I’ve always been curious about food. I devour the pages in Agatha Christie where she details menus, I pretended to recreate pioneer meals from one of my books as a child, and dreamt of the meals that Enid Blyton’s characters feasted on. I even requested tongue sandwiches not realizing that this treat was really cow’s tongue. My mum didn’t go for the new menu addition.
It was through my reading historical fiction that I gained a better understanding of rationing. A lot of the books I read that are set in WW II addressed this huge issue of the time in some form. So of course I got curious and soon found myself in the midst of researching how people cooked and ate with such strict limitations.
Every few years I attempt eating in this manner and I usually last less than a week. This is often due to our meat consumption and convenience foods. So imagine my surprise when I realized that, without trying, I have come close to eating in a manner that aligns with those rations this week. We’ve been stretching our meat, eating home made snacks, and filling up on a lot of vegetables.
As you can guess, I’m once again curious about eating this way. I don’t intend to hold myself to the strict diet but I do see that using it as a basis can help me in many ways such as opting for a healthy diet and keeping me on the zero waste track.
With this in mind, I am aiming to:
- Continue shopping for local produce
- Limit our meat consumption
- Increase the number of filling vegetarian dishes we make
- Make our own snacks
If you’re interested in recipes and learning from someone who is incorporating it into their lives Carolyn at The 1940’s Experiment is a great resource.
Saving Without Scrimping 
I find that I actually prefer the home made snacks! Not to mention the health benefits of making your own snacks.
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So true! My problem is often that my oven is finicky so I don’t bake like I used to.
I’ve been spoilt recently as both sets of parents made treats and shared. I’ve got to find ways to continue making again as I really enjoyed having fresh items.
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I wonder if people had allergies back then. I’m just thinking about all the things my son is really allergic to like dairy and wheat.
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I’m not sure, though I do know they had alternatives for religious reasons and for vegetarians. Carolyn uses the ideas but substitutes items that align with her own dietary needs.
As you probably know with me it’s all about the spirit :).
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No doubt. I think there is an assumption that food allergies are this gentle thing that people have when in fact food allergies have the potential to be fatal even with the help of modern medicine and/or cause major health issues if diagnosis is delayed. I suspect that young people died of non-diagnosed food allergies in the past with another cause written on the death certificate. Also child mortality, and death at younger ages, was not as unusual as it is now so less attention to causes of death was a likely response. While there is some evidence that some food allergies can be reversed and reduced, some like coeliac (gluten) have the potential to be life threatening and evidence consistently points to a genetic cause.
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