Local Weather Forecast
Today: Current:60	Saturday: 84/59	Sunday: 86/60
Complete Forecast for  May 17 2008

Those of us old enough to have experienced the joy of going each week to the ice house to pull our pre-cut block out of the sheets buried in sawdust have some very pleasant memories that cannot be reproduced today.

The ice, in our wood box lined with zinc and insulated with cork, gave some assurance most of our food would not spoil, at least for several days. A drip pan, which had to be drained each day, collected the melted water. Getting a good block of ice meant we would have maybe another week with our food protected.

This cutting and storing of ice from frozen lakes started in China about a thousand years before the birth of Christ. By the early 19th century, some communities had ice making plants, with blocks delivered by small trucks to homes and sometimes sold door-to-door. In the early 1700s, a Scotsman, William Cullen, started to experiment with liquids in a vacuum as a means of cooling. In the 1800s, Michael Faraday, who grew up as a street child in pre-Dickens London and who was a genius with one of the greatest minds ever in the physical sciences (and by the way was a dyslexic), liquefied ammonia as a coolant. Soon thereafter, John Goorie of Apalachicola applied these principles to generate cool air to help the feverish patients with yellow fever in Florida.

The first refrigerators in homes appeared in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1911, invented by a French monk and marketed by General Electric. These early units were not self-contained and, at $714, were very expensive for those times. Practical units did not become available until the 1940s and 1950s.

What else did we do to preserve our perishable foods before we had refrigerators, often called "fridges" after the popular and (affordable) units sold by Frigidaire?

Ice was not always readily available, especially in warmer seasons or when we had a very mild winter. So, most folks had a root cellar. These were often just cool corners of a basement, frequently dug into the earth with a small wooden bin lined with straw.

Root vegetables, of one kind or another, were usually kept in root cellars most of the year 'round. The most popular of these included, primarily, turnips, parsnips, rutabagas, carrots and beets, as well as usually some potatoes and apples.

These earthy root vegetables and the root cellars were nature's best answer for having "fresh" plant foods at times when they otherwise would not have been available. Unfortunately, they are all less popular and less a part of our diet today, now that almost all of us have refrigeration in our homes.

Recent studies indicate that most of these root cellar vegetables were very healthy products in our diet, perhaps helping prevent some cancers and other chronic diseases. They contain phytochemicals, naturally occurring constituents in plants that can protect the body's cells against changes that lead to cancer and other maladies.

Parsnips are a member of the parsley family of plants and the tap roots look a bit like white carrots. Parsnips originated in the areas around the Mediterranean Sea and were brought to this country initially by the English colonists.

They are rich in potassium and a fair source of vitamin C, as well as phytochemicals. They have a sweet flavor and go well in soups, especially when mixed with apples. They can also be cut into chunks and included in stews or added to a variety of dishes as a puree whipped with milk. Parsnips can also be roasted with meats or stand alone on the table, served with simmering butter or margarine.

Turnips and rutabagas have a globe shape. Turnips are a member of the mustard family and were first cultivated over 4,000 years ago. The Greeks and Romans domesticated several varieties.

The Romans spread them throughout northern Europe, where they eventually became a prime source of food to alleviate hunger pains for the poor. They can be eaten raw or sliced to be incorporated into salads. When cooked, they tend to remain hard and contribute a certain texture to several dishes. Turnips are particularly rich in several anti-cancer phytochemicals. The turnip greens are a very good source of calcium, with a desired low phosphorus delivery. The root delivers only about a third the high carbohydrate starch of potatoes.

Rutabagas have been called "yellow turnips" and "super turnips." In Europe, they are called "sweedes." They originated probably as an accidental crossing between kale and turnips when the two were planted close together. The solid content of the rutabaga is about half that of the turnip, and thus overall they deliver a food of less nutritional value. Delivering an abundance of health-promoting phytochemicals, rutabagas are a good source of vitamin A, vitamin C and potassium. When heated, they lose some of their nutrient value, so should be cooked the minimum amount needed to provide an acceptable level of tenderness.

All of these root vegetables have been employed extensively to feed livestock.

Although there are still a few around, root cellars are not very common today and true ice chests are found mostly in antique stores. The refrigerator, in fact, is the most commonly purchased electrical appliance in the country, with over 99.5 percent of homes having one. Nevertheless, we might pause for a moment to remember days long ago when root cellars were found in almost every home and we benefited significantly from the vegetables that were stored there.