Our recent rationing chat led me to check further, and find this UK information
I think there's some vague sense in other countries that food in rationed amounts was somehow allocated for people to pick up. In fact, these were the maximum you could buy, using coupons from your ration book, if it was available.
Not unusual for people to wait in long lines at the grocery they were registered at, no shopping around, only to find when they got to the counter that some items were gone for the week. My childhood food landscape.
In contrast to my own luxurious procedure, like this week's misfits order I placed yesterday, where you see why markdowns are in place.
And it will appear on my doorstep on Thursday.
No wonder I enjoy making dinner, when I can make this chicken stew, all organic, reduced price ingredients
And no wonder it's ingrained, in my generation particularly, to shun waste, from buying food to rescue it from being plowed under or landfilled, to using every bit of it. It's a huge daily pleasure.
Are you up for a puzzle, on a lighter note?
Happy day everyone. In a world full of Joels, try to be a Marilyn Whirlwind.
Wow, those rationing stats. Unimaginable, from the comfort of our own well-supplied era.
ReplyDeleteIt bears remembering, no? This is why people were so grateful for food parcels.
DeleteI looked hard at the posy but not sure I felt any calmer than I already was.
ReplyDeleteHow many people will get that puzzle - well at least two can - probably
I don't like to waste food either but I don't go quite so far as you. but when I find the half carton of mushrooms forgotten in the back of the fridge all slimy, they go in compost pile. leftovers are always eaten though, either for lunch or into the soup pot.
ReplyDeleteYes, if you have a garden, there's a compost option.
DeleteI suppose all the grousing about high grocery prices now should be put in perspective against what went on during the war. I think only those, such as yourself, who have gone through rationing have a full appreciation for now. Coming from a farm upbringing where every penny was well squeezed I learned to use every bit of food I possibly can and luckily RC came from a family of 9 kids and learned frugality too. We have always cooked from scratch too.
ReplyDeleteI think that's a great health support, cooking for yourself. You know what's on your plate.
DeleteThat would be hard to live on, but people did it. I have never known food deprivation, which makes me very fortunate. You got some great food coming from Misfits.
ReplyDeleteVegetables weren't rationed. If you could get them. Early deprivation has weird aftereffects. Some people just don't care about waste, some go uberfrugal. Some hoard food, some have hardly any in the house because they can always buy some.
DeleteRationing was not calculated to satisfy, but to be just a level above malnutrition. Not a happy place.
DeleteGroceries in the USA were also rationed during the war, though perhaps not as harshly as in the UK. (Not sure?) I still have my grandparents' ration books. As I recall the rationed goods included meat, sugar, bread and vegetables. I suppose it's because many supplies were being rerouted to feed troops and our European allies?
ReplyDeleteRemember the US didn't even enter the war till 1941. UK rationing in full swing over a year already. Yes, there was rationing to some extent. Bread rationing really strikes fear into people. But judging from the foods we were sent by kind American friends, there was seemingly plenty of access to a variety of foods we hadn't seen since way before rationing.
DeleteI must check this out, thanks for the reminder.
Northern Exposure, it was a favorite show. Sad it was canceled.
ReplyDeleteIt did have a few seasons. Maybe the principals were off to other productions.
DeleteThank you for answering a question I have not asked- WHAT in the world makes those beautiful misfit groceries misfits? I love that they give you the reason. Such a terrific business.
ReplyDeleteI can truly see why your mother wanted to live in a place where she could keep chickens and perhaps grow some of your own food. This was no game for her. No gentle-lady's hobby. Bless her and all of the others like her who made do with the little there was to feed a family. And of course you have frugality built into you. I seem to as well, but I am not sure why and certainly not on your level. That was one of the most magical things about having chickens for me- I could give them kitchen scraps and they would turn them into perfect, beautiful protein. And my garden brings me such joy. As you know.
I know your chickens were very significant for you, beyond being interesting creatures. You and my mom would have hit it off, intrepid people.
DeleteWarm soup is always delicious, especially when it's cool outside.
ReplyDeleteToday I also briefly fried chicken (breast and organic) with curry and poured it with coconut milk and mixed it with prepared vegetables (also organic) tomatoes, peppers and green beans... plus there were boiled boiled potatoes from the farmer.
Food is precious to me, especially since I live close to the fields and see the farmers working on them...
all kind regards to you. I wish you a happy new week - including a cozy Sunday.
That sounds like a great meal, and really treasured. At our local farm we can see the family harvesting what will come to the farm stand later the same day. It's nice to access such a short supply chain. Misfits is longer but still a short chain, organic farmers to misfits to me, very few links.
