So its very interesting that so many of the programs were aimed at the wives that stayed at home..
Wow, did the ladies of the day step up.. they left their homes and went to work full time as workers in t he factories, they ran the farms, they left school and joined the Womens Farmettes working as unpaid labour on the farms, they learned a whole new language of the time in terms of cooking and feeding their families, and they were still expected to have their hair done, and makeup on, raise the children, and keep the house..
I can only imagine just how stressed they were, their loved ones, be it husbands, brothers, and sons or grandsons where miles away fighting in a war that came on the heels of the great depression and a world war before that..
Life as they knew it was hard! and then came another war, more hardship, more worry and loss, and yet its clear that they stepped up! O did they step up.. The land army produced for by both home and overseas, the farmettes helped feed this country, and the victory gardens where hard work, they figured out how to make the rations work for them..
Now, I know that this does not sound nice but most poor in many ways were in fact better off during the rationing time then they had been in the great depression, there was now caps on rents, on basics like gas and so much more and then there were the ration books that each family was to get…
This meant that everyone had the ability to get a basic of food for their family, while at the same time work for the women was plentiful, if you want to get a idea of how poorly the basic folks where doing, before these measures where brought in.. 60 percent of all young Canadian men where failing the requirements to be able to go to war..
granted it was in some cases poor mans food at the time, including food that we consider healthy today and they considered animal fodder at the time, including beets, carrots, turnips, cabbage
Yes, it was low fat, low sugar and leaner meat but least face it, really is two pounds of meat per week per adult really that little meat, I would say that there are lot of folks and families out there that already limit their own families to around the same amount, stretching it out with all kinds of things..
Bread was not rationed during the war but it was afterwards..
But veggies and some fruits where very plentiful indeed, but there was a great lack of knowledge in the general public in regards to foraging, I thought that odd until it was pointed out to me that most of the folks who settled just did not have the knowledge.
My great-grandfather was a tailor, it must have been so hard, to have come from the city to a farm in the wild west, he made fine gentlemans suits, what the heck did he know about growing food, or looking after animals..
Thankfully not all settlers where so challenged, a goodly number did come from farming backgrounds but many of those would have been tenants and would have very limited forage or hunting rights if any at all.
This was not handed down knowledge and they had no google, no books that are easy to get, no clinics offered by local gardening or forage groups..
They made due.. o yes they did..
Which brings me to a few of the replacements for Coffee or Tea
It’s time to learn how to make Barley tea. Let’s put the kettle on.
Roasting the grain:
You can buy roasted barley at a local Asian market. Otherwise, when making this tea from scratch, you must roast barley in the oven or in a skillet, until as the grains become brown (traditionally, a deep dark brown).
Later, you can easily grind roasted barley by using a pepper grinder.
Watch out for the freshness of barley grain, as it can turn rancid if you leave an open bag too long in the pantry. Don’t be afraid to get creative as it goes well with all types of food!
It takes more time to prepare it this way than using a regular tea bag, but tastes better and makes a fine iced tea when steeped for a few minutes.
Brewing your tea:
Tip: make sure you use filtered water as it makes a difference in taste.
Or
Parsnip Postum Coffee
Here’s all you do to duplicate Marjorie’s recipe: Cut a batch of fresh parsnip roots (skins and all) into very small pieces, or grate the roots as you would hash brown potatoes. Dehydrate the bits well, then roast ’em in a 400 degrees Fahrenheit oven until they’re a very dark brown (about 20 minutes). Turn the oven off and allow the crunchy morsels to cool as the oven itself cools.
Then get out your favorite mug, steep the parsnip chunks in scalding-hot water (one rounded tablespoonful per cup), and presto! You’ve got a Java substitute that — in Mrs. Meschke’s own words — “is better than coffee . . . with no bitterness!”
Or the one I knew growing up..
Dandelion Coffee
Susanna Moodie explained how to prepare dandelion coffee in her memoir of living in Canada, Roughing it in the bush[1] (1852), where she mentions that she had heard of it from an article published in the 1830s in New York Albion by a certain Dr. Harrison.
Clearly its been around for a long time indeed in Canada
After harvesting, the dandelion roots are dried, chopped, and roasted. They are then ground into granules which are steeped in boiling water to produce dandelion coffee
Now after digging and digging it really would appear that the most common and popular teas that replaced regular tea was mint..
