| Author |
Project Discussions:  Women: The Great Depression & WWII  |
|
YellowRose
True Blue Farmgirl
2459 Posts
Sara
Paris
TX
USA
2459 Posts |
 Posted - Aug 27 2019 : 12:07:53 PM
|
Women during WWII had to meet the following challenges to feed their families.
shortages of:
oils and fats
sugar, bananas, chocolate
coffee, tea
food bought in tin cans
The above list is not complete - many more foods & items were in short supply or restricted.
I'm only on the first page of the wartime addition but one thing did catch my attention. A substitute for Oriental tea - mate (the e has an ' over it). Have no idea what mate is - Do you?
|
FarmGirl Sister#6034 8/25/14
FGOTM Sept 2015 & Feb 2019
Lord put your arm around my shoulders and your hand over my mouth
|
Edited by - YellowRose on Aug 28 2019 07:08:46 AM |
|
|
StitchinWitch
True Blue Farmgirl
1171 Posts
Judith
Galt
CA
USA
1171 Posts |
Posted - Aug 27 2019 : 1:44:02 PM
|
| Mate is a South American plant; very high in caffeine. |
Judith
7932
Happiness is Homemade |
 |
|
|
YellowRose
True Blue Farmgirl
2459 Posts
Sara
Paris
TX
USA
2459 Posts |
Posted - Aug 27 2019 : 2:23:50 PM
|
Thanks Judith. It must have been fairly well known in the 40s for it to be mentioned without any explanation.
|
FarmGirl Sister#6034 8/25/14
FGOTM Sept 2015 & Feb 2019
Lord put your arm around my shoulders and your hand over my mouth
|
|
|
|
Killarney
True Blue Farmgirl
2114 Posts
Connie
Arlington
TN
USA
2114 Posts |
Posted - Aug 27 2019 : 3:33:34 PM
|
Sara, love this. My Granny said, that's why women started saving bacon fat, and any meat that rendered fat, in a tin container on the stove. My Granny said, that's where she got not wanting to waste anything, from living thru the depression! My Granny had one on the stove till she passed away in 2005. Bacon fat was also good flavor in dry beans!
Connie
|
|
|
|
levisgrammy
Scattered Prairie Hen Honcho
9205 Posts
Denise
Ohio
USA
9205 Posts |
Posted - Aug 27 2019 : 3:39:23 PM
|
Sara,
Is this a book you are reading?
My parents grew up and married during the depression. My mom made her wedding dress from curtains because nothing was tossed out but re-purposed. I can remember my dad saying how they saved everything. They did that throughout their married life too. They threw very little away and re-purposed everything. Mom was a seamstress and made all our clothes when we were young. She would bring home material remnants (they would otherwise throw away) from the factory where she worked and everything was used. |
Denise~~
Sister #43
"I am a bookaholic with no desire to be cured."
"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path"
Psalm 119:105
www.ladybugsandlilacs.blogspot.com
www.torisgram.etsy.com |
Edited by - levisgrammy on Aug 27 2019 3:44:05 PM |
|
|
|
YellowRose
True Blue Farmgirl
2459 Posts
Sara
Paris
TX
USA
2459 Posts |
Posted - Aug 27 2019 : 3:56:23 PM
|
Denise it's a cookbook that was first published in 1938 - I have the WWII War Time edition. The original cookbook had 816 pages - the war time addition is 64 pages. It has everything in it from setting a table for all the courses to canning to rending fat and so much more.
I fried okra for supper with lard my great niece rendered from one of their heirloom hogs. Almost down to the bottle of the jar. Hope she gifts me another quart. It takes me a year to use it up because I use it as a treat.
Connie we had one of those cans that sat at the back of the stove when I was growing up. I had one as a young married woman up to the early 70s.
I cook chicken thighs with skins for Annie every week and sometimes if the fat looks really good I save it for fried potatoes. In my opinion chicken fat makes the best fried potatoes. |
FarmGirl Sister#6034 8/25/14
FGOTM Sept 2015 & Feb 2019
Lord put your arm around my shoulders and your hand over my mouth
|
|
|
|
Red Tractor Girl
True Blue Farmgirl
3455 Posts
Winnie
Gainesville
Fl
USA
3455 Posts |
Posted - Aug 27 2019 : 4:29:30 PM
|
I watched all of the BBC series on Wartime Kitchens on U-tube. They were archived and released later on.. It was so interesting and amazing to watch what was made during the war years. Cooks had to be very creative and careful.
