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Hi Grandma Donna. You asked if anyone had made any of Clara's recipes. I made her recipe for fried fish.  Neither my husband nor I had ever heard of a fish called Smelt. However, I found it frozen at our local grocery store. We fried it outside and it was delicious.  Crispy little fish fingers!  Even the dog ate one off the draining rack when I was not looking!

My grandparents were married August 1929.  The interesting thing is that she never once iny memory mentioned the Depression.  She talked a lot about their early years of marriage so all I can figure is that it had little effect on them because her parents were wealthy farmers in Iowa.  

Food out of the freezer at bedtime is a habit here as well.  I think through all of the next days' meals and we move items to the refrigerator and counter.  I keep baked goods stocked in the freezer so we often take out something for breakfast.  I also make enough to freeze meals through out the week.  It saves in labor and energy costs.  

I enjoy watching Clara and am sometimes tickled since I grew up eating those sort of meals and still enjoy them.  My favorite meal is a spoonful of leftover mashed potatoes, a slice of torn up stale bread and an egg or two scrambled up together in a skillet.  I make it for my lunch whenever I can. My siblings and I used to fight over it but now I get to eat it all because my husband will not even taste it.  (Happy face)

Thank you for the new post. I'm beginning to relax into the old-fashioned world more and more. I no longer look at the news. I found that it makes me too anxious. I have my local newspaper that hardly ever talks about national events, and that's all I have for news. I stopped using my credit card too. The points are nice and people did use credit in the old days, but I found that I need to reconnect physically to using my money. The envelope system is starting to work for me as I get my envelopes filled. 

The biggest change right now is how I cook. I realized that I cook according to what outside sources have told me is healthy. I want to go back to cooking what my heritage, my mom and family, taught me to cook. If results are to go by, I was healthier when I wasn't eating what we're told is healthy! Also I have been experimenting with meals from the Depression. I made creamed tuna on toast and my family thought it was good! The basic recipe is butter, flour, salt, milk, and tuna. You make white sauce and add tuna. Adding peas or hard-boiled eggs is suggested as an alternative. I added peas because they're in the garden, and then thinking about Clara, I added a little Romano cheese because she put Parmesan in so many things. I thought the cheese would be okay as Depression cooking. A few days later I made the more expensive chicken a la king, which is creamed tuna on toast with chicken instead and a few extra things like celery, onion, chicken stock, and pimentos. Another hit. That one I served over rice. It's nice to know my family likes the cheaper tuna version. I'm going to save chicken a la king for Sundays. 

Grandma Donna, I love seeing the clothing hanging around the kitchen at night!  Many an evening has seen our laundry moved inside the house because it wasn’t fully dried, or a load was hung inside because it wasn’t washed in time to dry outside.

Now that I’m feeling better, I don’t need as much sleep, so part of the study for me has been shifting my waking time earlier.  Now I am up no later than 6, and the only time the light is on past 10 is if my husband isn’t ready to stop reading.

One of my other major focuses has been the removal of all of the “new” food people eat now, ultra processed food chemicals in particular.  I already stayed away from most ultra processed food, but now I am even stricter in terms of” natural flavors”, gums, or any ingredient in a food that I wouldn't have in my own kitchen.  This probably goes back farther than 1932, but I figure there were plenty of people then who distrusted the new fangled foods, or just couldn’t afford them.  In a nod to the 1930s, I am buying milk in glass jars — and as much else in glass as I can.  I am making mayonnaise and will make mustard too.

In the quest to rid ourselves of the last bits of nonstick in our home, I found grill plates on eBay for our vintage 1955 Sunbeam waffle maker.  My husband and son have been using a modern sandwich maker for cooking veggie burgers, and now they can do it on metal instead of the nonstick.  I do seem to have a lot of 1940s -1950s era items in my home, but even if they aren’t from the 1930s they are better than the new things now

Last week I came home with 4 vintage sewing machines.  One was because I wanted the cabinet it is in, but the other 3 were sold very inexpensively as a lot, and contained a WWII era Singer 66 which I hope to convert to hand crank.  Of the 4 machines, I have gotten 2 of them working well, which has taken many hours of learning and tinkering.  One machine I need a part for, and the last one is totally frozen so I will take it outside and use penetrating oil to see if I can get it to move.  I don’t need the machine, but as I had to take it as part of the lot, I would like to get it running.

Stephanie G, I was just musing about this very subject today!  I’ve decided that no one knows what healthy eating is for humans!  There are so many sides and ideas and they all have benefits and drawbacks.  I really don’t think researchers, doctors, or dietitians have any idea how we should eat.  I myself have tried many ways of eating over the years, and now in the end my body decided enough is enough and I can only listen to my body and my common sense and nothing else!  Looking to the past and our ancestors makes sense to me, not looking to Paleolithic times but just what ordinary people ate before giant food companies hijacked our food system.  I understand oil from olives or even sunflowers, which are traditional, but I don’t understand oil from corn or rapeseed or soybeans — I couldn’t make those at home if I wanted to.  I’m not eating anything that would qualify as ultra processed, and basically my meals could be considered “good home cooking”.  Your creamed tuna sounds delicious, and I can make it if I buy tuna without any additives.  I grew up eating creamed eggs on toast and I enjoy making it with homemade white sauce (my mom used canned).

