A FEW HOME GROWN FACTS ABOUT SCURVY
MORE CRANBERRIES PLEASE
BY DON DOUCETTE
Interesting, a general discussion this past week about home sauerkraut production and consumption.
I’ve watched, as a result, some YouTube videos about sauerkraut and learned that sauerkraut was a long-keeping food carried on some sailing vessels as a deterrent against contracting scurvy so prevalent for those mariners who regularly “went down to the sea in ships.”
We all have been taught about the importance of consuming citrus fruit in this regard.
This past year, I also became informed that some ship captains carried aboard barrels of whole cranberries to dispense to crew members so to avoid the dreaded scurvy disease during long sea voyages.
One Harwich (Cape Cod) sea captain operated local cranberry bogs, thus provided his personal trading vessels with fresh cranberries and saw to it that crew members regularly partook.
I am to assume that a responsible sea captain was concerned with the health and wellbeing of his crew.
All in all, is the importance of consuming on a daily basis fresh fruits and vegetables containing Vitamin C – which as I read, the body does not manufacture nor store. (Supplements taken regularly as directed are also valid sources for Vitamin C.)
Chuckling to myself, I realize that sauerkraut is an acquired personal taste, as is Indian Pudding, canned whole white hominy, Moxie or hoarhounds, just to name a few examples of strange tastes…and for some elders forced years ago to consume dreaded cod liver oil as a health tonic – all causes for making distressed faces…and for some, to help keep us healthy during life’s voyage.
Don Doucette
“Ten Mile River Rambles”
Friends of the Ten Mile and Bucklin Brook
Citizens of the Narragansett Basin