I was a little girl during WWII. Fruit was something we never got. The corner Grocery store gave me an orange once. He said he had gotten a small amount of fruit and was giving a piece of fruit to the children that came in with parents that were regular shoppers there. I still remember getting that orange. I was thrilled! I must have been a precious moment to me because 80 years later, I still remember him handing me that orange.
What a wonderful story! Thank you for sharing this memory with all of us, I love to hear about the challenging moments in history from those who actually lived them. There is such a deep human connection in it. God bless!
My mom.lived through the war in Greece She always said if you have milk ,bread butter and eggs you have everything. She was always so grateful for everything. She lived to 96 and I learned how to survive from her .❤
And from the "milk, eggs butter and bread" comes today's "French Toast Alert" meaning bad weather was imminent and to go get what you needed before the storm.
My mom grew up in the depression and ate alot of home grown potatoes, carrotts, stringbeans. Also elbow macarroni and home grown stewed tomatoes for the sause. Also a white gravy made of flour, water butter and salt and pepper. Would also have rice pudding and custard. Alot of other things. I was born in 1946 with 4 older siblings and 2 younger siblings and my mother would still cook us the greatest meals with so many of these being meals she ate during the depression. They were delicious. Also soft boiled egg on toast, oatmeal, malted cereal etc and of course cod liver oil every morning. 1 tsp. In the morning to all 6 of us. Those were the good old days. My mom passed away in 2016 at 92 yrs. Old. I miss her so much, she was my best friend. She was the most generous, loving mom ever.
@@daniellealex1795 thank you. She is my hero. I miss her everyday. I am now 76 and pretty much bedridden and from the time I wake up and until I fall asleep she is on my mind. I know I will be with her again. I am so blessed that I was chosen to be her daughter and her my mom.
We just lost our Mom at age 101. She came up through the Depression and WWII with our Grandma who passed in 2001 at 103. Both passed on amazing cookery making delicious meals with very little! They also kept alive habits of thrift. Just about everything was repaired and when that was no longer possible, repurposed into something else. Very, very little got thrown out. They had a huge Victory Garden beside the house, the location of which now houses a Firestone tire store! Austerity proved to their advantage considering how both lived to hit 100!
@Jean B • I never knew my mother, but you have described what her sisters where and did because of the times. My grandparents, still quite alive, at the time, were born in the 1890's. Papa, himself, was18 yrs old when Arizona was made the 48th state. Alaska and Hawaii had to wait 47 years, until 1959, for statehood. I grew up with history all throughout the home. An autographed copy of Grants Memoirs from the '90s, thousands of marks from the Weimar Republic and lots of newspapers with headlines of Capone, etc. Even had a great-aunt who was a Charleston girl at a speak-easy. Then , there came the Big One, WW11. The rest is history-literally.
My father planted fruit orchards wherever he lived. He had clear memories of eating out of trash cans and was determined to always have his own food growing.
Precious souls all pulling together to help. Dear mommies doing their best to be creative with what they had. Melts my heart... I appreciate all that they did!
@@oliviamartini9700 The length of the 2nd world war in the UK was a lot longer than in the US added to that Britain was bombed continuously with huge home losses, rationing was strict yet no one starved, hoarding was subject to being fined and in some cases jailed, by the end of the war, no one in Britain had anything to hoard, just like the rest of Europe.
@@alisonsmith4801 I am aware of this. We Canadians (along with Australians and South Africans) fought alongside the Brits from day one, and also sent "Bundles for Britain" for years to help out. It would have been very different if the States had joined BOTH wars much earlier. But my point was that there are always assholes who exploit and exacerbate the suffering, like the ones who bought all the toilet paper and hand sanitizer last year and resold them for quadruple the price. (And yes, the black market was strong throughout)
@@oliviamartini9700 Never let it be forgotten the sacrifice of our Commonwealth brothers and sisters, we never will in the UK, but we bore the brunt of a relentless war with rations that North America never came near to endure, yet at the end of rationing they found Britons where healthier than they had ever been, and your correct as someone who works for a huge chain of a British supermarket I've witnessed during the start of the Pandemic the stupidity of us supposedly " Keep calm and carry on " Britons and it's a bloody myth, greed and selfishness ruled every where, bloody good job we had had more resilience and commitment in 39 to 41 than we had falling to piece's over toilet roll, pasta and rice in 2020.
I can remember my mother serving things like "creamed peas" on toast for lunch or supper. Simply canned peas in a white sauce. Very cheap but filling. I remember dishes made with cows tongue as well. This was in the 40s..and both of my parents had grown up during the Great Depression..so my mother was very good at budgeting and cutting corners. I'm 78 years old and still have one of her old cookbooks with some of her favorite recipes from those years.
@@debbie189 My grandpa would break up a piece of bread in a glass, pour milk over it and eat it with a spoon before going to bed every night of his life. He called it 'soppy'.
Whoever made this video is apparently unaware that tongue is considered a delicacy, as in delicatessens used to always have it on hand, and it wasn't exactly cheap.
