Hi Old Bob: My Grandmother always kept a silver dollar in the milk, and one in the rain barrel out by the barn. Grandma was born in 1897, so she might have been considered "old Americana." Over the years, those silver dollars got pretty thin and worn looking. I have no idea what chemical reaction might have taken place with these old silver dollars. The milk always tasted fresh, with or without refrigeration (the milk came straight from the cow in those early days, and not the grocery store).
One of the reasons that brought me to this board to begin with, was to try to figure out what Grandma knew about silver and keeping milk fresh, along with water. To this day, we add either a silver wire (or now CS) to the milk from the store. We rarely use milk and this prolongs its shelf life significantly. As kids, when we would get a skinned knee or elbow, grandma would tape a silver dollar to the knee or elbow. Don't know if it actually did any good, or made us feel better, but things healed quickly, and I don't ever remember getting an infection. suzy > Hear Ye Hear Ye; > > > > Go back to your early Americana. The pioneers when they crossed this > great > > land placed a silver coin in the water and milk jugs to keep them fresh, > and > > it worked. > > > > When I performed the silver test in the tropics, I mentioned that I > stirred > > one batch of water with the silver wire and the 1000/1 > > petri dish was clean while the 100/1 started to show colonies. At that > time > > Dr John Warren our lab head said "all you have to do is put a few dimes > (at > > that time they were silver) in a jug shack it up and let it sit overnight > to > > be safe." Something D-mn well happened. > > > > What has happened to the knowledge of the ancients???? > > > > "OLD BOB" >