If I recall correctly, Clara mentioned that pecorino romano would have been the cheese of choice but Parmesan was what they had.  I reread Clara’s book a few weeks ago and bought romano cheese at Trader Joe’s with the protected designation of origin which means it was made the traditional way in Italy with unpasteurized sheep’s milk and animal rennet.  It was less expensive than parmigiano reggiano and a little goes a long way — I understand why Clara recommended it!

I live in a suburb of Atlanta, and I have also had no bees. I grow lots of cucumbers, and have had very few to mature. I did see one bee on Monday, and am now finding a few small cucumbers. I have 12 plants and normally would have enough to be giving to neighbors. Where are the bees

Kimberly F, I so admire your skill with sewing machines! I am hoping one day you'll say you have an extra non-electric one you need to get rid of and want to sell. :)

Linda T, we used to have so many bees, and now there's hardly any. I think it's pesticides that people spray killing them. I've read about encouraging nesting and we have all the right things like bare dirt with leaf litter and a brush pile, and we have lots of bee plants, but fewer bees each year. :( I'm going to have my husband drill some holes in the wood on our brush pile to see if any bees want to move in. We have a problem with house sparrows too. They are very aggressive and push the eggs from the nests of the good birds (songbirds and robins and birds like that) or kill their babies. They chase the other birds away from the feeders. We are trying to discourage them. I chase them off whenever I see them, acting like a big territorial bird myself, and I feed the other birds but remove the feeders when the house sparrows show up. We knock down their nests too. They are not a protected bird in our state but are considered pests. I need more bees and fewer house sparrows! 

If anyone knows how I can help either problem, I would be grateful for the help. 

Grandma Donna, using those solar lights as a candle at night has been so helpful. As you said, they are so convenient to hang from wherever you need them. I don't have a lacy sock to cover mine, but I'm going to see what I can find in my closet to pretty up my bulb. I loved your wallpaper on the dresser back too. 

Just my thoughts on frugality right now:)

I'm hoping to get back in to shopping at yardsales more, especially if they become more common again.

I don't know if yardsales and rummage sales were especially common in the 1930's or not, but I believe buying things used through one means or another was.  When I was young my family stopped at every yardsale we saw and pretty much everything we owned came from them.  In the last decade or two they've gotten a lot less common, but I had also gotten out of the habit of going to them when I did see one.  For clothing, shoes, kitchen items, I still bought most things second hand, but Goodwill seemed so much more convenient.  Then it's prices went up and up, and I pretty much stopped shopping there too.  It wasn't worth multiple visits to finally find something I was looking for for $15, when I could order the same thing new online for $30. (Edit: Because the nearest Goodwill is about 40 miles away.)

Then last weekend I stopped at two yardsales and a rummage sale that was raising money to fix up an old one-room schoolhouse, and I was reminded how useful they can be!  At the first I refrained from buying anything even though they had some cool antiques.  At the second I bought a grasswhip and an old antique saw for a dollar each.  Then at the rummage sale, I got three pairs of nice walking shoes for 50 cents each.  This kind of reminded me how worthwhile yardsales can really be.  I almost hadn't stopped because I "wasn't looking for anything" and didn't want to be tempted by clutter.  But ironically I had just recently looked at new grasswhips because I wanted a second one, been a little shocked at the price, and decide to make do without - funny looking for one at a yardsale didn't occur to me until I actually saw it, considering my older one came from a yardsale 20-some years ago.  Then the shoes - I may not need them right now, but they're going to save me 30 to 40 dollars each the next three times I need replacement shoes. 

I haven't really changed my meals at all, because I already ate mostly free or very cheap food, but thinking of that as intentional and very 1930's makes it more fun, instead of just something I do out of habit.

Many of us are thinking alike in regards to food, the foods we ate when younger and what's now. Bread here has had man made folic acid added so if I eat commercially made bread I'm left with a revolting taste in my mouth. The standard flour which we're told is no good for bread making doesn't have it added nor does organic flour ( very expensive) To use the standard flour I just add an extra 1/2 tsp yeast.

Our daughter makes all their breads. Even wraps, tacos,naan bread, delicious raspberry buns etc.

Bees.. here in NZ where I live I had an amazing zucchini crop but maybe only 3 cucumbers!! I sow heirloom seeds.

Sparrows... They are the bane of my life with my hens. Stealing their food. So now I've brought a completely enclosed chicken run so they cannot get in

I like your simple meals Donna and the Poor Mans Meal could have sausage as the meat couldn't it. I have to make soft meals for my husband due to his swallowing issues so Poor Mans Meal would be just for me. I liked the meal you made also with the small meat pattie. When I buy 1 kilo of beef mince I now pack it into 250 gram pack sizes 

Karen NZ

I'm sorry to hear about your lack of bees! I haven't seen any yet in my neck of the woods in the Midwest, but it's been chilly. Your vegetable garden pictures from the past month inspired me to clean out our weedy beds and plant a lot more this year than we have in the past few, so thank you for the motivation I needed! 

