This Week's Books
A remenLET on the vitamin values of wild vegetables did not promise the entertainment which it in fact afforded to this ieviewer. Nettles, of course, can be made into an excellent pudding, and a good coffee can be made from dandelions, but we did not know that celery tea strengthens the brain. The poor of the Middle Ages had no potato as a staple food and they used what Nature had provided in the woods and hedgerows : undoubtedly we ought to do the same for reasons of health as well as economy. But even in Sir Thomas Mores time the virtues of our native vegetables would appear to have been neglected.
" Many a poor knave's pottage," he writes, " would be improved
Lhe were skilled in the properties of the Burdock and Purple Orchis, ady's Smock, Brooklime, and Old Man's Pepper. The roots of wild Buccory and Water Arrowhead might agreeably change his Lenten diet and Glasawort afford him a pickle for his mouthful of salt meat. Then there are Creases and Wood Sorrel to his breakfast and Salop for his hot evening mess."
Tills. Grieve has done a work of real value in preparing the three following pamphlets: Wild Vegetables and Salads and their vitamin values, Our Native Fruits, and Pickles, Chutneys, ketchup and Herb Vinegars (1s. 6d. each, post free from Whins Cottage, Chalfont St. Peter, Bucks), and we hope that at some future time she will find it possible to bind the three booklets together into one volume.
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