Denise, my parents were married in 1938 and Mom was very frugal too. Luckily, she was a good cook and a fine seamstress because, like your Mom, she made all the clothes for the kids when they were very young. I had wool skirts in the 1950s that had been used already for two older sisters. Each time the skirt was passed down, Mom took it completely apart and used a new pattern of choice to make it seem like a brand new skirt for the next girl. She also told me that she sewed little coats and wool shorts for the boys at Easter from old clothes of my Dad or Grandpa.
Connie, I grew up with a bacon grease can on the stove just like your Granny! Sara, Mom also kept her chicken grease in a jar in the fridge for the next time she fried chicken or needed that flavor of grease as well. While I am pretty good at not wasting, my successes are a far cry from what my Mom did!! She turned 15 when the market crashed in 1929 and I can imagine their life on the farm was a big challenge. However, they never went hungry and had a house to live in and a wood stove to cook on and help heat the place. I guess you could say they were a lucky family. |
Winnie Nielsen #3109
Red Tractor Girl
Farm Girl of the Year 2014-2015 |
|
|
|
TexasGran
True Blue Farmgirl
5777 Posts
Marilyn
Stephenville
Texas
USA
5777 Posts |
Posted - Aug 27 2019 : 5:33:11 PM
|
I know my mother bought 1# of sugar at a time, not four, five or ten# like we see in stores today.
Grandma had lots of pork fat ( from frying sausage and bacon) which became her lye soap. The same soap cleaned the laundry, the body, the hair on everyone's head and the floors were scrubbed with it also.
Mother was the middle child...with three kids older and three younger.
They took their lunches to school. Two biscuits with sausage patties. In spring of fall they might have a peach or apple. Sometimes they took a cookie if grandma had made any.
When I was born mother could not find baby dress fabric. So someone was down Mexico way and brought her back enough fabric for my sweet smocked baby dress. I still have it. |
Texasgran |
|
|
|
quiltee
True Blue Farmgirl
4642 Posts
Linda
Terrell
TX
USA
4642 Posts |
Posted - Aug 27 2019 : 5:54:49 PM
|
When we toured the WWII Museum in New Orleans they had one display of a home-front kitchen. It was very interesting. This is very interesting.
|
Linda B
quiltee
Farmgirl #1919
FGOTM for August, 2015 and April, 2017
|
|
|
|
StitchinWitch
True Blue Farmgirl
1171 Posts
Judith
Galt
CA
USA
1171 Posts |
Posted - Aug 27 2019 : 5:58:11 PM
|
| We always had that coffee can on top of the stove for grease. Wartime made you be creative in cooking due to all the rationing and also in sewing clothes because there were restrictions on how much fabric could be used. I was almost two before I had a real pair of shoes -- mom used my ration coupon as she really needed a new pair of shoes. Somewhere a year or two ago I ran into a blog where a woman was living with the WWII rationing restrictions as a way to lose weight. Wish I could remember where I saw that so I could go see if it worked for her. Might be worth a try; it would be a challenge at the very least. |
Judith
7932
Happiness is Homemade |
|
|
|
TexasGran
True Blue Farmgirl
5777 Posts
Marilyn
Stephenville
Texas
USA
5777 Posts |
Posted - Aug 27 2019 : 7:42:29 PM
|
Even after the war, in about 1953, my aunt's brood was growing. They moved from Maine back to Texas, rented an old house about half a mile from grandma.
Now Tillie was the most creative human I had ever met. She was the energizer bunny. Her husband built some Adorondike chairs and a longer one. She sewed ruffled, rose printed, cushions and I was in love. Then she asked her aunts for their old dresses...everyone wore full skirts, so the bodice wore out long before all of that skirt. She made trip to town where she found ricrac, bias tape and buttons.
Then she cut and sewed, no pattern, little summer dresses for her little girls. They were adorable with a ruffle at the hem and one over each shoulder. She was a huge inspiration. She played piano by ear. Beautiful! She was fertile Myrtle and eventually had 12 kids. One her baby girl is about a year younger than my son.