For those speaking about modern society not knowing what to eat, I always liked Michael Pollan's maxim of, "eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants" as a good guideline. He also emphasizes not eating anything our grandmothers' generation wouldn't recognize as food, which I think fits nicely with those here who have spoken about getting back to older ways of cooking and eating. Simple is best and typically less expensive.

Sounds completely silly of me but this post was just comforting.  I like seeing the dishes stacked to dry on the counter and the laundry hanging around.  It’s so real. It’s the little things like that that make up a good portion of our lives and we should appreciate them rather than rush through them or ignore them all together. 
I would love to be doing this study along side of you.  We had a fire in November and lost a great deal.  Our house was not harmed and most of the summer kitchen was okay but smoked.  We were fortunate and blessed.  I have a custom clothesline that was in there.  I just cut the lines and saved the frame.  Had to scrub so many things.  Then we moved.  It was about 6 - 8 weeks ago now that I got my clothes line out of storage and got it restrung with new line.  I told Hubby I was never so glad to hang laundry.  It’s something normal for me and I (we) needed some normal.  
So again the little routines and tasks that make up our “normal” are precious to me.  Thank you for this post.  

Lana D, you are the first person outside of my family to mention that they eat the potato, bread, and egg skillet meal. I remember well my grandma making it. We loved it!

Grandma Donna Wrote,

Lady L, you have been through so much with the fire and then the move.  It is not easy to move away and restart again.  You are in my thoughts and prayers while you get your new rhythm and routine and that sense of normal again. Will you be able to go back there again or is this a whole new change?  Love to you as I understand the scrubbing of the soot and smoke.  Big Hugs, Donna

Kimberly F, I am happy that you are feeling better and slowly getting your strength and possibly getting your rhythm back.  I hope that you can get the treadle machines running and what a wonderful project to have.  I wish I could hear the sounds of the pedals and soft clicking of the machine as it sews. They all will have their own sound and character. 

Linda T, and the others missing bees, I do wonder what has happened to our bees. 

Stephanie G, Thank you about the wallpaper on the cabinet. I can imagine you walking around your house in the dark as I do with you solar light.  Something feels right about it. :) I am happy to read that you are doing well with the envelope system and trying new old meals that the family enjoys!  You are making many changes through the study and as you seems like we are picking up from where we left off the other study as well. :)

Pam S, I am happy to read that you have tried Clara's fish and you actually found some, not I want to try. :).

Lana D, your meal of a spoon of mashed potatoes, slice of torn bread and and egg or two scrambled sounds like a depression meal to me.  My grandparents would eat some of the same food that they ate during the great depression and I have always wondered if those that continue those meals find strength in eating those foods.  I want to think that they did.

Karen S, yes, the sausage would be good in place of the hotdogs, as Clara mentioned that it was a meal that they enjoyed and possibly another meal to remember as when they pulled together and made it though the difficult time. 

Katie P, I will look into the book of Michael Pollan.  A good thought to remember about thinking of the food sold in the store, would our grandparents recognize this food?  I find I keep going back to my Grandparents generation since they lived into their nineties and were very healthy up to their last couple of years.  They always seemed so resilient and I have always wanted to emulate the way they lived. I remember so clearly of their meals as my grandmother had a broth simmering.  The nourishment is in the broth I was taught and so as she did, put the small amounts of whatever is available in the garden in the pot so the nourishment goes into the broth.  I have noticed that often people throw what is left in the bottom of the pot yet, there is the nutrition. That is when you sop up that broth with the torn bread as my family would do and Lana D's family possibly would have done. 

Tea S, I looked into yard sales during the great depression and did find that they had Goodwill and Rummage sales.  The stores had rummage sales but then there were the (yard sale) rummage sales because they had their home locations of the sale in the classified.  So they did have them during this time. :)  Now this has made me go to one this weekend and because some of my family members have been going to yard sells lately. 

Stephanie G.-  I have often considered the old way of eating vs, the new and *healthy* way.  Growing up in a Hispanic home, homemade flour tortillas with lard were on the table for every meal.  So were beans and a red chili sauce.  My grandpa thought ground beef was dog food!  We mostly ate lean pork. My grandma also made roast and ground or shredded it.  But there was nobody with heart disease, nobody was fat, etc.  My grandma also firmly believed all meals must end on a sweet note.  That might mean we shared an apple, had a bit of jam on a piece of tortilla, or a piece of salt water taffy.  When she made Spanish rice, she always made extra white rice so we could have it with a little sugar and milk the next morning for breakfast.  I don't remember cookbooks as a regular thing -  just simple meals that were always delicious and filling.

Creamed tuna has always been a favorite of mine.  My mom kept a can of tuna and milk hidden for when the cupboard was bare haha.  I didn't see it as deprivation at all.

