Wartime recipes, substitutions and other related austerity hints

Wednesday2000

mummygems wrote: »

I am incredibly thankful to still have my Nan - she is 91 years old now and loves to tell us her stories. She was moved from London to Snodland during the war (sadly her siblings were all split up but they have since found some of them in later years and one is all the way in America!). She tells us about growing up in Snodland and then travelling abroad with my Grandad when he was stationed in Egypt (in the 1950s).

Wow, Snodland.

I haven't heard that name of the place since I was about 11 years old!:rotfl:

Brambling wrote: »

I've had a few heated discussions with my nephew who's in his mid 20s and tells me there's no need for cash and seems to pay for most things by using his phone. Some people for whatever reason need to see cash coming in and going out, we live in a virtual world where people don't even buy a coffee with cash anymore or pay 60p for parking. We have a generation of kids who never see their parents use cash so have no idea about managing and budgeting, I've heard children asking for something in a shop and when told mummy has no money say just put it on your card. And if you factor in that for a lot of online shopping people save their card details and buy with one click so not even the reminder that they're spending by getting your CC out

It seems I need to move with the times I remind him mid 50s isn't old and I'm mortgage and debt free so my way works for me

We managed to persuade my mum to get a building society account in her mid 60s although she didn't fully trust them when it was no longer the lady who had a desk in the village estate agents. Both my parents remembered the depression and felt they had a reason not to trust banks they were the generation that every penny was hard earned and they felt it was safer in the loft or in a tin in the wardrobe

Brambling - It's not just young people! ;)

I met my friend the other night (49 years old) and he paid for everything with his phone. I told him he should check the charges with his online bank and he said he doesn't bother!:eek::eek::eek: I bet he is being ripped off. He was whining about not having enough money at the moment from his own business as well.

CapricornLass

Chilblains - my mother suffered them as a young girl ( so this would have been during WW2 in Glasgow). A very old lady told my grandmother to get half an onion, rub this on the inside of a frosted window, and then rub this over the chilblains and it would cure them. Mum says it worked.

VintageLady

PipneyJane
We've been doing 1940s re-enactment for about 8 years now but generally my interest spans from the 20s to the late 40s. It seems to have infiltrated every aspect of our lives. We have an allotment and I sew / knit / crochet to be able to make my own vintage reproduction (buying reproduction is more expensive than buying actual vintage). I buy my vintage clothing from a variety of sources but my two best places are a good vintage dealer at an antique centre near me and Facebook. There's a lot of trading groups where you can still get the odd bargain. But I have found the price of vintage clothing has really gone through the roof since I started out (hence making my own).
I hope this helps!

bouicca21

I've had a few heated discussions with my nephew who's in his mid 20s and tells me there's no need for cash and seems to pay for most things by using his phone.

I remember my dad (who if still alive would be well over 100) similarly complaining about the use of cheques and bank transfers. Proper pay packets ought to be stuffed with cash ...


Mind you in his day you could negotiate a cash discount for substantial purchases.

Primrose

Inflation had made such an impact over the years. I recall my dad o. The later years of his retirement going to a local hardware shop to buy a few screws and was charged what he did considered an exhorbitant price.
He complained to the owner "Those would only have cost a few pence before the war!"
Response: "Which war was that Sir? The Boer War?"

I have to remember this and smile wryly now all these years later I find myself reacting in exactly the same way ! My husband just stands beside me and waits for my inevitable " HOW MUCH?

mardatha

This is me Primrose. Things cost about 5 times what I expect them to! The husband sees me inhaling and walks smartly out of range in the shop...

[Deleted User]

I love this time of year and always have but as a child in the 1950s I remember the smell of autumn bonfires, great roaring ones that kept in all the weekend and the scent of chrysanthemums in peoples gardens, big bright or small pompoms that cheered me up as did the different mauves and purples of Michaelmas daisies and conkers shining glossily to pick up under the horse chestnut trees and if you were really lucky sweet chestnuts on the way home from school that you could roast on the coal shovel on the open fire in the living room after your tea.

We lived seasonally back them and I can remember the anticipation of things coming into the shops in their turn throughout the year from early rhubarb and eggs round Easter when the chickens started laying again, field mushrooms, the first strawberries, cherries, apples and pears, plums but this time of year was the most exciting of all as things started coming into the greengrocer that heralded Christmas so we looked for Fenland celery still black with fen soil, walnuts from local trees, cob nuts too, cox's orange pippins and russet apples, when there had been a frost we looked for brussels sprouts and parsnips as they were sweeter and tastier then but best of all in the few remaining weeks before Christmas were the mandarin and tangerine oranges that came in boxes wrapped in tissue and sometimes a few in each box would be in coloured foil and those were the prized ones by us kids, the greengrocer would serve you himself and your heart was in your mouth as he put the fruits into the bag in case he didn't give the foil wrapped one, but he always did! Pineapples were a real luxury in the winter back then and grapes also as they were imported from South Africa and expensive but delicious. I think we've lost something in this day and age because we have all these things 365 days a year and there is no anticipation that heralds the feast days we have every year but maybe part of that is being older?

-taff

No, it's not you being older. People don't realise or want to realise the utter tastelessness of food that's not in season. Who eats a tomato in december from a SM and thinks 'ooo, that's nice!' - no one, ever....
And with not growing your own food you lose the knowledge of how delicious season typical food actually is. H;af the carrots I eat or put in stews don't taste like they do freshly picked, and the tasteless potatoes, tomatoes, bland cucmbers....I could go on....

mummygems

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

We lived seasonally back them and I can remember the anticipation of things coming into the shops in their turn throughout the year from early rhubarb and eggs round Easter when the chickens started laying again......

I have never considered eggs being seasonal :eek: now you have said it though its got me thinking lots! My mum has pet ducks so I know they lay spring-summer but never considered chicken eggs. Is this why they started to be battery farmed do you think?

I must confess I am someone who buys things all year around but you are right it doesn't taste the same at all - I need to change my ways. My grandparents always grew tomatoes in their greenhouse and they always had a certain smell - I have only ever smelt this same smell once at a greengrocers the rest of the time the tomatoes don't smell (I cant explain the smell lol just that its the smell of fresh tomatoes!).

Primrose

Of course in my childhood, vegetables like celery were totally seasonal and never imported but bought from the greengrocer still coated in earth. It was always a celebration of autumn to buy the first clump of celery, clean it up and have the stems stuck in a jug on the table to augment the last naturally grown lettuces of the year, or have for supper with Bovril or Marmite on toast.

And of course the thick outer stems were used for that winter "home from school" hunger filler of hot lentil soup.

Incidentally for those interested in the simple life of a bygone age, you might enjoy watching the Mossy Bottom YouTube videos about a young man who has opted for this lifestyle in a derelict cottage in Western Ireland .