Delphi Study Club completed its 2018-2019 year with its annual spring luncheon, hosted by the Social Committee May 7 in the United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall. Special guests were Delphi Study Club Scholarship recipient Katelynn Rothgeb and her stepmother, Chelsea Rothgeb.
Ann Cales discussed the importance of a common household staple throughout the ages as related by best-selling New York Times author Mark Kurlansky’s Salt: a World History.
“Salt was a substance so valuable it served as currency, influenced trade routes and cities, provoked and financed wars, secured empires and inspired revolutions,” Cales said. It was the most valued commodity in the world until the discovery of oil put an end to its major industrial importance.
The only staple food from rocks which is eaten by humans, salt is necessary for life. The body does not manufacture sodium but must replace what is lost; otherwise, a serious deficiency can result in death. Prehistoric tribes established villages around saltlicks, and salt production began about 6000 BC when people learned to obtain salt crystals from evaporated brine.
Ancient Chinese and Egyptians may have been the first to have cured fish and fowl with salt. Bodies have been found preserved in ancient salt mines.
“There is no danger of running out of salt,” Cales said. “From New York across the Great Lakes, there is salt underneath.”
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