The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1911-12-28
HIS MEAL OF WEEDS
Oklahoma Farmer Prepares a
Menu That Is Rather Odd.
Biscuits Of Alfalfa and Teddy Of Broom
Corn and Sugar Constitute Part
Of Strange Repast--ResuIt
of a Wager.

Guthrie, Okla.---It has remained for
! Samuel johnson, Logan county farm
er, to demonstrate the use as food
products of numerous plants and
weeds that are not generally recog-
| nized as belonging to the food class.
johnson made wager recently with
a neighbor, Joseph Thompson, that he
could prepare menu for an entire
day from such plants and weeds. He
was to visit the out-of-the-way places
on his farm, along the creeks and val
leys, and also the cultivated fields, and
produce breakfast, luncheon and din
ner that would be pronounced by
Thompson "as good as he ever ate. !"
The wager was for $50 and Johnson
won. Here was his menu:
Breakfast-A toddy for an eye open
er made from broom corn whisky and
sweetened to taste with beet sugar;
breakfast food OF boiled kaffir corn;
alfalfa meal fapjacks and milomaize
strip.
.uncheon-Kaffir corn bread, boiled
COW peas, young rabbit fried in cotton
lard elderberry wine, and alfalfa Gig
arettes.
Dinner-Alfalfa mullins with peanut
butter that was mixed with cotton
seed oil instead OF olive oil soy beans,
baked; various fruits from the farm
orchards; wild grape juice.
Before going TO bed that night
Thompson placed his $50 on the table.
He acknowledged that he had been
converted. The placing of the wager
came about as the result OF an argu-
ment between Johnson and Thompson
on the subject Of what to eat when
the main food products OF the farm
fail. Johnson declared that many
farm products, not as rule recog'
nized as food, and even some wild
vines and weeds could be made use off,
and that if an investigation were made
practically every farmer would learn
that he could live we'll and wax fat
on the things that, as a rule, he turns
aside from. Thompson doubted the
statement, and the wager was laid.
My main point, however" said
Johnson afterward was 10 prove the
usefulness of broom corn, kafir corn,
alfalfa, milOmaize, cowpeas and MI
merous other farm products as articles
OF food. Broom corn whisky has much
the same flavor as that made from In
dian corn; ka fir corn bread much re-
sembles the hoecake of the southern
plantation; alfalfa meal mullins have
graham mullins skinned a block; mi
K lomaze sirup is just as good as any
corn strip you ever ate. while as
vegetables you can't beat cowpeas and
SOY beans. have known of home
steaders in Oklahoma, during the first
winter on their claims, and when they
were hard up financially, to live al
most entirely on kaffir corn bread and
= cOwpeas.
I'm order. too, just to make the pro-
gam strong for Mr.. Thompson,
with soap made from the yucca plant.
swept the floor with broom made
OF the broom weed.
1T became known during the last
year that fine quality of strip could
be made from milomaize, and as a re,
: suit eastern manufacturers are con-
tracing for large quantities OF this
: year crop from the farmers OF
western and northwestern Oklahoma
Alfalfa biscuits and muffirs have
long been the delight Of men who are
engaged in the manufacture of alfalfa
meal for cattle feeding purposes, but
It use has not been adopted by 9th.
ers to any extent. At recent meet
ing Of the National Association OF Al
falfa Millers the Delegates Toasted on
mullins made of alfalfa meal and pro.
nounced them A No. !. The mullins
were served more as a novelty, but the
banqueters ate them with relish The
meal is made from the leaves and
stems OF alfalfa hay ground finely. Ex.
periments are being made, too. to pro,
duce breakfast food from alfalfa.
AN investigation resulting from the
enforcement of the national pure food
laws. brought out the fact that alfalfa
was used principally in the markings
OF that kind of cigarette that is
smoked by the cowboys. The discov-
cry was that only p per cent, OF to.
bacco was used to 63 per cent. OF al
falfa
''Elderberries produce wine that is
exhilarating, but not intoxicating. 1t
is believed that Fred L. Wenner of
Guthrie, former private secretary to
several oklahoma territorial govern.
ors, was the first to demonstrate the
usefulness OF kaffir corn as food
product"