The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-08-21
NORWEGIAN FLADBROD.
substitution of Indigestible Bark for Rye
or Wheat Flour.

substitution of IndigestibIe Bark for Rye
Wheat Flour.
Most travellers in Norway have prob.
ably had more than sufficient oppor-
tunities of becoming acquainted with
the so-called "Fladbrod," fiat bread, OF
the country. Few, however, among
them who have partaken of this dry
and insipid food may possibly be aware
that in many districts, more especially
in Hardanger, the chief ingredient in
its composition is the bark of trees.
This substitution of an indigestible
product for bona fide flour is not nee
essarily proof of the scarcity of &C.
reals, but is to be ascribed rather to
an opinion prevalent among the peasant
women that the bark of young pine
branches, or twigs of the elm arc capa-
BILE of being made into a thinner paste
than unadulterated barley or rye-meal,
of which the Morse housewife, who
prides herself on the lightness of her
'Fladbrod," puts in only enough to
make the compound hold together.
The absence of any nutrItive prop
erty in bark bread, whether made with
elm or pine bark, and the positive in
jury it may do the digestive organs,
has of late attracted much notice among
Norwegian Psychologists, and the editor
of Ndture7a, with view of calling the
attention of the public to the subject,
has, with the authors permission, re-
printed some remarks by DR.. Schubeler
on the history and character of the
bark bread of Scandinavia. From this
source we learn that the Oldest refer
ence to the use of bark bread in Nor
way occurs in poem, ascribed to the
Skaid Sighvat, who lived in the first
half of the eleventh century. In the
year 1900 the annals of Cortland record
a. season of dearth in which men were
forced to eat the bark and leaf-buds of
trees, while then, and during the latter
periods of the middle ages, the frequent
famine of the crops in all parts of Scan
dinavia led to the systematic use of the
bones and roe of fishes, as well rs the
bark of trees as a substitute for genuine
flour, and SO extensively was the latter
substance used that Pastor Herman
Ruge, who, in 1852, wrote Il treatise on
the preservation of woods, has drawn
attention to the almost complete disap-
pearance of the elm in the Bohus dis
trict, which he ascribes to the univer-
sal practice in bygone times of stripping
the bark for the preparation of bread.
In Nordland and Finmark the root
of StruttiopteriS gernGnica and other
ferns, as well as the leaves of various
species of RumeX, have been largely
used with barley-meal in making ordi-
nary bread as we'll as ''Fladbrod.". In
Finland the national ''pettuleipa' Ozark
bread). which was in former time al
most the only breadstuff of the coun-
try. still ranks as an ordinary article
of food in Kaiana and in the forest re-
gions of Oesterbotten and Tavastland
| Here it is usually made of the inner
layers of the pine bark, ground to a
meal, which is mixed with small
quantity of rye flour to give the requi-
site tenacity to the dough. The Fin
landers of an older generation showed
marvellous ingenuity in composing
| breadstuffs in which scarcely trace
of any cereal could be detected in the
mixture of bark, berries, seeds. bulbs
and roots of wild plants, which they
seem to have accepted as a perfectly
legitimate substitute for corn bread.
In the interior of Sweden, according to
Prof Save, the best bread of the peas
ants consisted till the middle of this cen
tury of peas, oats and barley-meal in
equal proportions, while in the ordi-
nary daily bread the hus!ls, chaf and
| spikes of the oats were all grounC
down together. In bad seasons ever
this was unattainable by the Dalekar
liam laborer, who had to content him
self with pine-bark bread. -Nature.