I loved that dish! Remember having that recipe that dish in the early to late 50 s, and Mom would put some chipped dried sliced beef along with it! You are so right, it was delicious! Ever thought about starting a blog on those recipes, with others? Now would be a great time with this Covid and the inflammation.
My father grew up during the war in a boarding school in Scotland. My mother on a small farm just outside of Liverpool. My dad told me he was given a small jar of marmalade which was to last him the entire month. They emigrated to Canada in the late 50's and when the recession happened in the early 70's I remember them giving up coffee, cigarettes, etc just to make ends meet. They built a garden with fruit trees in every house we lived in. Our summers were spent picking fruit and vegetables and taking them home to can. We had a root cellar and by the end of October it was filled to the brim with that bounty for the year. They had 8 children and fostered 2 more. Somehow we managed and even thrived. They instilled in me a love of working with my hands and taking nothing for granted. Forever grateful ❤️❤️
My grandma grew up in Japan during WW2. The Imperial Army took peoples food for the war effort. She experienced almost 10 years of near starvation. Once, she had to buy a handful of little sparrow birds to eat. She also ate what she could find on the beach. Later in life when she came to the USA she was a food hoarder with 2 freezers in the garage, and closets in the house packed full of food. Even when it went bad she didn't want us to get rid of it, she needed the security of knowing it was there.
At lot of people of that age, the depression era, do that. My dad lived during the depression and he hoarded and saved everything. I remember when I was building a house and using a nail gun. He would gather up the spent nails and I asked him why.......you never know when you'll need them. You can't reuse nail gun nails, but that's the way they were. Nothing goes to waste.
My mom hoarded food. I remember us having 2 full sized freezers overflowing with food, cupboards overflowing with canned and boxed goods, all because she grew up during the Great in Depression. I buy enough and then just a little more for my little family.
My grandmother's boys went to WWII. When I was young she would say " waste not want not" and had a garden and canned until her 80's. Humility and grace. Courage and temperance.
There are some studies that show you can live longer if you've gone through a period of calorie restriction. Both Okinawans and some Ashkenazi Jews who lived through WW2 had to cut way back on food and both often live past 100 years old.
I was born in 1935 so was young during the war, we never realized how hard it was for Mothers who did a wonderful job keeping us fed on very little with no grumbles.The difficulties were always kept away from us children.
Thank you, as I was talking to my grandma about her life born in 34 I couldn’t understand why she didn’t realize how incredible her mom was until I pointed it out,
@@francisfischer7620 😂 Awe! Yeah, it was definitely a time to make do, and not everyone had as much to make do with.my grandma was lucky bc they had their own gardens, and her dad had a little store.
@@farmtheland oh wow, AND you can use the internet😮 my grandma never learned how to use new technologies of any kind. That’s Amazing you can! She just passed away 2 weeks ago 😭 I miss her so much. Hopefully u stay around a lot longer bc the wisdom from your generation is very much needed. She is my husbands grandma, and became mine, I didn’t meet her until she was already almost 80. I was in my early 20’s. She completely changed my life, and my family’s for the better forever. One thing she impressed upon me is U r never to old to make a difference.
While the US had food rationing like the rest of the world it was not as severe as it was in the UK and Europe because of our vast amount of arable land and the lack of bomb damage. Food rationing was not only limited to the types of food available also the amount allowed per meal. So while we rationed we didn't suffer like other countries. What is truly humbling was how people endured this without any major complaint and pulled together to win the war despite rationing, shortages, bombings, and losing loved ones. They truly were the greatest generation.
Yeah Britain sent food to our friends in Europe while suffering severe hardship ourselves, of course nowadays since " Brexit" the anger and venting towards us in Britain from our friends in Europe has been writ large and I say this as a remainer.
@@alisonsmith4801 How soon they forget. Continental Europeans have had their 'bacon saved' by the Americans several times during the previous century. My own maternal grandfather took 2 German machine gun bullets during the last major offensive in WWI ( Meuse-Argonne ). We have rarely asked anything in return, but have surely received many 'kicks in the teeth' from our so called European allies. Sad indeed!
@@jaycorby My own Great Grandfather signed up in 1914, losing his life at Arras in 1917 and is buried in France, a North Eastern lad buried far from home, doing his bit for " King and Country ". We British are regularly told we where just a small part of the second world war, insignificant I read somewhere, well if enduring nightly bombing and severe rationing then still maintaining enough moral to defend our country in both the air and at sea and stop an unstoppable enemy from invading us and help change the outcome for the entire world ... I wouldn't call that insignificant but sheer bloody mindness.
@@alisonsmith4801 Britain can hold its head high! I have considerable English heritage in my pedigree, and I can say with pride that it is unthinkable that my 'people' would have ever surrendered to the Nazis. The only 'beef' I have with John Bull is the way they treated my Irish ancestors, but that even has its positive side...they wound up over here!
My parents both were Depression Era kids. Dad was also a World War 2 Navy veteran. They had hard times, all through till probably the 1950s. One thing they both said, that even if they didn't have much money. They ate well. Dad's family, were dairy farmers, and mom's parents lived not too far away, in a small coal mining town, in what they called a, "patch". Both of my parents sides, had gardens, raised chickens and rabbits, etc. Hunted, fished, and canned vegetables and fruits. My parents continued to have gardens, fruit trees, berry patches and so on, till the early 1980s. Mom could sew just about anything, fix things, dad and her built our house, and it's still there. They tried to make us as self sufficient, as possible. Hopefully, they did?
