This Friday, March 20th will be the first day of Spring here in the U.S. Our first Rose has bloomed and there are signs of spring with little surprises everywhere.
Albert is molting so we had to untangle him from the oregano planter and he will need a little cosmetic repair and that will make him feel better.
We brought Albert inside so that his molting spray would dry and Carlie has kept a close eye on him for four days now to make sure he doesn't get out of his grocery store box. Albert is scheduled for some cosmetic surgery in the next couple of days and then he can return to the garden to resume guard duty.
We are following along month by month and day by day synced to same day it actually was in 1942.
For our 1942 history study we take a look at what life would have looked like on the home front when family members were going off to war, rationing was starting and people could not purchase some of the regular items that they would normally be able purchase such as for a new tire when they had a blow out a typewriter and other metal items because they were rationed due to being made of metal. Rubber and metal were needed for the war.
Canned dog food was discontinued in the U.S. shortly after the country entered ww2. The war production restricted tin and metal for non essential goods. Each month there were changes and normal routines started becoming interrupted as household members were going off to war and women were asked to fill positions or volunteer to help the war effort all the while they were taking on the responsibilities of the family members that had left.
Europe had started much earlier with their rationing than the U.S. due to the war starting earlier there.
One thing that started right away was gardening. Everyone was encouraged to start a war garden. Any spot you had small or large to plant vegetables.
We warmed up last week and my seedlings , starts and a few nursery plants I have been babying along to keep them alive until I can set them out. They are hardened off now but we had another cold snap and too cold for Tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini so they come in for the night or when the temps are too low and go back out when it warms up.
I must stay on top of my war garden. I wish our generations before us were here to learn garden tips, but they are not so we learn from experience and books.
I am very happy with the English Lavender that I started by seed last November. At first I did not think they would germinate but given some time and prayer, they emerged and have been growing all winter. The larger lavender plant in the garden is attracting the bumble bees at this time. I am happy about that because we need those bees to pollinate our vegetables.
We have quite a few herbs in our garden. For us our most important is our oregano, and thyme as the first sign of a possible cold I make some oregano tea to shoo it away.
Now when we go out to the doctors or grocery store, we come back home and have a cup of oregano tea just in case we picked up something as flu has been very bad this year. Two weeks ago I went for a check up and was told to be careful getting around people. The nurse told me that 9 of their staff had been out and they could barely run the clinic. I suggest that you find a good herb book or good teaching video and learn about herbs, never know when they will be helpful.
Make sure you learn all you can and check with your doctor if you are taking medications to see if there are any contraindications herb verses medication. Herbs do play and important part in our garden.
So what are we to do? What if rationing happens again? It happened back then and it sure can happen again. Well, my suggestion is to learn from history what our generations before us did to get through these difficult times.
We can get a good idea of the things that were rationed by studying ww1 and ww2. However, what we cannot find much information about is shortages. There were shortages of many items during ww2. When food rationing started and they all got their ration stamps, often the store did not have what one needed even with their ration stamp. This is why it was so necessary to have a war garden and a pantry. When we keep a pantry we need it to be a sensible pantry stock. Our pantry was made from a utility closet. If there is a closet in the house that one could spare, shelves could be put in the closet to make a pantry.
Because Charles and I love history and have studied history we enjoy living like the year we study and over the years that has turned our home into the many years we have studied. A long time ago we learned the importance of keeping a pantry, a sensible pantry. We do not need to store food that we never eat. We need to eat the food that we store. If we have made a mistake in judgement and we have something that we do not use up before it expires, we take it to the food bank before it does expire. This has taught us to plan more wisely. Also keep on hand food items that adds flavor to food so simple or bland items can taste better.
I learned to make tortillas a long time ago. I do not buy store bought because they are simple to make with few ingredients. Flour, a tad of salt, butter and warm water. If you cannot get butter you can use lard or oil. You also can make a tortilla with no fat, just flour, salt, baking powder and warm water.
I started looking into recipes to see how to cook if I don't have certain items that go into that recipe.
Sometimes you can use applesauce to replace an egg such as applesauce cake.
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If you make a tortilla you can make many things, simple quesadillas made with most any ingredients, a tortilla makes a good base for a thin pizza, a simple side bread. A dipping bread. Put some beans and cheese inside. A wrap or a taco.
Kale, beans with onions, tortilla.
We can cook most any combination of vegetables and make a nourishing soup.
Blend the vegetables after cooking and we have a nourishing soup ( I use a blender). This was just vegetables and water. I used the vegetable pictured above, which were acorn squash, sweet potato, cabbage, carrot, onion, water and a little salt. I only used part of the acorn squash, 1/4 of a small cabbage, one carrot one sweet potato part of an onion. So I have much left to make more soup or use those in other meals. We use our fresh food when we have it in a way that brings us the best nourishment and stretch that nourishment to feed more people such as we have many family members to feed.
We do not need that many vegetables, I enjoy a simple squash soup. Sometimes we need to use up vegetables before they go bad and soup is a good way to do this.
