The saga of my "sort and toss" crusade continues. This week the focus has been on cookbooks and cooking themed magazines and while it's going well, as I head into the home stretch I notice that some recipes no longer have the same attraction. With Type 2 Diabetes and senior-related gastric limitations to consider in preparing our meals, double-double chocolate and spicy meatballs are noticeably absent from our daily fare.
I did, however, find a treasure. One yellowed page, held together with dried and no longer sticky tape, was dedicated to the uses for vinegar. The headline read, The Miracle of Vinegar: a condiment, curative, cleanser, disinfectant, cosmetic. How could we get along without it? I wasn't a published writer back then and didn't know enough to note details such as author, date and publisher but there was enough information to know that the article came from YOU Magazine and the name Norman Eyolfson creeps up the side margin.
It was intriguing to read that centuries ago vinegar was mixed with drinking water to "toughen Roman legions". I also read that vinegar can be used as a facial skin tonic when diluted with six parts of spring water, rose water or orange flower water. I also discovered that by adding several drops of the stuff to a canteen or insulated container, drinking water keeps fresh longer and is a superior thirst-quencher. Outside the kitchen, vinegar removes ink stains, dried paint from glass and removes mildew from bathroom fixtures and shower curtains.
While I've listed only a few of its benefits, there's another meaning of vinegar that's sometimes overlooked: "sourness or peevishness of behaviour, character or speech".
"Singing to someone in deep sorrow is like pouring vinegar in an open cut."(Proverbs 25:20 -CEV)
God, make us bearers of what is good, dispensers of words that heal.