@Paul: so many Americans don't know how to garden, sew, preserve food, cook from scratch these days. I wonder how we'd do in a major crisis. My husband and I can do all these things, but we are in our 70s and 80s.
You might like the novel, Jordy, Bounce, and Lilli. ...The story of a couple of little kids and their cat, growing up together in the post-war 1950s. I loved it.
@@bookmagicroe9553 no worry..there are a lot of young people making gardens, having their chickens for eggs...and if we live close to farmers..that's a big plus!!
My grandma and grandpa got married in 1946 and had at their wedding reception sandwiches, and a tray of Italian cookies. That was the wedding meal for everyone. Brooklyn, NY. She said things were simpler then and everyone enjoyed what they had.
They laughingly called those weddings "football weddings" because of the way the sandwiches on Italian rolls were tossed to guests. Very popular type of wedding in those days. My parents talked fondly about them.
My grandmother lived with us (my parents, me and my 2 brothers) in the 1960s and if I complained that the meat at dinner was tough she would say it's tougher when there's none.
My grandma canned fruit and vegetables, had a stocked freezer and pantry, and always fed company that stopped by. She did this to the day she died. Her form of caring for others was to feed them. She had to go to work in a factory when the guys went off to war. She didn't talk much about that time but her frugality was directly linked to that timeframe. She always said to save your change for a rainy day because that day would come. God bless her sweet soul.
Grandma had electricity? U must be so young! At grandma's house, they ate almost exclusively what they could grow in the yard. They got permission to grow in the vacant lot next door, too. My grandma sold a big wagon of produce in town most weeks of the year, too. They also had a few laying hens. Ate tons of potatoes, beets, carrots, cabbage, onions...
@@staceykersting705 That was when she was older. All the times I remember she had electricity. But, when mom and her brothers and sisters were young, my grandmother didn't have electricity or running water.
My grandmother in North Carolina was the same. I always brag on how she always had food from her garden, canned or frozen. So that when we came to visit, there was always more than enough delicious food. She canned pickles and veggies. She had frozen soups, pies, and other dishes. She also worked as a maid while she maintained her own household duties without all the updated appliances people have today. Yet she was always prepared and was never in a rush. They don't make women like that anymore. 😪
Sounds exactly like my family. They were not allowed to waste any food. That meant left overs was a sure staple. It was crazy what they did to try and elevate flavor and the perception of the eaters. One thing I haven’t heard here: SPAM. Was this not around ww2? When we were kids it was our meat many nights, and my mom mom crispy thin slices that were liked by all of us.
I remember my Grandmother cooking up some weird concoctions, but mostly, we did ok as my GF raised his own beef. He started with just a couple of young cows. That meant we always had milk, cheese and butter. Both my Mom and grandparents raised gardens and canned. The small town they lived in turned a warehouse into a sort of canning factory where people had all they equipment needed to can; they just brought their own vegetables and meat. There was a large river that ran at the southern end of town, so fish were bountiful as well. Given a choice, I'll take a little town like that to a big city any day.
My mother told me about this situation. But, she really explained how much people "helped" each other in every which way. There was so much sharing, kindness and giving. Families took in relatives; sometimes borders. My mother always gave back after WWll by sharing her canned fruits/vegs - baked goods and outgrown clothes. She was quite active in her children's life. My father was all of this too (he was gainfully employed during the Depression and the War). Note: my mother was the youngest of 12 children, all of whom became successful after the War.
You had a wonderful family and a good neighborhood, consider your family blessed. Often, maybe most often, people become predatory in these situations.
Unless one lived on/owned a farm during WW2, I can’t imagine feeding a family with 12 kids. Also, until I saw this video, I didn’t realize how much American family’s “did without” then (and this following on the Great Depression. Especially compared to the over abundance of present day.
That would have been one of the the toughest timelines to have been born in. People born in the early 1900s likely lived through WW1 , Spanish flu, dust bowl, great depression, WW2, Vietnam and Korean Wars.... a lot happened in 80 years time! No wonder they see average modern people as weaklings.
Yeah, I immediately think of people who look at their fridge/pantry and say "There's nothing to eat" or "I don't want to cook/I don't want to eat what's in there" and proceeds to order takeout
@@prosolokid7796 And I know what I am eating now. As a Vegan I eat a healthy and wonderful diet. I don't mess with fast food or Door Dash. I cook all my own food.
My parents grew up in the Great Depression. Then my father was in WWII. We had some poor times until my father got a restaurant and the whole family worked there. We never were rich but we had all the necessities of life and went on a big road trip every year. Once in a while we would have a lean week but my parents knew how to get through it. I have made it a hobby to study how they did it back then. My grandchildren lived with me and I'm proud to say they never went hungry and aleays had good food and places to go because I went fre and cheap. Their friends parents never understood how I could do what I did with all of them. We had a blast! I am now 72. I have excellent memories because I took advantage of learning about living frugally. You can be happy even if you live on cash.