About rummage sales...I think the church rummage sales are the best, by far.  Especially the Methodist churches around here!!  It seems that people are very generous with their church and the quality of stuff is so much better than Goodwill.  And priced to go.  I've found beautiful vintage embroidered pillow cases that look brand new.  I found one of those metal refreshment carts for only $10. I eBayed it and saw the cheapest one selling was $50 and it was rusted and scratched in places.  Mine is perfect.  I bought 2 oil lamps for $1 each.  My current end table was $3 and 2 beautiful white valance curtains for $1.  I recommend it!!

Debby B -- That sounds delicious! And what an interesting perspective that your Grandpa thought ground beef was dog food! It's certainly a lesser quality of meat than lean pork. That's something to think about. I like how your Grandma ended meals with something sweet. I often crave something sweet at the end of a meal and thought that was wrong of me. Now that I'm making jam, in fact raspberry jam today, I like the idea of a little bit of jam on a tortilla to end a meal. Thank you for sharing that. 

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Tonight I'm making cabbage and noodles. I planted a variety of cabbage called Pixie that's supposed to make softball-sized little cabbages. It didn't. It made regular large cabbages, and now I have so much cabbage! On the weekend I'm making a casserole of deconstructed cabbage rolls with ground beef, rice, seasoned tomato sauce, and cabbage. I'm sure it would be nicer with Debbie B's Grandma's shredded roast. :) 

In the garden the peas are winding down, the lettuce and spinach are gone, but the beets are almost ready and I've got two artichokes so far on my artichoke plant. The raspberries are full on and the gooseberries are almost ready except that we have very few of those because a cold snap got most of the blossoms. All of the berries that we don't eat fresh are getting turned into jam this year. 

I have a small DIY home decorating project coming up that I'm looking forward to, and the cord on my living room blinds broke last night, so I have another unexpected project after that! One thing I was impressed with that I learned in the 2023 Depression study was how much home decorating was DIY during that time. 

What a nice comforting post! Thanks so much for sharing them with us. Thanks also for everyone's comments, I always learn something new. I also made Clara's Poor Mans dinner after watching her videos a few years ago. I loved it. She was such a sweet soul.

This year I'm growing Japanese Cucumbers and Zucchini together with some tomatoes. I have my first Zucchini to harvest today and I'm thrilled. First time growing more than tomatoes. :) My persimmon tree is full of little green persimmons too. Last year it gave me 12 but this year there will be around 30. It's a small tree so I'm very proud of its progress. And the little fig tree we planted last year has a few figs on it, so we are one step closer to living more like the past.

Today is my Birthday and I made Black Forest Triffle, which my husband loves! Better than any store bought cake. We'll be attending a music event this evening at a Historic Mansion that the City owns and they do all kinds of wonderful free things there. 3 Thursday evenings a month I go and watch Classic movies there that are also free and fits in beautifully with my vintage lifestyle. 

Another thing I did today is sign up at a Thrift Store ,that uses most of their profits to help the community with providing free medical equipment, meals of the homeless, etc., as a Puzzle builder volunteer. They get many puzzle donations but they need to be checked first to see if all the pieces are there. I love building puzzles, but my house is small and so I don't want to buy puzzles because then I need to find room to store them, and there is the extra expense of spending money to buy them. This way, I can help as a volunteer and enjoy building puzzles at home! 

Living like the past can be enjoyable,  fulfilling and creative :) 

Grandma Donna wrote,  Happy Birthday Tandi!  I am probably not the only one wishing we were there to taste that Black Forest Triffle.  I hope you have a wonderful evening.  :)

GDonna, you asked if, when we did one thing differently, did that make us want to do another, and my answer is yes.  As soon as I make one change, I start thinking about the next change that wouldn't cost a lot and would simplify my life.  

I hang my laundry on a large wooden rack inside when I don't want to hang it outside for various reasons.  My family got used to laundry hanging inside, and I generally find it hanging on the big wooden rack each of my grown kids has when I go to their house.  I like to hang laundry.

I haven't made one of Clara's recipes yet, but it's on my list to do. 

Debby B, we also ate rice with milk and sugar for breakfast, which was an inexpensive breakfast, and I still eat it at times.  I'm glad to see someone else who eats it, as most people I know seem to think it's really a weird thing to eat.  Yet they eat rice pudding!

What should we eat?  That is an interesting question.  I've seen us go the "eggs, no eggs, no butter, butter, no-fat, low-fat, lots of fat, no sugar, no artificial sweetener, natural sugars only, no solid fats, no oils, only solid fats, no nightshade produce, lots of nightshade produce, no coconut oil, lots of coconut oil, lots of grains, low to no grains"... routes. I get this feeling the research on this has been haphazard and perhaps influenced by parties which stand to gain by their products being boosted as healthy.  My daughter and I were perusing a vintage cookbook, ca. 1940s or 50's, and she said one of the latest things in her age group was cooking meals out of old cookbooks, which have less processed ingredients in the recipes and simpler meals, back when obesity was a rare problem.  Then she added that one person online said they had researched the older recipes and found the biggest difference in the way we used to eat compared to how we eat now was... we used to eat less.  Make of all that what you will. I agree with others that I'm tired of the almost constantly suggested changes in our diets.

