Food Without Farming
(Page 5 of 6)
July/August 1972
By James E. Churchill
Using this grass as a base, Shanbel was able to feed his family of eight for about a dollar a day . . . and today his children are healthier than most of their companions born during that era. Well the children might be, too, since it has been determined that twelve pounds of powdered grass contains more essential vitamins and minerals than 340 pounds of fruits and vegetables . . . more than the average person eats in a year.
RELATED CONTENT
Alfalfa, of course, is the king of grasses, taste-wise arid nutritionwise. I doubt that there's a single food a person could eat that would do more for the body. We covered the preparation of alfalfa and clover to some extent in an earlier issue of MOTHER so the following methods of preparing grass will pertain additionally to June grass, quack grass, marsh grass and almost all other grasses found.
Select the largest-leaved, thickest-growing, darkest-green grass in your area and mow it off as close to the ground as possible. Water the grass well and continue to do this every day until it has grown back to a height of about six inches, then mow the grass again and spread it out on a sheet to dry in the sun. If you use artificial heat don't let the grass get hot enough to destroy the vitamins. When the grass is dry enough to powder—this can be ascertained by experimenting—put about a quart through your grinder.
Now to make some biscuits that'll be as natural as a stone knife and as healthful as wheat germ: Mix 2/3 cup of stone ground cornmeal with 2/3 cup of whole grain wheat flour anti 2/3 cup of dried, ground grass. (Now remember, this grass should be dried and ground fine enough so that it's a powder. If this is done correctly the pure flour will have little taste other than a slightly grassy flavor.)
Mix the meal, flour and powder together very well and add one tablespoon of salt, four teaspoons of baking powder, three tablespoons of vegetable oil, three tablespoons of honey and 3/4 cup of fresh fruit juice. Stir the ingredients together and beat for a minute or two . . . then drop by the tablespoonful into a buttered pan, flatten the dough down and bake at 475° for fifteen minutes. Remove and enjoy hot biscuits. If this mixture tends to be a little too dry or too wet vary the whole grain wheat flour until you find just the right consistency.
If you've spent any time near the water, especially slowmoving or polluted water you've observed the green "scum" that floats on the surface. This green scum is algae, a vast, many-faceted family which inhabits almost all the fresh and salt water of the world. In spite of its unpleasing appearance algae is a very healthful and pleasing food. It's been estimated that one pound of dried algae contains more protein than two pork chops, fat equal to that in a quarter-pound of butter and carbohydrates equivalent to a heaping teaspoon of white sugar.
Nothing, but nothing, reproduces as fast as algae. I've seen a patch only as large as a boy's coat in the morning grow in a single day to cover a house-sized area by early evening. One scientist has calculated the possible growth rate of common algae and deduced that if all the people in the world were packed into the State of Kansas . . . there would still be enough space space left in the state, if it were flooded, to raise enough alga, to feed everyone there.
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