I have an account from an old teacher of mine who lived through the Japanese occupation of Singapore when the British retreated. He grew up eating a thin rice gruel with dried anchovies and salted vegetables. Twice a year, on New Years and his birthday, he got a whole hard boiled egg to himself due to how destitute his family had become in the post war years after the Japanese occupation. Really puts in perspective how fortunate we are!
And now I understand my grandma and her strange meals. I thought they were just weird American Jewish food.. Nope, her meals were carryovers from her childhood. Thanks for the nostalgia. Miss you Grannie Annie 💙
My grandparents born from 1870 to 1899 all went through the Great depression as all their children. My dad and my uncle were in world War II Army. My mother born in 1927 told me that sometimes they would only have potatoes to eat for a week. I remember when I was young having to use the outhouse and drink from the well. I've eaten snow ice cream and because grandmother could not afford a chocolate bar she gave me cocoa powder mixed with white sugar in a bowl that I ate with a spoon dry. I remember getting milk delivered in glass bottles onto our doorstep even into the 60s when I was young. If everyone would start planting vegetables everywhere there is a space we would be a lot healthier than buying that junk from Walmart etc. I remember if you got a tomato it was red, ripe and delicious. Nowadays they are basically orangey red with no flavor compared to what I ate when I was young.
Our back yard soil is very poor and rain is scarce and our water supply is full of chlorine and amonia, amongst other chem. But one year it did rain !!!! And I grew greem beans, corn, tomatoes and had a huge pumpkin patch. Our apricot tree even put out a bumper crop. How happy I was! Roasted corn on the cob, fresh veggies, apricot pies and pumpkin recipes gallore!
@@pamtyree6634 did you know that corn was a modern-day invention through breeding it was never corn like that in the past and even in the Bible when it talks about corn it's not talkin about the plant corn is talkin actually about grains. Corn isn't good for you and especially if you didn't grow it yourself for the simple fact that they spray it down with glyphosate which is a nasty chemicals that leads to Parkinson's. What a lot of people don't realize is that while they think they don't spray the peanuts with glyphosate but what happens is they grow the peanuts on the same ground as they grow the cotton and they spray the cotton down with it it is soaked into the ground and then of course peanuts develop underground and so they get this glyphosate. I've learned a lot more than I ever have about health since I've been listening to Dr. Eric Berg here on UA-cam and some others. Check it out if you'd like.
My mother made snow cream for us, when I was a child. I loved it. She was a child when the war broke out. We are citizens of the U.S. of A. She put milk, sugar and vanilla extract in it. Do you know if they had and used the same ingredients? This is Mrs. Ace X, in Florida.
@@acex8124 yes, and when they finally were able to acquire an old wooden bucket with metal container and gears with crank homemade ice cream maker oh boy...lol
My grandmother used to make wedding mints. Everyone still wanted those at their wedding back then! Since she couldn’t afford butter, milk or cream, she would mix mashed potatoes, mint flavoring and powdered sugar! They were actually quite good!
@@crystal7743 it's the same as potato candy, there are recipes online. It's pretty basic mashed potatoes, confectioners sugar, mix well roll into a couple balls, refrigerate, roll out spread peanut butter, roll up refrigerate until firm cut into slices.
My parents lived through the Great Depression & WWII. Dad never talked much about those times, but Mom did. She was thankful she lived in a small farming village in the Midwest, because her family had room for a vegetable garden, they could raise chickens, and her brother could hunt & fish. Her brother also got a job building roads & bridges because of the WPA program begun by FDR's administration, & Mom got a job at a sewing project, so that provided a little income to buy things they couldn't raise or grow. For her parent's 20th wedding anniversary, relatives & friends gave them a gift of 20 silver dollars. That $20.00 lasted them a year. Old clothes were never just thrown away. If they couldn't be mended, then thread was carefully removed from the hems & reused. If the fabric couldn't be sewn into something else, it could be used to make quilts. Everything was reused & recycled (long before "recycling" became a thing). Mom made today's recyclers look like amateurs. Dad did, too. He kept any piece of wood or dab of paint from his carpenter jobs if he thought he might be able to use it later. He made me a book holder in 1981 with a base made from a piece of oak over 100 years old that he & his father salvaged from an old house they tore down sometime in the 1930's.
In New York people ate frozen food, olive oil and kraft dinners as early as the 1930s. Clearly they lived in the lap of luxury compared with everyone else. Now they are the suffering ones eating offal and cabbage. Look who's laughing now!!!
My grandparents lost their farm during the Great Depression, but everywhere they lived after that Grandma kept a vegetable garden, up to the 1970s when I was a child. Her favorite "coffee" was Postum too! During WWII, my mom described making their own margarine blocks with a yellow food dye pill that was blended in, ration food stamps, how stockings were a luxury and ladies painted on leg makeup instead. Her family always cooked at home and used every last scrap of leftovers - for soups, casseroles, etc. When I was a child we saved old clothes and linens to tear into dust rags & cleaning rags whenever possible. It was just common to reuse, recycle and eat leftovers in the Midwest in the 50s and 60s where I grew up.