All kinds of lovely flavoured mints where grown in the gardens and dried and saved to create mint tea.. Borage and Nettles were also common, as was Elder flower tea, so was current tea.. Pretty much if you could grow it, it had a flavour you liked, it could be dried and saved, it was up for grabs on the tea front.
Meatless Tuesdays were a big thing.. and soon enough Meatless Friday would arrive as well.. its interesting to see that we had a meatless day become something that the government asked everyone to do, clearly they could only truly enforce them in the public but from my reading many folks did in fact follow along in the private as well.
As the slogan of the Food Rules reminded Canadians, the goal was straightforward: “Eat right, feel right – Canada needs you strong!”
I am doing a Meatless dish for breakfast and lunch but we are having a pork stew for supper..
Each Tuesday will feature a very important veggie..
Todays is Turnip as its called in Canada, by which I mean the nice big yellow storage one, it would be called Neeps in England. While it was somewhat common food in Canada at the time, it was certainly not known like we would today.. I think most of us have had mashed turnips served at a bigger meal with butter and brown sugar added.
Back in the day it would appear that it was both a farm animal feed but also that it was considered a very poor persons food. They had their work cut out for them..
Things like Carrots, Cabbage, Beets and Turnips.. This was Animal fodder food.. you feed your sheep and cows those roots, you did not eat them..
And eating the green tops.. snort.. there is a reason that they needed to do a lot of giving a helping hand in terms of talking folks into adding and eating certain foods.
Breakfast
Veggie hash -Two full servings or four servings with toast.. ( I am pretty sure these would be awesome with some sour cream or apple sauce if that had been allowed)
Wash and peel One large Carrot, one fourth of a large peeled turnip and one large potato, I peeled it but they recommend it in skin, grate them in the large hole in your box grater, add salt, pepper, dried herbs of your choice, I did a mix but lots of horseradish greens, one egg and 2 tbsp. of flour. Bacon drippings is what was recommend and that is what I used, I can see if adding a lot to the flavour. cook in a med-hot fry pan till crisp on both sides and cooked though.
Farmgal Potato Hash Recipe
Lunch
Farmgal Turnip Soup Recipe with Meat
Supper
Pork Stew with Turnips.
The only way to get this photo was through a window, otherwise the starlings would not stay when I would open the door, but my first two arrived on the farm today! and yes, I know my pen looks messy, but hey, spring cleaning and repair is coming.
Miss Puddin and her daily treat, she loves her Celery, my sweet wild hairs little pig!
Time for some seed germination tests to start..
A hundred million pounds of Spam were shipped overseas during the war, and it was one of the key impacts on the home front in support of the troops,” he said Saturday.
Many U.S. troops became all too familiar with the canned Hormel pork product, packaged in durable and easy to ship rectangular cans. So much so that, at times many of them found they couldn’t bear to eat another bite.
Others, though, couldn’t get enough.
“We never had enough of it for it to really become a problem,” said Bob McKee, a Palm Springs resident and docent at the museum who fought in the Pacific theater.
He said he was more often fed frozen mutton and other sheep products that came from New Zealand and Australia wrapped in giant burlap bags.
“I couldn’t even stand to look at that stuff,” he said, talking about the mutton.
Spam became a major protein source for the British, and Soviet Union Premier Nikita Kruschev said it saved the Russian Army.
Pork with Ham, Salt, Water, Modified Potato Starch, Sugar, Sodium Nitrite.
now the ways it was used then compared today is quite limited but still very tasty. Folks even make homemade spam, giving control over the process.
We are going with Three Spam Dishes for todays menu, making my one can of spam get more more bang for the buck
Spam, egg with onion for breakfast
Toasted Spam and pickle with tomato sandwich
Fried Spam with beans and veggies for supper
So there you have Spam in three ways but we all know that is so many more ways to eat spam…
Which leads me to my first reader challenge.. you are welcome to send me recipes and or comments from your own family lore in regards to the things we are talking about..
Once a week, I will add them all, Make at least one for the post and do a Reader feedback recipe post!
I have a very interesting recipe given to me in regards to the oatmeal for breakfast, its different and I am looking forward to trying it as a breakfast during the challenge.
So tell me… do you have any long time Spam recipes in your family cookbook! Dish them on out!..
