Wartime recipes, substitutions and other related austerity hints

monnagran

Talking about those who sat furthest from the fire having a cold back, do you remember when some people had red and purple blotches over the fronts of their legs where they had been sitting too close to the fire.

My overwhelming memory of childhood was of always being cold

Even when I started teaching in the fifties and moved into a bed-sit in the attic of a big house things were no better.
The room had lino and a bit of coconut matting on the floor, one thin blanket on the bed and a one bar electrIc fire on a meter that simply ate shillings. I was so poor that I could only have this one bar on for 1 hour a day.. I have never been so cold. One night the ink in the bottle on my windowsill froze.
Next to being hungry, and I mean really hungry, not just peckish, I think being cold is the thing I dread most. As long as I can be warm I can cope with most that life can throw at me.

Primrose

At this time of year I very finely chop any vegetable leftovers like banana skins, peeled apple skins, etc. which normally go on the compost heap and instead fork them into the compost in my patio containers once summer bedding plants or tumbling tomatoes have been removed.

They rot down fairly quickly over autumn, even with a few winter pansies planted in them for colour, and enrich the compost. This means I'm not continually having to replace part of the compost every year, and it keeps the growing medium in good condition. I find the compost still warms up when the winter sun shines and very soon there is nothing left of it to see.

I've got to the age where I'm trying to simplify my gardening and reduce any heavy lifting or lugging around of heavy compost bags so this "on the spot" composting works well for me.

mardatha

Monna we lived in a rented flat once like that. right at the top of a tenement in Edinburgh. The meter was rigged too and it cost the earth to heat. Also we used to call the blotches Tartan Legs. All mums had them, I remember seeing them all in the vans that came around and at the ice cream van.

Brambling

I also remember chilblains, you don't hear people complaining about those any more. As a poor student in the early 80s I remember being in a flat at the top of a house with only one fan heater which as you say ate the 50ps in the meter and ice on the inside of the windows. I had grown up similar and could remember only a coal fire to heat the house but my friend (who still hates the cold) came from a different background with a father who worked overseas in warm countries it was a bit of a shock for her :rotfl:

Great composing tip Primrose and the advantage of my pots being closer to the house than the compose bin.

mardatha

I used to have terrible chilblains!

fuddle

My Mam suffered too but then again she would wear the most useless boots so looked the part on the outside but wore carrier bags on her feet as they weren't waterproof.

monnagran

I never suffered from chilblains, but had a school friend who had them all up the backs of her legs.
All the advice columns in magazines were full of suggestions of how to prevent/cure chilblains. Snowfire ointment seemed to feature largely.

Speaking of legs, I do recall being forced to wear leather gaiters as a small child.
They were horrible and didn't do much to keep your legs warm. They had buttons down the length of them that had to be fastened with a button hook. My poor little legs were so fat that doing the buttons up was a painful process. They were well and truly pinched.

Gaiters were even worse than liberty bodies.

fuddle

Snowfire. You're bring some of my very early years back to me.

What was it that caused chilblains?

monnagran

Not too sure fuddle. I think it was something about being very cold for a long time and then heating up too quickly.

I'm sure that someone will come along with a more scientific explanation.

I think that the reason we don't hear much about them today is because houses abd public buildings are much warmer now.

mardatha

My mum used to say that monna. Feet and hands getting too cold outside playing then coming in and sitting too near the fire.