Source: Atlas Obscura
If the only fruit in your house during the holidays is fruitcake, fear not. There’s another way to stave off scurvy without eating the artillery you’ve been saving for the annual Great Fruitcake Toss. For centuries, indigenous North Americans, Vikings, and Colonists stayed alive and well using the tips of the tree that millions of people throw away every year after the Christmas season.
For several centuries, seafaring explorers remained relatively healthy by chugging spruce beer, a drink made by boiling the tree’s green tips. Voyagers recognized the evergreens were a source of nutrients in Scandinavia and the Great White North, even during the most barren and bleak of winters. Spruce appeared in both alcoholic and nonalcoholic preparations; however, fermenting the young needles strips them of their vitamin C, so alcoholic versions weren’t (successfully) used as a treatment against scurvy.
Ancient Norwegians believed…
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