We still have bees here, but it is concerning that you aren't seeing bees!  Would your County Extension Agent have any information on that?  What about bumblebees, hover and green flies, wasps,  and other pollinators?  Have you seen a reduction in them as well?  That's not a good thing to have to hand pollinate.  That shouldn't be needed.

Thanks for the post.  I need the reminders to simplify and think back in time, even just as far back as my own childhood, when we lived with a lot less stuff. 

I wondered what health advice was being offered in the 1930s. I asked Chat GPT, and it referenced a book, YOUR HEALTH IN YOUR HANDS!
Practical Advice from the Family Doctor – 1937 Edition
By Dr. Albert J. Whitmore, M.D.

It showed they valued fresh air and sunshine, especially for babies. They used to put babies in cages outside their apartment windows. It seems the health advice was good and practical, and much of it is still beneficial today, except for putting your baby in a cage. Something that wasn't mentioned was going barefoot outside. Even in the 1960s, for the most part, we didn't wear shoes in the summer. My mom gave us each a pair of thong sandals each summer, but I rarely wore them. I think going barefoot was probably a lot more prevalent in the 1930s, since there would have been little money to spend on shoes. So now, if I am going outside, I go barefoot if I can. There are supposed to be many health benefits to going barefoot. They call it earthing or grounding now, in case anyone wants to look it up. Since I have been going out more and getting more sun on my psoriasis, it is helping a lot, also. Since the average weight of a woman in 1932 who was 5' 3" tall was 120 - 130 pounds, I am working on that too. I am finding a lot of benefits from this study. It is giving me an impetus to do more to improve my health.

A change I made recently was that I got a wringer washing machine. It is 70 years old and it still works fine. When my old machine died and I spent $170 finding out it wasn't worth fixing, I decided to go back to something more reliable. Amazingly, a modern washer will only last about 4 or 5 years before it needs to be replaced or repaired, while the old ones are still running 70 years later.

I am enjoying this study and reading all of the oe comments about what others are doing.

When using your solar lights put a mirror behind it to reflect the light.  During a power outage, I put a single candle in the bathroom and with all the mirrors it lit the room.

My parents would often eat bread torn into chunks with sugar and milk for a quick meal.  I personally hate soggy bread and do not even care for French toast.  Rice with raisins or oatmeal with raisins was for breakfast.  Boxed cereals were not on the table until I was in high school and dad was making more money, but even then, seldom.  Hamburger gravy over bread, rice or potatoes was often a main course.  One grandmother almost always fried pork and made a thick milk gravy served over bread.  Macaroni was a mainstay along with potatoes more often than rice for my mom's cooking.  

I recall rummage sales once a year but no thrift shops.  I lived in a small rural community in Southern Iowa growing up and hand-me-downs were more the theme.  My mom once commented that she and two other mothers shared sewing patterns.  I would have a plaid dress with a plain yoke and my sister would have a plain dress with a plaid yoke.  My friends' dresses would be so completely different that I never realized they were from the same pattern.  

My mom sewed on her grandmother's Minnesota treadle machine until well into the 1960s and I learned to sew on that machine.  In home ec class we had maybe 15 girls and three electric and one treadle.  I used the treadle and finished quickly because no one wanted to share.  I sewed on a Singer treadle until 1966 when dh gave me a Kenmore electric machine for Christmas.  That's about the same time I got an automatic washer and dryer.  Before that I washed by hand or used the laundromat or a wringer washer.  Come to think about it, my dh bought me a Maytag wringer washer at an auction for $20 and to this day I would say that is the most appreciated gift of my life.  

Almost all of my pots and pans were from trading stamps (remember those?) or estate auctions.  I have mostly Revere Ware and the older it is the thicker the metal.  My canning equipment is mostly from estate auctions.  

Today we are fortunate to have thrift stores everywhere and I buy whenever I find a new or near new garments because if the country goes into a recession or depression, people will not be donating like they do today.   I don't care about style and quite honestly do not know what is currently in or out of style and care less.  Quality garments at thrift store prices will last me the rest of my life.  Last week my dd found a pair of $150 like new shoes for $10 at a thrift store as well as several pairs of brand name jeans for $6.

As to the question if making one change is then leading to other changes, I would say yes!  I decided I didn’t want us to do errands after dinner, because that would have been less likely in 1932 as stores might not have stayed open so late.  That change helped make the change to an earlier bedtime and earlier waking time possible.  The early waking time is giving me more hours in my day before dinner time, after which we typically relax, so overall I have more productive hours.

I’ve had a hard time setting a solid weekly rhythm, but with the increase in daylight and warmer weather I’ve been able to do my laundry just once a week, on Thursdays.  I’ve set my grocery day to my son’s day off as he likes to go with me.  And I am finally settling into a baking day and once that got back in place I added in the change of baking potatoes for our meal, as the oven would be on anyway.  Yesterday I baked a crustless buttermilk pie (delicious!), the potatoes for our supper, and bacon.  I didn’t need to bake bread yet.  Each week I hope to add a bit more to my baking day.  Tomorrow will be a bonus baking morning as I plan to bake brownies for a family birthday, and since the oven will be on I will also bake biscuits trying Grandma Donna’s hand formedmethod, which is new to me, a quiche for lunch, and perhaps another buttermilk pie.  I’ll also bake the last 3 potatoes in foil so I can use them later in another quick meal.