Ok, first off lets just say, its not a real cheesecake, I am not even sure why its called that other then it had creamed cheese in it.
This recipe is a mix and a flob to two recipes I read online and then played with.. The base of the idea came from this recipe However as you will see it got changed up.
Farmgals Peanut Butter Cheesecake Fluff Dessert Treat.
,In a oven at 350 out your thawed phillo dough into a pan that will allow the corners to lift and create a bowl, bake till done, then cool, then remove from the pan or not.. your call..
In a mixing bowl with beaters, beat the cream cheese till fluffy. Add in the peanut butter, beat till fluffy again, then add in the cool whip and gently fold it in, until all mixed threw, and put into the cooled pastry bowl, then drizzle chocolate and carmel over top, and cover with the chopped up cups..
Chill, slice smaller portions to serve, its rich and sweet!
Reviews : Out of five what is the score..
C- its a Nine
B- Its over a ten
A- Its like a million..
DH- Its rocks dear..
And there you have it, from my end, it was awesome.. I personally if making for myself, I would have put less toppings and might even go with a nut to cut the sweetness a touch, and I have to try making this with a chocolate crumb base.. o my..
None the less everyone that had it loved it.. I will add a picture later today of a cut piece so you can see how it held together, which is does wonderfully..
Ps, yes I know its not a typical Farmgal recipes but it was a birthday request from my man on a dessert he say on a menu and wanted me to try and make..
Sméagol is one of the big old barn cat boys who snuck into the house this morning for a nap in the sun..
The view from below Caleb when he stands over me and I look way up!
hmmm, peanut butter cheesecake fluff dessert for DH birthday
You are a man of many talents.. and I am grateful that you are my husband. Hard Worker, writer, farmer and my best friend in so many ways..
Good Morning,
Well, I have been researching and doing more researching and I wish I had thought to decide to do this with o, a couple months notice to be able to order books, but I might just do that and consider doing another month in summer-fall, we will see..
So the plan is that hubby will get to have his regular breakfast and lunch, plus take to work snacks and then will become part of the 30 days challenge with the supper meals and after supper desserts etc..
I on the other hand am in for the full day, that includes everything from breakfasts to lunches to suppers.. * Other then my hubbies Birthday supper and dessert, that is off limits! I will still prepare a meal for the challenge but it will either breakfast or lunch that day.
This will be based on the Canadian perspective as much as possible with a few things here and there in regards to info from England.
I had to do a lot of figuring out on this.. you see, most of the stuff is done in regards to city or town info and yet it says over and over again.. but there is such a difference between urban and rural..
So this means that while I will be giving stats and notes and information in regards to urban, town or cities, this challenge Will be coming from the rural Canadian perspective
Which has already turned up some very interesting info both in regards to the multi-faced rules per the goverments but as tidbits of info coming from my own family and elders and community cookbooks with household tints and tips from that time frame
I could not have picked a harder month to do this in.. which is of course why I picked March as my big challenge month, months from the last harvests, and before pretty much anything comes new and green on the farm.
But do not worry, this farmgal has some tricks up her blouse, o yes she does.. There was much greater flexability that came with being a small holder, and we are going to keep this as true to real life as possible..
(yes, that means that I will as the month goes on perhaps do some black market barter, or it might mean that I will be giving a certain extra or two to local families in need).
Also in keeping with my own family, I intend to do a little hunting, and trapping (not in the true sense because its out of season on the one and not allowed on the other) but as I was raised hearing about my dad needing to hunt Partridge and my other family members needing to trap rabbits, my wild game that will just popup, will be something I have on the farm that will be *caught*, might even throw in a *fishing* trip in there..
So week one sees us in the early stages of Rationing 1942.. we have a ration on Tea, Coffee and Sugar..
Which puts us at 12 oz of sugar per adult in the house, 12 oz of Tea and Coffee..
Two adults in our household would put us at 24 oz of sugar for the week. This will only last three days before it will be moved to a mear 8oz per adult and at the same time butter will become rationed at half a pound per person a week..
Those are the basic rations for our first week BUT I am going to keep the meals to what would have been available at that time, including fats, spices, and so much more..
Our first Meal of the day is going to be so important!..
Canadian Wartime Breakfast #1
Oatmeal with sheeps milk and a tiny pinch of salt.
Just another Day on the Farm 