Vaguely gardening related Challenge for VC and anyone else!

[veggiechicken]

Its raining and my mind has been wandering - kickstarted by some recent threads on here!
First was GL's thread about Wartime gardening https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...ng_100186.html

Next was BikerMike's question about sugarbeet and my thoughts about using it as a sweetener like they used carrots in wartime recipes. https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr..._100319.htmlup

So I found all my books about Rationing including "The Wartime Kitchen and Garden" - the TV series with Harry Dodson and Ruth Mott and got hooked. The videos are on youtube too.

Nothing was wasted during rationing - and lots of foodstuffs were not available anyway. Even so, people were said to be very healthy at this time - because there were limits on fats and sugars whilst fruit and veg and "wholemeal" bread were unrestricted.

It made me feel so ashamed about the crops I grow - then waste. Apples lying on the ground, tomatoes picked but going soft, cabbage left too long, splitting and slug ridden.

Couple all this with a wish to eat more UK locally grown and produced foods, rather than imports, and I'm about to shake up my "diet".

I've made a pan of tomatoes, onions and peppers (all from the garden) and red lentils (allowed on the ration Points system) and I'm starting now!

Wish me luck.

[mcdood]

During t' war , a good Welsh lass should be down t' pit not messing 'bout in t' garden.

[veggiechicken]

My parents were married on Boxing Day 1940. Before the war Mum worked in a shoe shop down in Butetown, known as "Tiger Bay". She was directed to work in a Wire Rope factory, making hawsers for ships. Quite an eyeopener, apparently, where she learned more about life, than she'd ever learnt down in Tiger Bay! She was also an Air raid warden, part of a team of women firefighters.
My Dad wasn't fit enough to fight but he worked at a railway wagon engineering company and was also in the Home Guard, learning how to fight with wooden rifles!
My grandparents lived nearby, he worked on the railways and had an allotment alongside the railway where he grew veg to supplement the family's rations. I think there were rabbits and hens for food too.

Not much coal mining in Cardiff.

[mcdood]

Not much coal mining anywhere in Uk any more, probs for the best these days.
I watched the Harry Dodson Victorian Kitchen Garden series (I think that was what it was called) which was fascinating but not seen this Wartime one I'll see if I can look it up

[Chestnut]

Thanks VC, your post was the perfect daydream starter for a rush hour train journey!
I also like challenges, and there’s lots of ideas bouncing round my head now :-)
I don’t think I could grow enough to feed us adequately for a year, and we aren’t allowed chickens or cows on the allotment. However I could follow a dig for victory planting plan, improve my diet by sticking to wartime rations, improve my fitness by sticking to wartime petrol allowance, or try to buy only UK produced goods.So many ideas to choose from!
Whether I could do all of those at once is a different question entirely, and makes me very glad to be living in peace time.

[rary]

I take it that you will be going more for successional planting to avoid gluts, it would be nice to see a list of what and when you plan to grow different fruit and vegetables and how you intend to cope over winter,whatever you do I wish you well, even if your plan doesn't work it may inspire others to try

[veggiechicken]

Chestnut, I'm not going to follow a Dig for Victory planting plan as its too big a step from the randomness I'm used to. I am going to make more effort to use whatever I grow and to supplement "rations" that way. Same with chook eggs.
I'm going to reduce the amount of butter I use and eat less sweet stuff. More fruit, veg and bread. I don't eat meat anyway so won't miss that. Haven't yet found out the substitutes that vegetarians were given on rationing - its more cheese and pulses but don't know how much.

I'll post the basic rations that were allowed (although they changed with the seasons etc.).

[muckdiva]

Good on you VC. The Wartime Farm series on telly not long ago was an eye opener. I’ve been following a plant based diet for about 18 months so the garden is a mainstay of my diet....but it’s still all too easy to let stuff go to waste through forgetting to harvest etc. Will watch this thread with interest

[veggiechicken]

Good basic information site http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk...ationing2.html

aimed at children, so about my level.

[Baldy]

What happened when rationing ended - I do believe there was a sugar rush...

[veggiechicken]

I've made a pan of tomatoes, onions and peppers (all from the garden) and red lentils (allowed on the ration Points system) and I'm starting now!

Ate this for lunch spread on unbuttered toast. It was better than it sounds.
Just eaten 2 jacket potatoes with a tin of mackerel in sauce - didn't have any snoek in the cupboard!
There's a pan full of stewed apples waiting if I get hungry later.

I confess to having a small glass of red wine too.

[burnie]

I'm way too young to remember rationing, though sweets were still rationed apparently when "I were a lad". I remember many gardens were full of veg in the 1950's and 60's, it started going down hill from then on I think. Interesting to see the gardening culture difference from the midlands of England to NE Scotland too, which apparently hasn't changed much up here.

[veggiechicken]

Sweets were on ration when I was a young 'un but I don't remember it being a hardship because it wasn't something we had to give up. They just didn't exist in my world. What you've never had, you don't miss.

The thrill of seeing a bar of chocolate and a couple of tangerines in the toe of your Ch****** stocking can't be comprehended by the young of today.

[mcdood]

Found the Harry Dodson Wartime series online. Look forward to watching.

[lolie]

I've tried to plan my garden a bit better this year to reduce waste and to reflect what I will actually eat rather than "every seed deserves a chance".

We have been on water restrictions since June, so that makes me a bit more aware of the resources the garden consumes and I'd prefer not to waste them producing stuff which will never get eaten.

Not going to lie, though, the "I'll plant one of those and one of those and one of those" mindset is something with which I'm constantly battling.