I’ve noticed a decline in both bees and butterflies. I grow foxglove and today I saw two bees on the plants. I hope to see more. 

oops!  I forgot to say the potato, onion and hot dog dish sounds good. I’m going to try it next week. It will be a good thing for hubby’s lunch 

It seems meals were simpler back then and the grand meal if there was one was saved for a special occasion like a holiday or birthday. Nowadays every meal is a feast especially if you go to a restaurant or get food to-go. Even simple meals at fast casual places aren't really that simple. So many choices for a bowl, salad or a burrito!

Someone mentioned that people just ate less. One doctor I read recently said variety in meals causes people to overeat. So I'm thinking that back then you didn't overeat even if you had plenty of food because you ate the same stuff all the time. The point at which you are satiated occurs with less food when the food's not a novelty.

I bought 2 solar lightbulbs like yours. I have one in the kitchen that stays there hanging by the sink. The other  one I was using in the living room and then used it as a flashlight to go to bed. I’ve only had them for a few days and now I can’t find the one I was using as a portable light! Obviously, when I do find it I will leave it in one place after that. 

Our electric company increases the rate from 3pm to 7pm on weekdays from May to October. So I do anything that requires electricity in the mornings. After 3 I use as little as possible. I cook my dinner early and have a sandwich later or something that just needs a quick warmup

margaret p.  My husband and I have talked about this a lot.  At least for us, even though we were children in the 1970s and 1980s, we were both poor, and birthdays and holidays were highlights because of the food.  Cakes were for birthdays, even if they were made with a cheap on-sale box mix and canned frosting.  Birthday meals, however, were very frugal because our parents had to feed more people.  The big holidays — Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas — were true feasts.  Only on those holidays did we see a turkey or a ham (roast beef was still too expensive for us to serve to a large group of people), and the array of side dishes was awe inspiring in a child.  In my family, we would have cheap, tough steak once a year in summer, on the grill.  We had an inexpensive rump roast of beef a couple of times a year.

My current Corelle dishes are the same size as the Corelle I grew up with.  The difference is how much food ends up on those plates.  Growing up we didn’t have leftovers, the dinner meal was made and shared between the 6 of us based on age and gender.  This also means no one was going back for seconds.  For us, a bowl of cereal was the basic Corelle 18 ounce cereal bowl, and it wasn’t full to the top.  My own family members use Corelle 28 ounce soup bowls, and they do fill them up.  A quarter pound hamburger was a really large burger, now that is more likely to be 1/3 or even 1/2 pound, at a restaurant.  Even at McDonald’s, what was the largest size soda when I was a child is now the smallest size, and there were no refills.

I just finished reading the book Ultra Processed People, and there is compelling research and evidence that show we eat more calories because of the food chemical ingredients that create ultra processed food.  Other more basic census data show that Americans were eating an average of 23% more calories in 2010 as compared to 1970.  We are eating far more grain products and fats and oils than we used to (despite people thinking we are eating less fat).  We are eating more chicken and less beef.  We are eating more sugar and sweeteners (but not a huge amount more) — but the big difference is eating less cane and beet sugar and more corn sweeteners (probably HFCS as the main driver here).  We drink less milk but eat more cheese.  We eat fewer potatoes and more rice.  But I think the main change overall is the amount of ultra processed food we eat, including food away from home.

Grandma Donna Wrote, 

Terry C, I understand loosing the solar bulb, I have formed better habits now. :)  Thank you for bringing up the Peak electric rates, Charles and I did not even know we had them here where we live because we did not have them before.  So I checked and we do have them now.  Thank you for bringing this up and I urge everyone to check to see if your Electric service has peak hours.  As much study as we have done on KWH's and usage we still did not know this and if we did see that we forgot it.  We will be changing everything we can on when we use appliances and get a switch put on our hot water heater as well.  Ours is three times higher during peak hours!  Again Thank you Terry. 

Firstly may I please ask those who feel led to pray for my son whom I'm flying home from Australia today to receive medical care. That there will be no issues at the airport . He can walk on and off the plane.To put it in a nutshell he has a condition that he was told a "new" vaccination would halt the gene that's causing it. He was then given a chemo medication when he doesn't have cancer. Since that medication he's been able to keep fluids up but minimal food intake.  His tummy looks like he's having twins and recently the skin layer peeled off his feet right down to flesh. He's stayed in Australia because of his children. The prayer is not only for healing but mostly for him to be accepted as a patient of my Dr . I'm wanting to give him my appt for Tuesday ( NZ time) so need the paperwork to be processed with no problems on Monday. He is a NZ citizen, has worked and paid taxes here and has a medical health number.