I live in Amsterdam ..My grandfather told me many horrors of the fall of the Nederlands . During WW2 . And how a Canadian Troop saved his life , Thank you Canada for being there . Love to All Canadians .
A Canadian veteran who took part in the liberation of the Netherlands told me this story. He and his tank crew were billeted with a married couple, who had fields of corn growing. So he said "I'll swamp our rations for corn." They asked why he wanted it. "To eat, of course " "But ... that's cattle feed !" He and his men borrowed the wife's big pot, picked, shucked and boiled a big heap of corn, and ate it, while their hosts sat there with their mouths open. I always wondered if the couple started eating it themselves. If they did, they probably buried the cobs after dark, so the neighbours wouldn't find out.
I have a 96 year old friend who was with the Canadian army in Holland. He has fond memories of the people there and is invited every 5 years by your country in appreciation for what they did.
My grandfather was in the Canadian military. He fought in Holland in WWII. He drove tanks. He also stayed a few years after the war to help the people of The Netherlands. He never would talk about what he experienced. My boyfriend's grandparents are from Holland. They had to eat grass to survive because there was no food. Eventually they emigrated to Canada. Their descendants, including my boyfriend, to this day will not eat corn. It's animal feed to them. Even the tender peaches and cream they don't like.
@@marylyn5965 That's interesting because for the last few generations, Irish people wouldn't offer fish or seafood to visitors. My grandparents called it "famine food".
After watching this, it gives me alot more appreciation for what foods are so easily accessible to us in the grocery stores.. I don't think people realize how precious our food is and the process that goes into producing/distributing food
Not "realising" is a choice. They know, they just think they'll never need to find food the old fashioned way. A lot of them are going to pay for that hubris in the coming months.
That had to be a stressful time if you were trying to raise and feed your children with your husband away at war? On top of it all that point-system of rationing food put the clencher on it! Much respect for those moms!😉😎
Thanks Tina N. It's funny you say that because I think in my head how greatful I am to farmers since I am not the best at growing vegetables. I am fine with fruit and flowers, but growing enough veg to support my family-I so need more practice. I thank them in my head all the time and wonder how I can say thank you. Silly I know, but I appreciate your comment.
Mom born in ‘22 told of family living in CA would send a big box of oranges from their trees to her family in the mid-west during the depression and WWII. They continued to gather for Thanksgiving, most of which would save back rationed items so that when they came together they could make deserts. The men would have gone hunting or an uncle who had a farm would bring a turkey. The ladies would make pies /cakes and side dishes….once they came together, so would their celebration to give thanks!
My grandmother was visiting my first apartment and I told her I hadn’t gone shopping for the week so there wasn’t anything really to eat. She sent me to run some errands and when I returned she had a four course meal ready. She didn’t drive so there was no way she went to a grocery store. She would just laugh and say “the alternative isn’t acceptable”.... They don’t make them like her anymore!
Awh, love this so much. My grandma lived through the Depression as well and she could cook like no one I've ever met. Everything from scratch, literally not how we think of it these days. I miss her so much.
General Patton after the war said, "We fought the wrong enemy!" I personally think Edison was one of the greatest inventors in the late 1800s when America really became the richest and most powerful in the world.
@@steppy3736 Edison invented the world's first.. 1. Stock ticker machine.. 2. Duplex telegraph.. 3. the first quadruplex telegraph.. 4. the worlds first Science Lab for Inventions.. and you think he stole all of those great inventions? FROM WHO???
My Dad's parents had a huge garden that got them through the Depression & then World War II. What they didn't use immediately my Grandma Ola canned. Some people nearby had chickens & my Grandparents traded garden produce for eggs & chickens. Grandma baked all their bread, rolls, pies, etc. Meat was for holidays & coffee was served only every other Sunday. Leftover coffee was either reheated in a saucepan or used to make red eyed gravy. Egg shells, used coffee grounds & any peelings, etc. went into the compost bins for next years fertilizer. Seeds were collected & dried for the next years planting.
Thanks for the idea. I'll have to look up a "red-eyed gravy" recipe. An overseas friend sends me packets of coffee to try for Christmas, and I enjoy trying them, but am not a coffee drinker. The gravy would eliminate waste.
My grandmother passed this pass May. She was 96 years old. Born in 1927, by the start of the second world war would have made her around 12. As i got older and older i never realized just how much she had lived through. She was from a family of 8 siblings. All my great uncles were pilots and navy men in the war that died in combat 🫡. My grandmother was secretive about her life. She never let on to much about the past. I wish I could go back and ask her just what living through all of that was like. She had a small shrine in her living room of old war memorabilia. She had literally had old military weaponry and pictures laying around. She was a switch board operator for the original southwestern bell phone system. I wish i would have asked her these important questions before she came down with dementia. I know in couldnt have been the man i am today weather i agreed with her sometimes or not. R.i.p Grandma Carmen. We are from Houston Tx.
