bloom. Why not dates fresh from the grove? One package to mail order, that's the “show box” from Nash's Desert Ranch, P. O. Box 832, Palm Springs, California. This is a round, acetate, see-through container packed with 1 ½ pounds of Deglet Noors, the dates plump and of good size, the price ＄1.90, delivered anywhere in the United States. In our sampling box we counted 64 dates, all of uniform size, making a neat pack laid in rings in three layers with a cactus thorn for a pick-up. Mrs. Marie Nash, the packer, writes to tell us that she uses only the best-grade fruit and that the western dates this season are especially luscious.
Pick an Easter gift from Anton's five-foot book shelf of good eating. “My Date Book” for one. Examine it carefully, a box in book form, with a hinged cover opening like a book, personalized for gifting with the donor's name inscribed on an insert. The box holds 4 1/3 pounds of large golden Deglet dates, the aristocrats of the Deglet Noor family. These from the Coachella Valley, California, center of America's date industry. Each date is selected for size, color, and its eating quality; each a plump beauty, sweet-meated, creamy. The price of the box is ＄3.45.
“My Date Book” is but one of a series in Anton's line. Lift the cover of the book-box titled “The Five Californians.” The contents, a fine assortment of Imperial prunes, golden-era apricots, Deglet dates, golden Calimyrna figs, and halves of Bartlett pears, tender, moist. over four pounds of fruit, price ＄3.95.
“Figments”—how's that for a tide? These the golden Calimyrna figs,emish free, top quality. 4 pounds and 12 ounces of out-of-this-world enjoyment, price ＄3.95. “Full of Prunes, ” that's hearty fare, over 4 pounds of the sugar-rich. giant-size prunes from California's Santa Clara Valley, price ＄3.95.
The tenderness of Anton's fruit is credited to a special process which the firm refers to as “Antonizing.” That every package shall arrive perfect in appearance is Anton's personal pledge. The address: Anton's California. 320 Matson Buiding, San Francisco 5, California. The books travel in wooden shippers to insure perfect delivery.
Thousand-year-old halvah, one of the world's finest confections, is now being vacuum-canned for national distribution. Packer is the Radutzky family, father Nathan and sons Alex, Harry, Max, and Milton, whose Brooklyn firm is known as the Independent Halvah and Candies, Inc., said to be the world's largest makers of the Oriental confection.
Halvah is a seed candy made of crushed sesame with dried egg albumen, corn syrup, sugar, and soya protein, the Utter to give that certain desire texture; vanilla or chocolate the flavor. Heretofore the sweet has sold only in bulk, and, unless kept refrigerated, the candy turned rancid after a brief period.
Halvah is an Arabic word, but the confection itself was made first in Iran. The Arabs found it there with numerous other sweets after the Islamic conquest. Having no names for these strange confections, they called them halvah, taken from the root word bulv, meaning sweet. The Iranian word for sweet is kak and this the Arabs promptly adopted, giving it an Arabic spelling and pronunciation. When the Arabs conquered Andalusia. kak was introduced into Spain and gradually spread over Europe, where it was given the English spelling cake, which after all, you see, is but a halvah of sorts. In this country the sesame-seed confection is little known outside the larger cities, where it is eaten principally by the people from the Orient and the Middle East
Halvah-maker Nathan Radutzky came to New York from Russia in 1906, taking a job as a halvah-maker's assistant. Soon he had his own kitchen and today has the largest and most modern halvah factory in the world. Hoping to distribute the product to all parts of the United States, the firm asked the help of the American Can Company in developing a vacuum pack. This fall, tinned halvah in 12-ounce containers, opening with key, having passed all manner of rigid tests, is pronounced ready for sale.
The sweet keeps without refrigeration, without the oozing of oil, One package was held two years in the boiler room of the factory where the temperature is tropical, and, when opened, that halvah tasted as fresh as if made the same afternoon. And amazing, no greasy smear on the fingers after touching the candy. The 12-ounceock slips out of the can neat and pretty as you please, a little round loaf to slice and serve in cake-fashion, Halvah, we learned, is one of the few sweetmeats with a high protein content of more than 16 per cent.
A tour of the Brooklyn plant to see halvah produced. First, the processing of the sesame seeds; then syrup, sugar, and soya protein are cooked to the proper consistency, turned into stainless steel pots to join the crushed sesame. Steel paddles thicken the mixture to dough in a few minutes. From that point on, the workers hand-knead with a light touch. When the mass reaches a true dough consistency, it is placed in stainless steel molds to cool for twenty-four hours in an air-conditioned room.
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