I thank you in advance and am resting in the Lord. He is THE Great Physician. He is the Healer. In Him do I trust.

I will not walk in fear. We lost a son in 2014 due to the hospital making a mistake in his care after a freak farming accident.

Karen NZ

Glad I was of help! I found my lightbulb, hanging inside a different lamp, I just didn’t see it lol

Karen NZ, Charles and I will pray for your son, the plane trip, and also for you.  Donna

I really appreciate that. Thank you very much both you and Charles, Donna .

The solar lights make the room look very calm. My worry would be the risk of tripping, especially with pets, because there are shadowed areas at floor level. We fall very heavily as we get older. 

When we were young we had cubes of bread in a bowl of hot milk, with a sprinkle of sugar and a knob of butter. The price of bread was controlled, and it was a cheap and easy, traditional breakfast, very comforting when we were poorly.  The other staple was porridge oats, cooked in water, which I still have most days. These were much more filling than expensive boxes of cereals. 

In September 1893, Beatrix Potter wrote an illustrated letter to Noel Moore, the five-year-old son of her friend and former governess, Annie Moore. Noel was recovering from a bout of scarlet fever so Potter amused him with a story based upon her real pet rabbit, Peter Piper. In December, 1901 she published her first book, with her black and white illustrations, The Tale of Peter Rabbit 

The good little bunnies, Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail had bread and milk and blackberries for supper

Thank you Terry C for bringing it up and Grandma Donna for suggesting everyone check their peak hours! Our peak hours have been from 6am to 10pm daily. I've been getting up earlier lately, and it's been hard to use the electricity at night because I want to go to bed. But I checked today and found out that there is a plan for a limited number of customers of peak hours between 2pm and 7pm, and a lower rate overall, and my husband called and got us on it! 

The information everyone has been sharing about food has been fascinating. I held out my thumb and finger next to our plates like Grandma Donna did with her railway plates, and mine are much bigger even though they are considered small dinner plates. I decided to count calories to make sure my portions are right.

Karen S, that's a number of hoops to jump through but the way can be made smooth. I'll keep you in mind this weekend. :)

Karen S., prayers have been offered of your son — I hope it goes well.

So far we’ve declined every attempt to put us on a time of use plan for our electricity, which is what creates peak and off peak rates.  Because I am home all day these plans don’t work in my favor.  Eventually we will be forced to change, but not yet.  Most homes who don’t have a person home during the day do better with the TOU plans.

This is the last summer that the electric utility will give us a credit for using less electricity on certain high demands days.  Some years that has been worth as much as $20 per month.

I should probably mention that I live in southeast Michigan, just outside Detroit. Our peak hour electric rates are 3pm - 7pm, which is the hottest time of day in summer. I don’t use a clothes dryer, dishwasher, or electric stove, so the air conditioner is my biggest electricity use. I do have a dehumidifier in the basement that I only use on the most humid days. It’s just me now so I plan on shutting off some rooms on the hottest days. We are getting smoke from Canadian wildfires so I have the windows closed and running 2 air cleaners because I have asthma. It hasn’t been hot yet. I’m lucky, it’s easy for an old single lady to cut down electric use that time of day.  It must be hard for young families. That’s the time of day kids get out of school, families are making dinner, etc

Trying an old-fashioned meal tonight, sauerkraut, sausage, potatoes and carrots baked together in the oven.  Potatoes are diced, carrots sliced, and sausage sliced.  Although my ingredients all came from the grocery store, this would have been a pantry meal in 1933 with sauerkraut made with homegrown cabbage last fall and potatoes and carrots stored in the cave or fresh from the garden.  Sausage also would likely have been homemade during fall butchering.

Karen S-I've added your prayer request to my daily prayers 

I am in Southern Indiana and am on our TOU plan with the electric company. Our peak hours are from 3pm-9pm July - September, not including weekends or holidays, which is nice. I am at home all day with kids. I usually will start a load in the morning and try to get whatever we are going to have for dinner done. Thankfully in the summer it’s nice to eat cold dinners. We do a lot of salads with veggies from the garden and beans or chicken on top in the summer. Keeping the blinds closed on the side of the house where the sun hits helps it stay cooler inside. Going on the TOU has definitely helped us save money. 

Love reading all the posts! 

Praying for your son, Karen S. 

One of my most used and most often referenced cookbooks is called The Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook.  Originally published about 1910 it has been in print for over 110 years!  I found my first copy on my mother's cookbook shelf where it sat unused.  I asked if I might have it when I married.  That copy was printed in 1959.  Illustrations were updated but recipes are still the same as they were in the early 1900's.  I've made so many recipes from that book and they are delicious!  A few I have now been making for 45 years! They are still favorites of my families.

For years now we have eaten largely unprocessed foods.  I did it long before it was popular because it was so affordable.  I fed my kids leftover rice warmed with milk and raisins for breakfast because that's what we had.  I figured it was filling and would fill a hungry tummy.  I also made milk toast for my infants.  

