NATURAL FOOD FOR THE NERVES – VITAMIN Ñ
Every year, come autumn and winter in my garden in the Engadine, the little clusters of scarlet barberries between the leafless thorny branches of the berberis shrubs just beg to be harvested. A little earlier it would have been the ripe redcurrants, shining in the autumn sun. So when I am there, I pick some of these berries most days and enjoy their acidic flavour which is due to ascorbic acid, or vitamin C. These berries are, in fact, a natural food for the nerves. Before long, even the slopes facing south become covered in thick snow, and the birds will be daily guests on the shrubs, feasting on the beautiful red, oblong berries in order to obtain their requirements of sugar, minerals and vitamins. The red fruits of the Rosa canina (wild rose), the rose hips, will still be peeping through the snow. When these hips are ripe they are deliciously sweet. Because of their vitamin Ñ content they, too, are a wonderful food for the nerves. No wonder that rose hip puree and barberry puree are a perfect source of vitamins during the bleak winter months. They should be on every table because they fill an important gap in our nutrition, since practically all other foods lose some of their vitamin content during their months of storage. Wild fruits, in the form of fruit puree or conserve, prevent vitamin Ñ deficiency while being tasty and pleasant food. But not only barberries and rose hips are rich in vitamin C, even richer are the berries of sea buckthorn, which grows abundantly in the lower Inn valley, the Tessin and the Maggia valley in my native Switzerland. Their orangy-red colour, bright amongst the olive-green leaves, can be spotted on slopes and along brooks and rivers — a delight to the eyes of every nature lover.
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