My dad continued to eat some of these things, but he couldn’t stand to eat beans any more. He said he ate 10 lifetimes worth of beans in a five year period. Lard and sugar sandwiches were a real treat. Sh!t on a shingle was another hit. He once ate laundry starch to stop the hunger pains. He teased us with a story of saving up to buy a box of cracker jacks with his sister. One got to chew it and the other got to swallow. They had 8 hungry kids in bed on Friday nights and his parents would splurge and cook and eat a steak. He said the smell was torture and their tummy’s would growl! I cannot stand to waste food to this day❤️ May you all have the food you need and remember how blessed we are!
i truly hope this is a true story because it really touched me. you are right. we are too blessed. makes me want to re-evaluate the way i just take things for granted. Thank you
We lived in the country. Bullets were rare so every shot had to count but my brother and dad would go hunting and what ever they got we ate and were grateful for it. We would grow vegetable, lots of cabbage as it would keep for months in a crawl space dug under the house. My grandmother would scoop fresh snow adding some sugar and flavoring and it was our 'ice cream' treat. Bread crumbs were saved to thicken soups or eat as cereal. We had chickens so plenty of eggs. My grandmother would tie strings across the kitchen when she'd make noodles. She'd cut them into slices and hang them over the strings to dry. She'd make loads of them and we'd keep them in old pillow cases to have for a meal over the weeks till it was time to make more.
My mother used to tell us how she would heat a can of sweetened condensed milk, causing it to caramelize. This would provide a sugar substitute that she could use to bake cookies and cakes.
My family still does that. We call it 'dulce de leche'. I never thought to use it as a substitute, we use it as a dessert topping. A little drizzle goes a LONG way
My daddy, who was born in June of 1918 in southern Illinois, the youngest of 6 children. told me one of his very best Christmases was when he received two gifts one Christmas morning…one was a jackknife and the other was an orange. He was 78 in 1996 when he died from lung cancer but he always remembered that jackknife and orange from when he was 11 or 12. I miss my daddy.
the elders in my family received candied orange peel for Christmas made by their great grandmother. It was a treat they always looked forward to. They also had pickled watermelon rind.
I miss mine too! N my mom! Unfortunately nowadays some kids Cannot Have A Jackknife or even Watch Scarry Movies or See Abuse in their Homes!!! Very SAD!!! We will Pray 🙏 For Jesus to let those kids Be Freed from the EVIL Spirits that are Destroying A Happy Blessed Peaceful Life They Could Be Enjoying😢!!!
I remember being told by my grandma that my dad ( born during the depression) received an ice cream square with a Christmas tree in the center at school. he thought that was the best thing ever and refused to eat it, he stuck it in his shirt pocket where it melted before he made it home to show his mom. I could see my dad doing that. I miss him dearly also he passed in 2019 at the age of 87. God bless dads🤍🕯️🤍
@@ladybearbaiter My mom used to make candied orange and lemon peel. It was a welcome treat. She also used to make steamed pudding that was very tasty I remember it was made in a small coffee can in the oven. Thank you for bringing those memories back for me. Bless you.
Saving and using those S&H green stamps was fun to our family. Mama used to get a strip of those everytime she got groceries. That was back in the day when laundry powder boxes had a drinking glass in them.
And "Golden Wheat" pattern dinnerware! We had the whole set of dinnerware and both the juice/milk size glasses. Here's your bit of trivia, it was "Dus" laundry detergent! I saw a set of the dinnerware a few months back at our local thrift store, but decided against buying bit, the trim on the dishes was actual gold, so I couldn't use them in the microwave...
I was born in 1953. S&H green stamps as well as blue chip stamps continued up into the 60s. My mother used to save them. Also Chesterfield cigarettes had stamps as well.
My parents grew up during the WW2. I remember stories my parents told us about food they ate. They ate road kill (porcupine,squirrels ,etc.) We are so wasteful in todays generation and also blessed because of the bountiful the earth has to offer . Thank you farmers, fishermen, and all the people who bring food on our table. I’m very grateful!
Yes, thank all of them for all they do. However, all of this is being taken away from us purposly. The world is already at war, they just haven't announced it yet. Times are already very rough for some, in Europe more than in the new world, but it's still bad and will get worse. We are indeed moving into very rough times and it will endure for some time unfortunately 😪.
My grandparents had 6 kids during the depression and WWII. Grandpa could grow, catch, or fish to keep everyone well fed. In looking at these stories I realize how fortunate they were. People today don't understand how bleak things were because of the illusion of plenty. That plenty can change in 48 hours if circumstances allow.
my mother lived in war time Japan. One of the things she made for me recently was a steamed bun made from rice flour and minced vegetables. it wasn't particularly the tastiest thing, but it was something she looked forward to eating everyday as a child. I was grateful to taste the experience without the war, because it was one thing she could remember that made her happy despite the horrific memories of living in Japan during those times
I was fortunate in multiple ways, yes I have many wartime recipes and postwar appliances qnd cutlery. I used to can, until my trailer in Japan got destroyed by my neighbors on a free for all, including some appliances. They all got drafted now they know what it's like.
My dear lovely mother would feed eight people on $40 a week she went to three stores bought all their sale items and baked bread and cakes and pies I was her little helper and she had meat and vegetables and a dessert at every meal 50s and 60s and 70s
@@gardenlady2041 ,Yes,even Martha Stewart said to do that, I am in an apartment,so I just bought the dandelion root extract for myself and my son cuz he had bladder cancer and I got it for my vision and diabetes,it was on sale $16.00 a bag.
