2025 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

MrsCD

PipneyJane said:

kiwisavings said:

Hello everyone,

here's a few Youtube channels that might be of interest:


Real Vintage Dolls House
 - clothing, food and 1940s style house

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENO2rYroPIs


Retro Claude
 - follows 1940's clothes rationing, knitting to reduce wool stash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FKAKhszamA



Utility Jude - mostly about food rationing, has a 1940s style house

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSvcaRCYcwY



Does anyone watch any other channels that are about rationing?

@kiwisavings thank your for the rabbit hole that I’ve just fallen down on YouTube.  I did not realise that there were so many programs about living in the 1940’s.  I think I’ve lost a couple of hours, just browsing.

Today is the 80th anniversary of VJ Day.  Was anyone else touched by the King’s message?  I can’t help think of my mum’s older brother, who was a POW in one of the Japanese camps.  I don’t think I ever knew for certain the details of where/which one,  He died when I was 7 from the after effects of his war wounds (according to my mum).  That was nearly 30 years after he was liberated.  I never met him.  He lived 750-ish miles away and we were on our way to visit, when he passed away.

- Pip

That's so sad, Pip.
My husband tells of his neighbour, whose husband was made to work on the Burma railway, and never came home. DH was just a boy at the time, and many years later the poor woman was still wondering if her husband might still be alive. They never found out where his body was, as far as we know.
We cannot ever forget, we must not forget, because if we do not learn from history, we will repeat the same mistakes.
My dad did his National Service in Malaya, as part of the peacekeeping force. He always remembered. 
There were many nationalities that worked together, and we need to remember how to do that now.

florianatwobob

One of my more distant neighbours as a child and teenager had been a Japanese POW. His wife was a very quiet lady who didn’t say much and kept herself to herself but would have a chat with my mum when they were alone. 

Apparently the man who came back to her after VJ Day wasn’t the same man she married. I remember him telling me that when he came home the doctors slowly worked out that the best way to build the returned POWs up again was a small amount of rice, some milk and half a rare banana. 

It also led to a very strained relationship between her husband and their son. It’s so sad that his experiences were still impacting them all 50 years later. 

PipneyJane

I wish we really did have a Village Hall.  I could do with your cheerleading/help.  I’m sitting here procrastinating, while watching football on the telly.  Last weekend, I harvested a load of crab apples from the roadside near Stonehenge.  Yesterday, I started the process of turning them into Crab Apple Jelly and Crab Apple Chilli Cheese, based on this recipe from the Cottage Smallholder (but I’m making 3x as much and I didn’t add chilli.  I will add chilli to the cheese puree before adding sugar).

Right now, I’m filled with doubts:  do I have enough jars?  Do I have enough sugar?  Do I have the energy?  Will I get the jars properly sterile this time, since I had to throw out a couple of jars-worth of something last year when I found them growing strange spores.  (Mind you, they had been sitting there for about 4 years, but they were still sealed.)

I know, the best cure for procrastination is action.  It’s half time.  I’ll go unearth the jars, seals and check the sugar supplies.

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

@PipneyJane - I use jars from things we’ve bought, and try to use the ones with a button that pops down as the vacuum is created as the jam cools.
I wash the jars and put them, dripping wet, on a baking sheet in an oven at 140°C, and then make the jam or jelly or cheese; just before it’s ready, I boil the kettle and pour boiling water over the lids in a pyrex jug; when it’s ready, I ladle the preserves into the jars while both are still hot (watch out for spitting!). Then I get the lids on asap, and hold the jars in a small towel so I can do the lids up tightly. 

I made some gloriously neon-bright crab apple jelly last year but annoyingly that tree has very few fruits this year… here’s hoping for next year! 

PipneyJane

@Laura_Elsewhere perfect timing.  I was just searching through my reference book - Marguerite Patten’s Jams, Preserves And Chutneys Handbook for instructions on how to sterilise the lids.  (I have a vague memory of simmering in a saucepan full of water.)

Thank you for your encouragement and wise words.  There is no reason why I should be procrastinating - I’ve made both these items before, but I don’t do it regularly, because we don’t eat a lot of jams.  Last time was probably 2020.

Right.  Jars are in the oven.  Crab apple juice has been measured: 2072ml.  Sugar has been weighed: 2072g.  All jam making kit assembled, including my thermometer.  (I will test for set in multiple ways.)

Time to start heating the juice.

- Pip

alicef

ditto @Laura_Elsewhere sterilising instructions - I use this method because we haven't got a dishwasher. I do have a backup box of new lids as I won't use a lid that is scratched or looks a bit dingy.   

Today I have had the range cooker on making blackberry jam (top of stove), steak pies (top and oven) and passata (oven) - now I feel wilted.

Nelliegrace

@Laura_Elsewhere, I use the same method, but use a jam funnel so all of the jam goes in the jar, none on the rim or down the outside. 

PipneyJane

Thanks Ladies.

I am exhausted. 6 x 1lb jars and 4 x 0.5lb jars of crab apple jelly made.  Biggest panic was over ensuring it had got to the setting point.  Now waiting for the lids to pop - if they don’t, I’ll do what the Americans do and pressure can them.

I used new lids and jars from Lakeland and simmered them, together with my jam funnel, leaving them in the water until needed, then using a “lid magnet” to extract them, one at a time.  How do you get the lids dry?  I shook them and hoped that all the inside water came off, then dried the outside once the lid was on.

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

Nelliegrace said:

@Laura_Elsewhere, I use the same method, but use a jam funnel so all of the jam goes in the jar, none on the rim or down the outside. 

I should have said- yes, a jam funnel! My Tala one is worth its weight!

and @PipneyJane - I just shake the lids and don’t worry too much about any remaining water

Cherryfudge

It's surprising how exhausting jam-making can be! I made a batch of greengage jam the other day and have since been doing as many other things as possible, which I suspect is because I still have a few kilos of gages to process despite giving away lots!

I searched the car boot sale this morning and got four Kilner jars (jam sized) and one a bit bigger, and yesterday I found one that could possibly be used for jam, at a charity shop. A friend told me it's cheapest to buy basic jam and use the jars, but that would be a last resort as I don't want to waste any food. There are three Marmite-equivalent jars in the recycling - perhaps I should use those!

I have a new dress by the way, but no coupons as it was from the car boot sale.