She taught me to make potato salad and chocolate glaze for a cake, using cream from grandma's two milk cows.
She showed me how to be resourceful when there is little money. |
Texasgran |
Edited by - TexasGran on Aug 27 2019 7:44:56 PM |
|
|
|
TexasGran
True Blue Farmgirl
5777 Posts
Marilyn
Stephenville
Texas
USA
5777 Posts |
Posted - Aug 27 2019 : 7:49:17 PM
|
| My friend from college, grew up in a small rock house. Her mother never had a proper kitchen. She had a Hoosier cabinet, a table and the upper part of another Hoosier that was hung on the wall. At some point someone had put in a sink in a small base cabinet. She never complained and was an awesome cook. |
Texasgran |
|
|
|
debbieklann
True Blue Farmgirl
2639 Posts
Debbie
Madras
OR
USA
2639 Posts |
Posted - Aug 27 2019 : 8:16:59 PM
|
What a fun topic! I've enjoyed reading everything you girls have posted here today.
My husband had me start saving bacon grease when we were first married. The cup sat on the stove. I'm not sure when I quit doing that. It did make the eggs and potatoes at breakfast taste yummy!
Marilyn, I'm so glad you still have that dress! What a treasure. My mom recently cleaned out her cedar chest and gave me several little things that I had worn. I put them away. Maybe my next grandchild will be a girl and she can wear my little dress. Maybe I should say if I have another grandchild! |
Debbie Klann
Farmgirl Sister #770
2018 Farmgirl Sister of the Year
January 2020 FGOTM
"Well behaved women seldom make history"...
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich |
|
|
|
Killarney
True Blue Farmgirl
2114 Posts
Connie
Arlington
TN
USA
2114 Posts |
Posted - Aug 27 2019 : 8:51:29 PM
|
My mom still has her grandmother's ration book for shoes.
Connie |
|
|
|
TexasGran
True Blue Farmgirl
5777 Posts
Marilyn
Stephenville
Texas
USA
5777 Posts |
Posted - Aug 27 2019 : 9:00:02 PM
|
| When I stop and remember back, what I actually remember as well as the stories my mother told...I am humbled. We have so many conveniences, to make our lives easier. It makes me sad that my grandma worked so hard. |
Texasgran |
|
|
|
TexasGran
True Blue Farmgirl
5777 Posts
Marilyn
Stephenville
Texas
USA
5777 Posts |
Posted - Aug 27 2019 : 9:00:56 PM
|
| Cool Connie! |
Texasgran |
|
|
|
levisgrammy
Scattered Prairie Hen Honcho
9205 Posts
Denise
Ohio
USA
9205 Posts |
Posted - Aug 28 2019 : 06:44:32 AM
|
I have two of my baby dresses that my mom made. I wanted to pass to my granddaughters but the were so outdated my daughter didn't want them. So they stay in my cedar chest which was left to me by my grandmother. I was named after her and the only thing I got from her.
She saved everything too. Both my grandmothers did. They were very different women. One had 16 pregnancies, nine lived to adulthood and she worked very hard. The one thing they had in common, they both worked hard. The other grandmother had four. Three lived to adulthood.
I can remember both grandmother's saving lard and everything else it seemed. It was quite a task when my mother's mom died and we cleaned out the house. She couldn't have used everything she saved in two lifetimes. She was a seamstress and crafter and she had so much stuff it was overwhelming.
My father's mother had a huge garden with so many children they had to have. By the time my dad who was youngest was born he had two sisters already married with children.
In fact one of his sisters named him. I think Grandma was running out of names. LOL!
I remember her even though I was 6 when she passed. I have a copy of her journal and it is a treasure. She was very frugal especially when it came to food and the needs she had after my grandfather died at 54 yrs. old. She still had some at home. My dad was 12. It is quite a read. She wrote down prices and how much she spent on things.
Sorry girls, I got long winded here. This topic makes me think of so many stories that my dad told me about how they made do and got by through those years. |
Denise~~
Sister #43
"I am a bookaholic with no desire to be cured."