I remember once my Mamaw had some leftover mashed potatoes. We ended up in the chicken house and garden all over mashed potatoes. With the mashed potatoes as her inspiration she whipped up a amazing meal. We had tater cakes, , boiled eggs, sliced tomatoes, fried green onions, and onion cucumber salad. It was amazing to eat fresh from the earth and watch her make something out of nothing. God knows id love to go back and do it again. I love and miss you Mamaw.
Iv haves fried tater cakes onion tomatoe cucumber salad green beans with only ends of fried bacon n cornbread soaked in buttermilk WE DIDNT WASTE FOOD LIKE PEOPLE DO TODAY WHICH PISSES ME OFF!
Menus were so much different when I was a girl back then. Fresh fruit and vegetables were seasonal. Jams and jellies provided the vitamins during the cold weather and vegetables had to be canned. Local areas ate local grown food .We take for granted today the great variety in our supermarkets brought in by trucks and ships from afar. There were no supermarkets and no fast transportation. No freezers, either. Kids were excited to find an orange in their Christmas stockings! The 1960’s introduced new seasonings and new food. And it’s gotten “worse” (to me.)I still prefer the “simple”food.!
My mom was born in 1964. She got an orange in her stocking every year. It’s crazy how much the world has changed so quickly in such a short amount of time.
I never once got anything like that. I think this generation’s parents overcompensated…out of love, because they wanted their children to have more/ to have better, the American dream, but in the midst of it, we (millennials/gen z/whatever you want to call it) my generation…got spoiled. There was so much so fast. We went from being thankful and amazed by oranges in our stockings one generation to now expecting stockings full of toys and treats and a tree full of presents. It’s all so much😅whatever you believe etc….it would be nice to go back to basics. Just my rant.
I take care of my 92 year old mother with Alzheimer’s. Her favorite story is of food shopping with her mother and the owner giving her a candy bar. She says it was the first time she ever tasted a chocolate candy bar and was given something of such “value”! 92 years old and it’s her favorite story!
I was three when WW2 ended. I remember that telephone call that made our parents so giddy, they danced us children around the kitchen in their arms. We grew our own vegetables and had chickens for meat and eggs. My play clothes at that time were made from chicken feed sacks. Food was always held in great appreciation in our home, and our mother taught us to be good cooks. (I am Virginia, not Jim.)
I remember my dresses being remade by my mother from other dresses she unpicked and remade in multiple colours in larger sizes. We also had our jerseys made of unravelled old jerseys with wool washed dried and then rewound before knitting into new cardigans or jersey.
My grandfather was a steel worker in the US, so he didn't have to go fight. But on Sundays, he went out hunting to provide meat for his family and usually came home with a few squirrels, rabbits and/or raccoons. He kept doing it after WW II ended since it was a cheap way to provide food, but one day in the late 1940s my grandmother put her foot down that she wasn't skinning and cooking one more squirrel and they were going to the butcher to get actual meat.
Was it safe that time eating squirrels or raccoons ? Aren’t they prone to diseases like rabies? I mean yeah u have to make do with hunger but what are the chances getting infected😅
@@edster8416 you can usually tell when they are sick. If you know the animal's typical behavior you can tell when it's off. The one usually associated with being immune to rabies is bats, but they are still carriers and people dont reeally hunt them here. I would definitely not eat an opossum though. They eat a lot of little nusiance stuff and are carriers for a lot of things.
@@edster8416 Watch the show on netflix called "Meat Eater" and you will see their are still a large amount of people who still are eating squirrels, raccoons and even nitro rat's. These people live here in the United States.. -Mercy(sorry for the name confusion I am on my dad's phone at the moment)
I had squirrel once. A friend of a friend had a nut orchard over run with squirrels so he hunted them and gave a bunch to my friend who cooked them in a stew. A little tough but taste was OK. I've also had rabbit at Colonial Williamsburg. I would NOT eat raccoons though. Their diet is to crazy for me to want to do that. The squirrels OTOH were eating nuts and the rabbits vegetables so that is fine.
In acknowledgement of "Victory Gardens"; Maine just became the first state in the Union to vote that growing/raising your own food is a legal right. Some people don't realize that they do not have the legal right to grow their own gardens or raise their own farm animals for food. I was stunned when I learned about those facts. So I definitely voted that food is a human right.
That is just crazy! I believe your state government needs an overhaul. I don't think you could tell anyone in my county here in Arkansas that we could not grow our gardens. We would just laugh at them.
In North Korea today, people can not legally grow their own food. Everything is owned by the government. Everything. People risk jail if they plant a small garden.
Michigan tyrannical governor Gretchen whitmer ban the sell of seed durning the big scamdemic scare ,,,yet she and her hubby did as they pleased as did most of the democrats rino politicians...
