‘Impossibility of acquiring lemons from Algarve increases consumption of cabbage and turnip soup’

‘Impossibility of acquiring lemons from Algarve increases consumption of cabbage and turnip soup’, article published in the Real Gazeta Invicta on 3rd February 1919.

As our readers have been informed, the heroic leader Paiva Couceiro has been facing a growing difficulty in feeding the military columns at the front of the fierce battle that is expanding the dimensions of our Kingdom; it has been surreptitiously revealed that, in the most urban area of our Monarchy’s domains, the radical severing of social, political and economic relations with the South, governed by the inglorious Republic, has led to a substantial change in the diet of the families who live far from the lands cultivated by the brave people who live and coexist daily with their crops. The legitimate fear of the reappearance of diseases such as scurvy has depleted the boxes of southern lemons, once common in our grocery stores, and increased the demand for other products rich in essential dietary factors (recently called ‘vitamins’ by Polish biochemist Casimir Funk). Now, in the face of adversity, the anonymous crowd remembered the ingenuity of the British navy and, in particular, the deeds and miracles of our sailors, and the demand for turnip greens and cabbages increased to unprecedented proportions. The producers of these delicacies are looking for new land to cultivate, as a patriotic act and a sign of the success of their business. The setback is the new need to patrol these gardens at night, since the theft of turnip greens and cabbages, which are almost ready to be harvested, is now routine.

The best restaurants in Porto have come up with an alternative solution that takes their business away from these products, and the turmoil surrounding their plantation, by fermenting vegetables. The most successful is sauerkraut, a traditional German dish widely used on James Cook’s expeditions in the last century. Curiously, since fermented food is easier to preserve and lasts longer, the Government is debating public funding for the Frenchman André Michon’s glass factory in Cavaco, Vila Nova de Gaia, to produce jars suitable for conditioning sauerkraut, and their safe transportation to the combat’ ranks.