DeleteFood is to be enjoyed, not to be wasted, but so much of it is, unfortunately. The little posy is exquisite.
ReplyDeleteEmma has a wonderful eye. I couldn't identify all the flowers in the posy.
DeleteI try not to waste any food. When growing up we had to clean our plates. Our grandchildren are so picky when it comes to eating.
ReplyDeleteI think when there's a lot of choice and little pressure of hunger, children learn a different attitude to food.
DeleteMisfits has some good deals! I work at not wasting food! It is too expensive to waste that’s for sure!
ReplyDeleteAnd you grow some, too, always great.
DeleteEating is a personal expression of one's attitudes. I have a vegan friend who cares deeply for animals. I like cooking and having left overs, just not cleaning up a kitchen. So that gets done sporadically. I like having someone else do the cooking and cleaning whenever I get to eat out, so the lunch program appeals to me these days. Who knows how long I'll be doing that, but so far I'm there half for socialization and half for nutrition.
ReplyDeleteSounds as if you've got your own needs figured out. Is the lunch program about seniors?
DeleteWe enjoyed watching Northern Exposure when it first came out. Funny, quirky characters. Seeing those rations, how could one survive on that amount if one didn't raise some farm animals, or hunt or fish? Victory gardens would only get people so far into the winter. It's incredible today to consider that kind of scarcity in a country that was/is a major world power.
ReplyDeleteThe answer to that puzzle is hard to crack.
That level of rationing is why food parcels were so welcome! I don't think the UK is a world power now. The people who insisted on brexit and going it alone were in denial about what it was like then. Now they're finding it's impossible.
DeleteI remember my mother losing the ration book and going from store to store to try to locate it. She didn't. I remember margarine being white a lard and needing a packet of yellow coloring beat in.
ReplyDeleteThat was still true about margarine in the sixties in Wisconsin! Called oleo, it was a big issue whether to allow it in the dairy state precolored confused with real butter!
DeleteThat rationing was harsh. You Brits took it on the chin, and for years! My parents and grandparents all grew Victory gardens, and maybe that's why gardening has always been important to me.
ReplyDeleteThat's a flamboyant little puzzle this time.
Chris from Boise
Great clue! I think you grew up with a sense that gardening was serious business, not a fun hobby. Which it is. Now, for most of us, it's about caring for the earth as much as ourselves.
DeleteThere is a series called wartime farm. It’s about a group of historians that live on a farm and run it as per instructions from the minister of food during the second war. They talk about rationing and how it gets worse and worse as the war goes on. I’m pretty sure you can see it on you tube. I loved it so much I bought it on dvd. There’s so much information and you learn lots.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t live in those times but I was brought up by my grandmother who did. And instilled in me my values of making do, recycling and repairing.
Not to mention growing food
It started in 1940 and was still in effect into the fifties, with clothing, furniture, everything that was once imported, scarce.
DeleteI remember rationing and think you're right people of that generation don't waste food, we use every scrap!
ReplyDeleteIt's a good result, if it helps the earth. I always remember the Lenni Lenapi, the indigenous people right where I now live, who did no damage. So I try to do the same treading lightly.
DeleteI got a 6-letter word! The chicken stew looks delicious. I've never experienced rationing... except of gas in the ’70s. I do love that little posy.
ReplyDeleteGas rationing in the 70s in NJ was a deliberate move by the oil companies to starve us of fuel in an attempt to get us to agree to offshore drilling. We didn't. Eventually they backed off.
DeleteI had grandparents who married during the depression. Neither wasted a thing especially not in the kitchen. The lesson wasn't lost on me. Love the posy!
ReplyDeleteNo, I hear you cook good food from scratch, and take care of what you have.
DeleteA lovely post. Sometimes I think we should ration again, just to remind people of the waste and to think more responsibly as they plan. I think we'd all hate it -- and when the period was over, feel we'd learned much. (Much as lockdown did for me!)
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting thought. At one time groups ran Hunger Lunches, where they served the food and meager quantity of people in need, sending the saved $$ to various hunger related charities. It was mainly consciousness raising about the reality of food scarcity.
DeleteBoud, whenever I watch older films that either include rationing or mention food shortages, I am reminded of how much waste exists currently. In the WW II years, UK had rationing and in the USA, Victory Gardens were encouraged. Thanks for providing more information on the Misfit selections.
ReplyDeleteAnd today's portions are so big! I like that misfits tells you why items are available. It can be as simple as timing --suddenly a surplus, over what the stores will take. Or size, too small for standard expectations, sometimes too big!
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