After reading Wendy's blog, Little House in the Big Woods, and her post Fall food Storage, I added a comment. She mentioned in an extreme conditions she could brew tea from pine needles for vitamin C.
Here are a few other emergency aids to nutrition:
Vitamin C- Grow roses that will have hips. The hips are full of Vitamin C. Hips are the great bulge below the flower, harvested after the flowers and vine is spent in the fall. Still, I am not clear on just when or how. Maybe someone could do a whole post on that instead of a comment, and link back here. Or. I will put up a whole new post to link it to your blog.
Calcium--After talking with a professor of Poultry Science, he told me that eggs could be consumed whole. Well, I checked with Charlie and he dropped the whole egg, shell and all, in his blender for his health smoothie. Ack! All this time, when people said they dropped an egg into their smoothie, I thought they just cracked and dropped the contents. The raw egg grossed me out more than the shell.
Back to the professor. When he was doing research in a small village in Russia, egg shells were reserved for the children. The people grind the shells and add to the food in order to supply calcium to growing children's diet.
If you don't have children, the addition of finely ground egg shells will benefit adults. We need calcium even in lean food times!
We will all need vitamin C found in many foods: tomatoes, bell peppers, carrots, potatoes, cabbage. Imagine a time without these nutritious foods. We are talking about lean food times. You may need the hips from your roses.
Even in our land of relative plenty and pharmacies and Walmart, we can make some our own supplements instead of buying them. Granted, eating well is better than supplements. But, if you cannot get food with proper nutrients in a lean food time, then these two sources will work for .
Your turn
Did you know about hips and egg shells? Have you used them for nutritional supplements?
How strange...daughter was here a few days ago and she brought me a jar of powder, asked me to taste it and guess what it was..After a smell and a taste I knew it was powered eggshell. Daughter takes it every morning and left this lot for me to try.
ReplyDeleteIt's not awful so I am going to reserch how much and how often.
Barb.
That is strange. Was this a commercial product or something homemade? So, she is getting her calcium this way? Do you save your eggshells and feed them back to the hens you have?
ReplyDeleteHi Linda
ReplyDeleteI do use rosehips for Vitamin C. I can write a post on how if you like but I don't have pictures since the time to do it is in winter and I have only a few rose bushes that will have hips big enough. But I can write about it regardless.
I am kind of grossed out about egg shells but if it works then I'd do it. I wonder how well they should be washed?
I'll try to write about it in tomorrows post. So link here and let you know?
Great! I don't wash out the eggs for hens. For human consumption, the insides are not dirty, but you might want to wash out the protein. But, why? If I were going to use shells for calcium, I would put a quart of water and a tsp of clorox and dip one egg at a time, rubbing quickly for a very short time--15 sec--rinse under clear water and dry well. Those eggs would need to be used right then or refrigerated. The shells could then be saved for grinding. Or, I suppose you could heat lots of saved shells and grind all.
ReplyDeleteFresh eggs have pathogens on the shells. The hen deposits a covering that keeps the pathogens from getting into the shell. It is an invisible shield. If you ever see a hen lay an egg, it is wet, the protective coating has not dried.
Remember where the eggs just were. Washed egg shells, stored properly would not need to be washed again. Of course, if you are using these as a daily supplement, wash the egg just prior to breaking it. Leave the unwashed ones on the counter, just like I do.
Maybe you can find an internet picture of the hips or not. I am not sure when to harvest, to dry or not...??? But, I will wait for your post. Thanks so much.