Surviving the winter

[Brother in Arms]

This idea goes back to the 18th century and of course,having grown up in the Northern part of the United states. It's something I grew up hearing about.

A common old time disease is scurvy and I think you would see it coming back during the twilight war. And as most people know its caused by a deficiency of vitamin C. luckily in the north we have spruce trees and these have more vitamin C than the infamous Orange.

Soldiers and Sailors brewed spruce beer using spruce tips,molasses and a little yeast. I think old idea like this would come back quickly after things start going to hell.

Here is the easiest recipe I have ever found for it creation.

A couple of dozen spruce tips, about 10-15 centimeters long. Try to get the year’s fresh growth at the very end of the limb. The black spruce is the preferred species but black and white spruce can be used with equal results
One liter of molasses
A ten-liter food grade plastic pail
Five plastic two-liter pop bottles with caps cleaned and dried
A packet of baker’s yeast
Preparation

Bring all ten liters of water to a boil and toss in the spruce tips. Let them boil for 40 minutes minimum. With experience, you will know how long to boil the tips to suit your taste – longer boiling times make stronger-tasting beer.
Carefully strain the liquid through a clean cloth into your pail, over the molasses, and mix thoroughly.
Once the mixture cools to blood temperature, stir in the baker’s yeast. After it starts frothing steadily, cover with another cloth and tie a string around it to keep out the dust.
After three-four days, pour the beer through a cloth-covered funnel into the pop bottles and screw the caps on tight. Wait a week before tasting. The flavor is unique: a smoky spruce and quite pleasant.

Brother in Arms

[Targan]

I bet we could collectively compile an excellent recipe book right here of dozens of those sorts of beer recipes from around the world. Beer was an important food for thousands of years of human history.

[mikeo80]

I think you would find a lot of diseases that would re-ignite after TDM. Obviously, scurvy is a problem. Things like TB, Plague, Cholera, Typhoid, Measles, Mumps, Chicken Pox, tetanus, rabies, flu, and others would all be issues that would face the survivors.

Any one with a damaged immune system would quickly perish. Diabetes, MS, severe allergies would all take a toll within the first six months or so.

My $0.02

Mike

[Webstral]

Thanks, BIA, for teasing me so mercilessly. The spruce is not native in my neck of the woods.

[stormlion1]

Beer was usually cleaner than the water, which is why its one of the first things people usually start making!

[CDAT]

Originally Posted by stormlion1

Beer was usually cleaner than the water, which is why its one of the first things people usually start making!

Not disagreeing but wondering how much that had to do with they did not know much if anything about purification of water?