"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path"
Psalm 119:105
www.ladybugsandlilacs.blogspot.com
www.torisgram.etsy.com |
|
|
|
YellowRose
True Blue Farmgirl
2459 Posts
Sara
Paris
TX
USA
2459 Posts |
Posted - Aug 28 2019 : 07:05:22 AM
|
| Denise I love hearing your story about your grandmothers. I think I will change the title of this thread to reflect how women during the depression and WWII managed their homes and lived their lives. |
FarmGirl Sister#6034 8/25/14
FGOTM Sept 2015 & Feb 2019
Lord put your arm around my shoulders and your hand over my mouth
|
|
|
|
YellowRose
True Blue Farmgirl
2459 Posts
Sara
Paris
TX
USA
2459 Posts |
Posted - Aug 28 2019 : 09:18:44 AM
|
Marilyn cooked soup the other day and I have a pot of soup on the stove now. In the wartime addition to my cookbook there's several paragraphs titled "The Return of the Soup Kettle. Called for using bones from steaks, chops, roast, ham bones, the gristly end of tongues, carcasses of roasted poultry and poultry feet to make stock.
I will use " " when quoting directly from book.
Add liquid from cooked & canned vegetable to soup. "If the drippings in the bottom of the roasting pan are not used for gravy, chill, and add but not the fat to the soup stock. Use the fat for other purposes."
"Leftovers which are not sufficient for another meal may go in the soup kettle. The half cup of creamed fish and the few tablespoons of vegetables left over are the basis for a chowder today. A fried egg or a bit of omelet or cooked liver may be minced and added to the soup just before serving. Use common sense and imagination and delicious soups will result."
As the old folks used to say "use everything but the squeal".
I do a little of the above like broth from ham bone or pork chop bones but never thought about leftover fried eggs being good for anything but a treat for Annie. Does give me a new way about how I use leftovers.
|
FarmGirl Sister#6034 8/25/14
FGOTM Sept 2015 & Feb 2019
Lord put your arm around my shoulders and your hand over my mouth
|
|
|
|
quiltee
True Blue Farmgirl
4642 Posts
Linda
Terrell
TX
USA
4642 Posts |
Posted - Aug 28 2019 : 10:46:50 AM
|
This is very similar to your story, Sara.
My mother hated soup - because that's all they got to eat in the depression, and it was mainly a broth with not much in it. When she made it, it was always more like a stew with plenty of vegetables and meats. She kept a large covered container in the freezer, and whenever dinner was over she would put all leftover veggies and meat into that container. When it was full, she would make a great soup. It had many different vegetables and meats in it. One thing she added into it, and this may sound strange, was frozen liver balls. I wish I could find them now - they were small 1-1/2" meat balls made of very finely ground liver; even though I did not like liver as a child, I loved those meatballs. She got them in the Chicago suburbs. I will need to look them up. |
Linda B
quiltee
Farmgirl #1919
FGOTM for August, 2015 and April, 2017
|
Edited by - quiltee on Aug 28 2019 10:48:24 AM |
|
|
|
YellowRose
True Blue Farmgirl
2459 Posts
Sara
Paris
TX
USA
2459 Posts |
Posted - Aug 28 2019 : 11:02:23 AM
|
Linda I've never heard of liver balls. Should be easy to make. Sauté liver with onions and chill before grinding in food processor. Make balls using your favorite meat ball recipe.
When I can dried beans I always have bean broth left over. Always make soup with the bean broth. This fall when I open up my Yellow Rose Cottage for canning I have oodles of heirloom dried beans to put up. I hope to can them all in a couple of weeks. If I do I plan on canning the leftover bean broth for winter soups.
Still thinking about Linda's liver balls - never heard of such - this winter I may give it a try. |
FarmGirl Sister#6034 8/25/14
FGOTM Sept 2015 & Feb 2019
Lord put your arm around my shoulders and your hand over my mouth
|
|
|
|
levisgrammy
Scattered Prairie Hen Honcho
9205 Posts
Denise
Ohio
USA
9205 Posts |
Posted - Aug 28 2019 : 11:05:56 AM
|
Sara,
Your soups remind of my mom and her "refrigerator" soup which I'm sure stemmed from that time period. Like I said she wasted nothing and if could go in the soup it did. My father raised chickens for meat and eggs and sale so we ate tons of chicken and I hated it as a kid. We had it every Sunday and days in between. I love it now but back then it was too much of a good thing. My father also would get rabbit to cook and I wouldn't touch it. We had a huge garden and they taught us to try every vegetable. I never tried okra till a friend of mine made it when we were stationed in Hawaii and it's the only vegetable I have found I dislike. Soup is such a good healthy thing for us to eat. I always loved the story of stone soup. Does anyone know if the program they had that they gave out cheese and oleo and things started during the depression? Oleo is something I won't touch nor margarine. You've really got me interested in finding out more about what others did to make it during those hard times.
