The Wartime Kitchen And Garden Program

nicki_2

It appears to be repeated on Saturday & Sunday - I've just set my freeview up to record it for the rest off the week

mi_jardin

doh! just set the sky planner, then realised I don't pay for the documentary channels!

parsonswife8

Just loved seeing the hay box tonight. I used to go to private bookkeeping classes and the lady who gave them had a hay box.
As a twenty something year old at the time, I used to think that she was nuts, but you learn as you get older.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

BilberryCharlotte

valk_scot wrote: »

My mum always said they were "starving" during WW2 but other elderly relatives have told me they managed okay but they had to be clever with what they had. I've always put this difference of opinion down to the fact my mother was a dreadful cook, lol, who was nothing like the wartime stereotypical mother that could make a meal from a parsnip and two pieces of coal.

My late FIL, who was a young teenager during the war years, used to have a thriving business shooting the feral pigeons of Edinburgh and selling them for meat. He and his younger brother also use to scrump apples on an industrial scale, also to sell, and pinch the clothes from the outside lost property box at the local public school. Bad lads, yup, but they both said they really had a fun time during the war!

I didn't manage to catch this program, unfortunately. Is it repeated, or out on the web somewhere?

I was thinking how difficult it must have been to keep teenage boys full in those days. When my son was a toddler those with older boys used to say they would just be washing up after tea, and their son would be asking what else he could have because he was hungry. When my son reached that age he was exactly the same. I don`t know if we were just unlucky, but anyone with son like that in the war years must have been frantic.

I believe that my Gran, who was diabetic got extra coupons for meat though.

luxor4t

Taadaa wrote: »

Any tips for those of us that missed it? x

A chocolate steamed pudding (using carrots as sweetener), haybox casseroles, how to get rid of moles and what to do with a pig's head (in my case, go green & try not to look _pale_)

tandraig

I was born in 1954 - but swear i lived through war years courtesy of the older ones (who never stopped talking about it, almost every sentence was prefaced 'during the war' , and later - television, nearly all the films were war films!). also, the war years affected the way they cooked for years!! waste was a no no, also make do and mend! and the luxury of being able to stockpile sugar etc. even now my mum (mid-seventies) feels uneasy unless she has at least six bags of sugar in stock! dont even want to tell you all how much washing powder she has!!!!
some of it must have rubbed off on me - I hate waste, can make a meal out of b*gg*rall (good training for the miners strike of '83) and find I dont 'need' most of todays consumables.
oh - and mum says - most of the old wartime recipes - were just about edible! dont think they would suit todays sophisticated palates!

BilberryCharlotte

tandraig wrote: »

I was born in 1954 - but swear i lived through war years courtesy of the older ones (who never stopped talking about it, almost every sentence was prefaced 'during the war' , and later - television, nearly all the films were war films!). also, the war years affected the way they cooked for years!! waste was a no no, also make do and mend! and the luxury of being able to stockpile sugar etc. even now my mum (mid-seventies) feels uneasy unless she has at least six bags of sugar in stock! dont even want to tell you all how much washing powder she has!!!!
some of it must have rubbed off on me - I hate waste, can make a meal out of b*gg*rall (good training for the miners strike of '83) and find I dont 'need' most of todays consumables.
oh - and mum says - most of the old wartime recipes - were just about edible! dont think they would suit todays sophisticated palates!

If you read those books like "We`ll eat again" some of them do sound a bit dire, but hunger is a sharp sauce so I guess if it is that or nothing else, you would have to learn to love it. Most of it anyway.

thriftlady_2

tandraig wrote: »

oh - and mum says - most of the old wartime recipes - were just about edible! dont think they would suit todays sophisticated palates!

I've made many wartime recipes and they were all delicious. I did begin to crave 'bigger' flavours though by the end of my fortnight's experiment IYKWIM -spices and citrus tastes particularly, but if I hadn't been used to them then the wartime food I cooked would have been perfectly satisfying both in quantity and taste.

And of course you didn't have to follow recipes, lots of tasty and frugal dishes were already well known to the average wartime housewife.

Thriftlady's Wartime Experiment

I wish I could get this channel, I have Freesat and we don't get it:(

Filey

valk_scot wrote: »

My mum always said they were "starving" during WW2 but other elderly relatives have told me they managed okay but they had to be clever with what they had. I've always put this difference of opinion down to the fact my mother was a dreadful cook, lol, who was nothing like the wartime stereotypical mother that could make a meal from a parsnip and two pieces of coal.
____________________________________________

I was five when war broke out and I certainly don't remember 'starving'. Careful, creative, not wasteful (of anything). I remember when we dug up the back garden to 'Dig for Victory' and grow veg. My grandfather lived nearby and he did most of the digging as my dad was away for very long periods of time. My mum used to work at the local Convalescent Home for recuperating servicemen.

It is said that because of the restricted diet people generally were much healthier, and certainly less fat, than they are today. And children's teeth were better because of sugar rationing. We were allowed 2 ounces of sweets a week. Being an only child I used to get my mother's and grandparent's sweets which wasn't a good thing at all.

Butterfly_Brain

I was reading one of my wartime books and it says that rationing went on for 15 years:eek:
It really makes you think doesn't it - people patiently queing for hours on end - We would probably have riots now!