Clara from great depression cooking kept hotdogs on hand, we can freeze the hotdogs and make Clara's poor mans meal. She added tomato sauce and Pecorino Romano cheese. We made it even more simple with less ingredients and just bake it with potatoes hotdogs and onion. You can add or leave out the food that you do not have or have food sensitivities in any recipe.
About this article "Finding Balance".
Many people are struggling with so much turmoil today. I imagine that during ww2 when people were going through many changes they must have felt the confusion. I do know by studying ww2 that people really struggled with rationing. The rationing changed constantly and it must have been difficult to cook a normal meal. Many in the household were not there anymore leaving the ones left behind to pick up the pieces and take on others jobs.
I like to look at this situation in different way. Our grandsons food allergies have taught me to think differently. He is 21 now and has multiple serious food allergies since his anaphylactic reaction at age two. He is allergic to avocados, certain nuts, peas, tomatoes, rice (the doctor was surprised at this reaction) and other food allergies. So we started looking at what food we have left to work with.
During our study of ww2, learning what they went through we think differently of our rationing and think, what do we have left to work with.
Each spring Charles and I add a perennial to our yard/garden. This year we have added a second turkey fig tree to our yard.
In 1942 People got busy and they dug those gardens, volunteered, or did the extra work needed to be done.
We are in a concerning time today and many people are struggling. What needs to be done is sit down and figure out how do I balance this. How do I get my home and life balanced where I can run a smooth household. If I live alone what do I need to do to not be overwhelmed? A organized home will help this and remove much worry. So not only do we need to start our gardens, we need to organize our home. We need to do that anyway to have a healthy home. We must be the calm in the storm, someone has to.
We start right where we are and we figure out our budget, we figure out a menu that is affordable to us. If we have little money we figure it out and we work with what we have and say, this is what I have to work with, what can I do with this amount. Often that means what can I leave off.
Several of my southern family members would tell me of stories behind some of their meals. One, had 9 children and for supper they would eat syrup, butter and biscuits. Most all of them continue to eat this after they grew up because they had fond memories of their syrup, butter and biscuits. The children would go to bed with a full stomach.
We need to tell these stories because today we live in a time with over consumption and people are used to this. Should things change, they are going to have a really tough time. All we have to do is stop the over consumption now and live a more simple life.
I love to make and to eat noodles. There are so many things you can make when you learn to make noodles. I showed my noodles on my last blog post.
This is time to live smart. We do not need to wait until something bad could happen. It may or may not happen, but I do know that many people are struggling right now and that is something bad that is happening.
I do have one suggestion to help others. Those of us that do garden and start with seeds, we know that often we have more that germinate than we actually need so we thin them out. We can pot the extras in most any kind of container and then share them with others to encourage them to grow a vegetable plant or an herb. Maybe pot up a few of them for someone you know that would like to grow vegetables but just do not know how to start.
Lets talk about it in the forum.
Do you have some family meal stories?
Are you trying to start a pantry?
Are you organizing the pantry you already have to make it practical?
Do you rotate your pantry?
Any tips on these things would be helpful.
Anyone can join us in our forum, we talk about anything but politics and have a group of very respectable people and where we share ideas and learn from one another. You do not have to join to read. It does not cost anything to read or to join.
This year I have encouraged others to do much of the history research themselves so they can learn so much more. I can only share part of what I find in the research and when you research you can find so much more. We are looking to find what our generations before did on the Homefront to get through this time in history.
I would appreciate if people do not put links up due to safety, you can type out in the forum a suggestion to go to for research or something related as long as it is not promoting someone else for monetary gain. I do not monetize my blog, the few ads on my blog pay for my server cost. I am not here to make money but to study history, knowledge, practical ways to live.
Please do not get your feelings hurt if I do not respond to everyone in the forum. I read every comment but there is not room in the forum for me to respond to everything and many times I do not respond to so that there is room for you all to respond to the comments. I really enjoy your comments and we are learning from each other.
We each have our life experiences, I only have the knowledge of what I have experienced or researched. When we combine our life experiences and knowledge we have so much to add to this blog/forum. The fact that in our blog forum we are from all over the world we get a much bigger perspective to solve many questions and share much more knowledge and skills.
The people are not at war with one another, just those in control of the people.
My forum is a place where we can come to be respectable and actually learn from one another. If you ever see something inappropriate please contact me it would be much appreciated.
Starting Friday, (tomorrow here) I will start spring cleaning. If you want to clean with me, start taking pictures of what you cleaned or at least take notes to tell about what you cleaned. If you are in a country where you are in Autumn and you haven't done your autumn cleaning then this would be a good time to do it before you get into winter.
Then the next post that I write we can share what we did for our spring/autumn cleaning.
This will be a good time to start to finding our balance. Grandma Donna
Here is the link to the applesauce cake. https://gdonna.com/cooking-from-scratch/applesauce-cake/