I do remembering hearing about CCC camps for young boys I think it was. I guess they must have been like work programs or something. All my uncles were called to the war except my dad due to heart trouble and he stayed with my grandma to take care of her. |
Denise~~
Sister #43
"I am a bookaholic with no desire to be cured."
"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path"
Psalm 119:105
www.ladybugsandlilacs.blogspot.com
www.torisgram.etsy.com |
|
|
|
YellowRose
True Blue Farmgirl
2459 Posts
Sara
Paris
TX
USA
2459 Posts |
Posted - Aug 28 2019 : 11:31:26 AM
|
Denise I remember eating wild rabbit as a child. Liked it better than squirrel. Since grown I have had domestic rabbit and I like it fried.
Along with eating a lot of soups I would think women outside the big cities foraged for greens, berries, fruit like wild plums, nuts, and mushrooms. They probably bartered what they had more of for what they needed. A small flock of chickens, garden, and a milk cow or goat would provide food for the family and surplus could be sold or bartered. |
FarmGirl Sister#6034 8/25/14
FGOTM Sept 2015 & Feb 2019
Lord put your arm around my shoulders and your hand over my mouth
|
|
|
|
StitchinWitch
True Blue Farmgirl
1171 Posts
Judith
Galt
CA
USA
1171 Posts |
Posted - Aug 28 2019 : 1:06:56 PM
|
My Dad was in the CCC camps in the 30s. He enjoyed it so much he signed up for a second hitch. He wrote down memoirs of his life and I love reading it. He was an amazing man who lived and enjoyed all of his almost 105 years and I really miss him.
I always used to keep a gallon jar of leftovers in the freezer for soup and cleaning out the fridge always yielded a casserole or soup. Don't know when I stopped keeping it there unless it was removed to make room for game after one of DH's hunting trips. |
Judith
7932
Happiness is Homemade |
|
|
|
quiltee
True Blue Farmgirl
4642 Posts
Linda
Terrell
TX
USA
4642 Posts |
Posted - Aug 28 2019 : 9:06:39 PM
|
| There are recipes for the liver balls when I googled Liver Ball Soup. And they are sometimes called liver noodles. Here's one link. There is at lest one place online to get them, and I found a meat market in Dallas at Snider Plaza that sells them frozen. https://www.justapinch.com/recipes/main-course/beef/liver-noodles-leberknoedel.html |
Linda B
quiltee
Farmgirl #1919
FGOTM for August, 2015 and April, 2017
|
|
|
|
TexasGran
True Blue Farmgirl
5777 Posts
Marilyn
Stephenville
Texas
USA
5777 Posts |
Posted - Aug 28 2019 : 9:41:34 PM
|
Sara, my grandma always had a pen of white leeghorns. She used some eggs for her family, the rest were taken to the little store four miles away.
Everyone who traded there had their name on a little receipt book.So when Grandmas eggs arrived she got credit in her little book. Then when she needed staples for cooking that was taken off her tab.She sold eggs to them in flats in those big egg boxes that hold two sets of flats.
When they lived on the mountain, they outgrew the house so she used her egg money to hire the carpenters and buy the lumber to remove the roof, add some more rooms, replace or make a new roof.
Then when her dad have all the of his children some land, and they were when it to move, she used her egg money to turn a chicken house into a two bedroom, kitchen, dining room, living room, long hard and sleeping porch for $700. My mother was born in 1916. She was 18 when the move was made. She was only there for visits.
So any time she referred to her home...It was on the mountain. Years later she would talk about mamma's house. She never referred to it as home. |
Texasgran |
|
|
|
Project Discussions: Women: The Great Depression & WWII |
|
Women: The Great Depression & WWII