Recently we had a very simple supper.  It was what we called scrambled hamburger.  It's nothing more than browned ground beef, a bit of onion and some ketchup.  It was so good!  We ate that often as children for lunches at my Granny's house.  And the more familiar Hamburger Gravy over toast was a frequent meal in our home growing up as well.

Granny grew up on a farm and while she's mentioned struggle meals growing up, it was my grandmother whom I watched.  Grandmother's father abandoned the family.  Her mother went to work in the meal and Grandmother took care of the family.  She was the oldest.  So by age twelve it was she who was making dresses and shirts, cleaning house and preparing meals.  She foraged for foods such as polk weed and dandelion.  I never saw her throw a single bit of food away.  If there were only a teaspoon of something left, she would absolutely put it on the table again and again and again until someone finally caved and ate it.  She often stretched ground beef with leftover mashed potatoes.

Something that both my grandmothers did (and their mom as well) was turning off the hot water heater until someone wanted a bath or they were ready to do dishes or wash.  They manually turned them on and off again.  They allowed about 20 or 30 minutes to warm it fully and then dishes were done, baths were taken.  Both would heat water on the stove to wash dishes in the early part of the day.  

I am enjoying hearing all that is being shared.  I have had a lot to think about thanks to you all and I am inspired to change things, perhaps not drastically as some of you but definitely have been making changes. 

I have found that turning off the water heater did not save money due to the cost of reheating the water.  I have a gas water heater so it may be different with electric.  I've also found it costs the same or less to keep the thermostat at the same temp 24/7 -- 68 degrees in the winter with gas heat and 80 degrees for the a/c.  I seldom run the a/c unless it's 80 degrees with 76 or above humidity. 

KarenS

Heavenly Father, 

I lift up KarenS' son, Father you know him, as you knit him together in his mothers womb. There is nothing hidden from you. I ask for Your healing touch for him. I ask that you open a door for him to see the doctors this coming week. And that you give the doctors the wisdom to find a cure/ solution. Open their eyes, and mind to see and know what the need is. And I ask that you give his mom Your peace, the peace that surpasses all understanding knowing that you have her son in the palm of your hand.

I ask this in your son Jesus' name, and thank you in advance for healing.

Thank you dear ladies for your prayers. God is already working. I'm sure the Lord carried him through the airports as the psoriasis on his feet is so bad he can hardly walk.

When he got home I made him some custard that he could eat. He then slept ALL night in my bed that we set up for him in our second lounge. He had been sleeping in a chair for weeks.

He ate porridge for breakfast. Said he could taste it so the prayers for God to remove the toxins from that chemo tablet is being answered. All praise to Him.

It is a relief he is here and we no longer have him living in another country while unwell.

Bless you all.

Karen NZ

That's wonderful news!!

I've been interested in all the recipes talked about here.  This morning I tried out one.  I had some mashed potatoes from last night's meal and so made the egg with mashed potatoes, and bread.  Not bad at all.  I did add some cheese which I guess was cheating a little.  Very filling and it certainly does make one egg go much father than otherwise.

Karen S, I am praying for your son and your family as it affects everyone. 

I am loving my solar lightbulbs, took one with its charger on our houseboat vacation and the grands loved it, using it to take to the bathroom and in their little bedrooms.  I just used one in the kitchen as it has become overcast again and I have a dark area on my counters. I was making and canning strawberry jam. I needed to see better, and it did the trick.

We received a lot of rain while we were gone, and it was much needed. My garden looks awesome! I am so hoping everything produces abundantly as we want to can and process all we can get.  I was able to get 4 overfull quarts of homegrown strawberries on the mark down rack at our local fruit/veg market and made 2 batches of jam and put 1 quart size bag in the freezer. I hope to find more and will make jam as needed. I will freeze the proper amount for 1recipe and then remove and make jam as needed/requested. I already know I will be asked to make biscuits LOL.

I am hoping to get some plums off the reduced rack at some point so I can make some plum preserves. 

I have already been offered concord grapes when they are ready and family has requested grape juice and jelly. Thankfully we have a lot of family and friends that share and offer. 

Speaking on the bee situation, we keep bees and for some reason they have swarmed several times this year. Luckily we have caught the swarms and re-hived them. 

I think the farmers and their spraying has caused a lot of problems along with the farmers cutting back undergrowth and farming clear up to the roads. They are stealing the habitat for the bees and other pollinators, along with destroying the wild blackberries and raspberries. We used to be able to pick berries by the gallon along the road. Now they are all gone as is the bittersweet. I think it is almost criminal that they do this but that is just my opinion.

Since doing this study my life is so much quieter and calmer, I am loving it.

Hi, everyone.  I bought a pair of solar bulbs from Amazon.  I was prepared to love them but there are a couple of issues I'm having in the  with them.  First one is they are showing drops of moisture inside the bulb part.  I live in a dry, fairly warm area so I don't know where the moisture is coming from and also, they are not very bright (because of the moisture?) and they do not hold a charge very long.  Is anyone else having problems like these with their solar bulbs?  Should I return them or?

Jackie in CO

Weaverbird  I am not having any problems with mine. Perhaps you got a damaged set of bulbs?