Antique - Antique History Books Secrets - Benjamin Franklin Brought Oats To America

Antique history books are again teaching us the wisdom of the one hundred mile rule. That is, if you eat the freshest natural foods that are grown within one hundred miles from you to your plate, you will be the healthier for it. And we agree.

And yet you and we know there are exceptions to every rule found today and show up, when we read and observe, in our new or antique history books. And we delight in this example from history between Ben and Frank. For the reality came to them they had many common interests in discovery.

They also shared an enjoyment of stimulating conversation with witty friends. Ben excelled at this and created several sensations at the estate. Again, that is another story. Here, in 1760 when Ben sailed home to America he began a process of logical experiments with the growing of oats in a new land.

Back in Philadelphia, Ben and his good wife packed these oats into smaller packets, which they mailed to plant associates and experts between Savannah in the steamy south to Boston in the frozen north, and all points in between.

Ben was able to assume that since these oats were from the north in Scotland, they would be more hardy in the northern parts of America and into Canada, and his scientific mind proved correct.

History is often affected by small acts that go by and are forgotten. That seemed to be the fate of Dr. Franklin in this case until I was reading a book by my ancestor that discussed this in contended detail.

After that breakfast of oatmeal America received a gift for the health of the new world, from the old. Which is why you see wonderful Dr. Franklin on the cover of a certain oat product. Sir Francis, really, should be smiling next to Ben, handing him the sacks.

Now, we see examples such as the once tropical Neem tree, an organic herbal remedy and natural pest repellent, is now proving itself as a curative and health restorative, under western microscopes.

And in this globally changing world, we can learn from the ancient east. History shows how China has been able to urge ever northward tender foods such as the Changsha Mandarin orange, which now grows amidst frost in Manchuria, after thousands of years of encouraging, as with us all, the more hardy versions to continue to edge ever further north.

So, we do know that warmer foods are being grown further north than in recorded memory. And, if we can keep the sea causing us to turn in our automobiles for gondolas while we adapt, many new curatives are now available to us, and we should be encouraging clean clear import of such foods and curatives.

Perhaps it is time to adapt that impossible song that foretold what came to be: First we take the Neem Tree to Manhattan, then we take the Mandarin.

As to our legacy to the future: our grandchildren deserve better than a legacy of wearing face masks as in China now. We need to keep our eyes on these issues also. We all share this good ship, and now how clearly the satellite maps show the pollutants of India swirling up around the Arctic.

There the soot settles on polar ice, causing the black ice to absorb heat which quickens their melting, causing starvation and a rapid decline in polar bears, who need ice to walk on to find their food sources, mostly seals, at ice holes. We are all so connected.