VITAMINS FORTY YEARS AGO

New Zealand Listener, Volume 8, Issue 195, 19 March 1943, Page 13

VITAMINS FORTY YEARS AGO

' (Written for "The Listener’ by

TWIGG

"I aye like best to devoor frute in the forenoons, in gardens by myself daunering at my leisure frae bush to bush, and frae tree to tree, pu’in awa at strawberries, or rasps, or grozets, or cherries, or aipples, or peers, or plooms, or aiblins at young green peas, shawps an’ a’, or wee juicy neeps that melt in the. mooth o’ their an accord without chewin, like kisses o’ vegetable maitter."’.W-John Wilson (‘Noctes Ambrosianae’’ ). Y SUPPOSE mine was one of the ] worst fed of generations. Probably our parents were too busy: finding a social niche, or perhaps they were becoming more interested in the psychology of their children or perhaps traces of the pioneering spirit led them to experiment with new patent foods, patent medicines, and new food fads. They may have been a little fed up with

unadulterated Nature, and science had only got up to minerals then. At least, if memory does not betray me, magazine advertisements led one to believe that all human ills were due to a lack of phosphorous or iron. My generation, therefore, depended on their grazing along the highways and byways for their vitamins. We did not sprinkle wheat germ on our porridge, but many a handful of wheat we sieved through our fingers in case of mice remains, and then chewed vigorously in a race to’see who could first reduce it to a gluey, elastic substance. Wild Weeds and Leaves Our official menus may have lacked green stuff, but a surprising number of gardens had a thick border of parsley down the path, and when you went over to play, the first ‘way in which you showed your ‘appreciation of your friend’s hospitality was to chew her parsley. Then there were the soursucculent stems of the wood-sorrel -that crept out on the roadside through paling fences; its leaves might be heavy with dust; but its stems were clean and thirst-quenching. And why were the green rosettes of the hawthorn’s new leaves called "bread and cheese" if it was: not: because we used to prise open the cheese pieces in our lunches and add them for a little variety? Nastur‘tium leaves. stolen from the head-

master’s garden served the same purpose. Watercress was forbidden to most of us because our parents were becoming germ-conscious, and had given’ us graphic descriptions of* hydatids. Even tose whose’ taste for the cress was stronger than their fear of an unknown disease would, before eating, carefully wash it in the stagnant pool where it grew We were fairly well provided with fruit. Most parents returned from town on Saturday night with at least one large brown paper bag of oranges, mandarins, or bananas, and peaches seem to have been twice as large’ and juicy then. While .the season lasted, most

houses could boast.a case of peaches sent straight from the growers. Then for the gathering there were Smith’s golden pippins, -Walker’s. greengages, Thomson’s plums, Brown’s. honey pears, and Black’s damsons. And there must have been merit in’a fruit diet, because there were remarkably. few fallings out during the fruit season. Nor did we scorn the blackberry, tutu or lawyer berries, while two or three deserted gardens yielded hazel nuts and walnuts. Pigs’ Delight One or two children were noted for individual tastes. There was Hazel, who could eat a raw onion just’ like an apple; Mabel, who persisted in.eating a loathsome green tissue-paper-like seaweed off the rocks; and Aggie, who ate the bulbs of a little: native orchid. But these were .left in peace to indulge their taste. Not poor Wilfey, however, who liked acorns. As soon as he began eating, he would be surrounded by a ring of children telling him they were poison. "Pigs eat them, you know, Wilfey," I suggested timidly, but he would just stare stolidly out of very small blue eyes, "Yer'll die," prophesied everyone else. But the only one who could put an end to his feasting was his big sister Saidee, who could stop him by simply screeching "Are you eating them acorns again m'boy? You know they're binding. It’s the blue bottle for you to-night m’lad!"