THE LITTLE BOY
The year was 1918; the eight year old boy had to walk a couple of miles from the farm to a little hill just outside town to leave the grocery list and cash under a stone for the local shop keeper.
His entire family were sick with the flu; they called it the Great Flu or Spanish Flu.
The little boy then had to walk a little way back towards the farm and wait a couple of hours till he saw the shop keeper's delivery man come back with the bags of food.
They said this flu was very contagious so no one would come near him or his family.
My grandfather often told me this story; fortunately his whole family recovered but I can just imagine how frightening it must have been for him.
It's estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population contracted the Spanish flu. The number of deaths was estimated to be between 20 and 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 in the United States.
FAST FORWARD TO 2019
Covid19, a more virulent virus is found in Wuhan, China; but our body's immune system does not cope too well with this virus and many people all over the world are contracting the disease, with quite a number of fatalities!
Here in South Africa we have had 5 deaths and 1462 confirmed cases and we're into our second week of a 21 day Lockdown. Is this going to be a long enough lockdown?
ECONOMIC KNOCKDOWNS
The economic knockdowns are already felt in many large corporates as well as households.
Here in our BnB we've lost four weeks of bookings as we had to close during this period, and some guests have canceled as many weddings and other celebrations are being postponed due to restrictions on numbers.
CRYPTOS TO THE RESCUE
Then I remembered my Steem wallet that I have not touched even though I started powering down a while ago. This plus some of the Hive airdropped is going to fill a few cracks and I'm really thankful to who sent a step by step guide to this old Mama on how to withdraw to hard cash!
MOTHER NATURE'S PANTRY
Our veggie garden did not pan out too well as the monkeys started raiding as soon as they saw some beans and peas and I have not ventured near any stores since lockdown.
I've harvested all the Kale and Comfrey which is great cooked up with a potato and mushed up, so now have to wait for more to grow.
The curly lettuces are coming along nicely, little cherry tomatoes which the monkeys do not like at all has been producing steadily and we have plenty of herbs especially Dill which has been doing brilliantly, but no greens for cooking.
Sprouts however, can be grown within a couple of days, so out came the brown Lentils and Mung Beans onto the window sill and we now have a regular supply. This also is a great immune booster by the way!
Those pretty Nasturtiums is another of Mother Nature's antibiotics.
SURVIVOR GRUB
I'm starting to lean more towards eating fish and plant-based foods of late, especially since the outbreak of the dreaded Covid19 and did stock up on a supply of canned fish just before lockdown as there are numerous tasty and healthy dishes one can put together in no time, like these...
Fish Cakes
Ingredients
- 1 can Pilchards, drained
- 2 cans Tuna, drained
- 1 Potato, cooked & mashed
- 1 Onion, diced
- 1 Egg
- 1/2 cup Wholemeal Flour
- 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
- Dill, diced
- Parsley, diced
- Rolled Oats for coating
Mix all except the oats together.
Form patties and roll in oats.
Shallow fry in a little Olive Oil & drain on paper towel.
A satisfying delicious meal of Fish Cakes, Creamy Mashed Potatoes, Peas & Sprouts which the whole family will enjoy.
Keep well and safe my friends, hope to see what you're cooking on the brand new Cook With Us Contest hosted by ,
and
.
Thank you for stopping by