Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1905 — GET NEW FOODS FROM SAVAGES. [ARTICLE]

GET NEW FOODS FROM SAVAGES.

They Have Taught World to U.e Many Delicacies. Man will eat 200 or 300 more foods in the year 2,OX* than he eats now, said a chemist. A movement is on foot among the world’s government* to increase the varieties of our foods and every week, from somewhere or other, a new vegetable or fruit or nut is added to the international bill of fare. It is by a study of the food of savages that we get our new foods,, says the Week’s Progress. Savageseat many things we regard as weeds or poisons, but which we can refine. That is how we got our new delicacies in the past. Eggplant and tomatoes, for instance, we had never thought of eating till certain Peruvian savages showed us the way. Oats, barley and rye originated from weeds that grew on the shores of the Mediterranean. The buckwheat came from a wild Siberian prant. Melons, cucumbers, horseradish and onions were weeds of the east. The pumpkin was regarded as a poison for a long time and witli no little'fear did some adventurous person of the past test it as a food. Turning to the foods of our future, we find that the Klamath Indians alone eat forty kinds of vegetables that are unknown to us. Scientists are testing these vegetables, and are finding them to be palatable and nutritious. Among them is the wlchpl, which grows on the margins of the Western lakes. Its stems contain a white pith that, eaten raw, is as sweet anil pleasant as a lump of milk chocolate. Then there is the kotsonokn. or goose foot. The giaise foot bears In August small black seeds. These seeds the Klatuatlis roast, grind and make into cakes and gruel. The wokas, or yellow water lily, is the Klamath's staple food. It Is made Into bread and Into porridge.