Thriftlady's wartime experiment

windowshopper100

weezl74 wrote: »

I find it a tad tricky to navigate through the story though

And there's no crochet like on yours

Agreed (on both points). She didn't update for 3 weeks I think and I never know if a blog's been abandoned. Especially when it's just getting good. But as I said previously, it is a commitment. I think that's what puts me off trying it myself.

As an aside, the frugalisation thread is great. I keep thinking I'll jump in but maybe I'll just keep learning for now. Mind you I only read it yesterday morning so I've probably got a couple a dozen pages to catch up on:D

windowshopper100

Spamfritters: Did you have leftover veg from the previous day for bubble and squeak or did you boil them up specially, also, how did you make the gravy.

Thank you and all the best with the challenge. Looking forward to following it.

debtdesperado

My grandmother was always incredulous that anyone could survive purely on war rations without supplementing them with poached rabbits, chickens kept in the back garden for eggs, swapping eggs for extra sugar, the black market for anything else...and she lived through it!

Caterina

I think that a vegan could live well on grains, veg, nuts, seeds and pulses, but they would have to take a vitamin B12 tablet and possibly be careful about their iron intake. What was the wartime situation re. say, almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts? What about sunflower seeds?

A regular daily intake of dark green veg (especially stuff like turnip tops and kale, staple wartime vegetables) together with almonds and a tablespoonful of molasses should do for calcium I think.

I eat a small amount of fish and eggs so I would give myself say, one day a fish dinner (are fish fingers a "cheat"?) and a couple of days eggs - could count fresh eggs as if they were powdered so I would have a total of 2 eggs per week. The rest of the week I would have to eat vegan food - I have been thinking about this and should start making plans for dinners with soya mince, soya chunks and veg sausages and treat them as if they were meat.

I have looked all over the place but could not find any references to rations for vegans - it must have been very hard for people who took the vegan stance to eat in those days!

I have received the Wartime diet book and it looks lovely, I did not have the time to look into it in details but hope to start thinking about modifying the meat recipes with the vegetarian version.

I cannot do it very faithfully to the real wartime diet but am planning to have a lot of meals made of fresh unprocessed food and keep the meat substitute to a minimum (as in wartime people would have had a lot less meat).

Perhaps I should start a blog on this subject!

Edited to add interesting link on vegan diet during wartime:

http://www.veganviews.org.uk/vv79/vv79war.html

patchwork_cat

Haven't seen this mentioned, but there is a programme on Yesterday channel - Ration Book Britain http://www.tvguide.co.uk/titlesearch.asp?title=Ration%20Book%20Britain

aplaceinthesun

Have spent a few days , on and off, reading through this thread and have really enjoyed doing so . Many thanks to all the contributors , especially Thriftlady and the kind lady who posted her fathers letters. I am only in my early 40's but it has given me a better insight into cooking for a family in that era. Thanks again everyone.

mardatha

We cant get Yesterday channel - my husband noticed something about wartime kitchen garden was on yesterday and I was so miffed at missing it. Is it possible to get that channel on here ? I would have SO loved that.

nuttybabe

I made the carrot cookies the other day (i used apple instead of carrot) and my kids loved them. Even dh was impressed! Thanks Thriftlady.

anguk

mardatha wrote: »

We cant get Yesterday channel - my husband noticed something about wartime kitchen garden was on yesterday and I was so miffed at missing it. Is it possible to get that channel on here ? I would have SO loved that.

If you haven't got freeview you can watch all the freeview channels (including Yesterday until 6pm) live at www.tvcatchup.com, it's free to sign up.

Yesterday channel goes offline at 6pm but luckily The Wartime Kitchen and Garden is on from 5-6pm so you'll be able to watch it! :T And it's on every night this week!

mardatha

oh wow thank YOO!