I was a little girl also. My dad was a fireman with a slipped disc in his back. He waited to 1945 to get the surgery, which was very rare at that time. But he had a garden, my mom canned, and my dad hunted. So we ate a lot of rabbit,squirrel and some venison. We lived in an area surrounded by military bases. So we had lots of blackout nights and was scary for a 3 or 4 year old. My dad had friends so he would barter with them. Some could get eggs, some could get other things. So they traded a lot of time.even with all of those things I had a wonderful childhood. Beautiful memories. I did shuck a lot of butter beans and snap a lot of green beans for my mom to can. But they are my memories.
And what great memories those are.. kids now a days cannot say the same to many people on the phones and internet that don’t know about real life real world stuff they complain about any and every little thing.. my grandma and grandpa use to use every little thing nothing was thrown out and I would help my grandma as well I love those memories they are the best ❤
Born in the 30's,,,lived through 40's,50's. Mother was an excellent cook. We had a large garden and a kitchen garden, begun in March (midwest region). Gardens were the saviors of the day! Organic and hard work, worth every labor. Loved my life then!❤
Greetings from the island of Malta where our people were living in shelters for 2 years under constant bombardments obviously basic food was practically non existent yet they survived, so proud of all the Maltese who never gave up!
My grandmother told me of using mayonnaise in baking recipes as a substitute for eggs and oil. I've tried it today and honestly, it's pretty good, and makes for a moist chocolate cake. Oddly enough, sawdust is still being used in food products to this day. Any time you see "cellulose" in an ingredient list, it's indigestible fiber from plant cell walls, which can include wood from trees, and pulp from grasses and algae.
I heard of a chocolate mayonnaise cake and that I heard that it's really really good it makes the chocolate Tangy in the cake moist but there's also another version of strange chocolate cake with chocolate sauerkraut cake where it feels like coconut instead of tasting like sauerkraut reason why is because you have to dilute the sauerkraut
Dandelions were the first greens to come out in the spring. My grandmother used to fix them several different ways. We would eat the buds with a little bacon grease.
We had wild mustard, lambsquarter and dandelion greens each Spring and I loved them. They had to be young, small to be tender and not bitter. Steamed and served with vinegar poured over them and chopped boiled eggs on top they were delicious and very heathy for you. I still gather these three every Spring.
My mother was born in 1920, she made dandelions with bacon, onions and vinegar it was warm and good also the dandelions were young. I also was the one who went out to pick them.
My mother picked a green called Lambs quarter It grew wild and was easy to spot because it has a grayish color. I used to enjoy picking it with her every spring.
From the Netherlands: in the last winter people even ate tullips, wallpaper glue, etc. (Hunger winter 44-45). Some dishes I remember my gran making: pavlova (beating egg white to death, it kept on expanding and was a luxury), potatoe pancakes, union soup, leek pie and the ‘mock mayonaise’ (consisting mashed potatoe, vinegar and herbs). My grandparents lived naar the Belgian border and most of the ‘make do’ cooking inspiration came from Belgians (who had experienced WW1 and thus very experienced in ‘mock’ dishes with a few ingrediënts).
Yes, my stepfather was about 12 at the time. He lived in a flat in Amsterdam with his mother. He remembered practically starving, his mom collected grass to eat at one stage. I have 4hrs of tapes he made talking about his life back then. He watched an attack by the RAF on a gestapo prison once. Flew right down his street...
My family was lucky, because my grandparents had a farm before WW 2. Meat like chicken, duck, or pork was always available, as were eggs, milk and butter. Beef was another story. Cows', beef or dairy, had to be registered with the government who had to be notified when the animal was disposed of by sale, slaughter, death or mysterious disappearance. To avoid profiteering by black market sales the government tracked to where and how was the cow disposed of. During one winter my grandparents took Josie an old and now dry milking cow and slaughtered her on a Friday night. The meat was cut, wrapped and distributed to family members. Since it was a weekend government offices were closed so the loss of a cow who "slipped on ice, broke a leg, and had to be humanely dispatched" was reported on the following Monday. Since the family was large enough to account for the amount of meat produced and the circumstances of the situation seemed reasonable.
Yeah mum & dad used to tell me about the rules on the farm during the war. Pretty bad when your ordered about on your own private Farm. But I suppose everyone had to be a commie to beat Hitler.
@@martinjenkins6467 Thanks for the comment. Fortunately farm food helped to ease the taste of having to eat Spam and/or canned salmon or other non-point foods. 😊👍
My grandma told stories about her and her siblings picking dandelions for salad and drinking coffee made from a 2nd or third round of water run through the same grounds instead of milk during the war. They were pretty poor at the time. She was first generation here, her parents were immigrants from poland. Crazy the things families went without and did to keep everyone fed.
You eat the leaves of the dandelion plant, not the flowers or stems on the flowers. Dandelion greens and "poke salat" were a staple in East Tennessee diets back in the day.
My great grandmother (90) recently wrote about growing up in the Great Depression, and the war.. her mother volunteered as a plane spotter, luckily they never saw any enemy planes.. one story in her writings had choked me up. Her mother was away I think for work (during wwII) and a war plan had crashed on the corner of their street killing two little children. Being that no one had cellphones or anything of the sort, all my great great grandmother knew, was that a plane had killed two little children on her block, where she had left my great grandmother and her little sister that morning. I can’t imagine the dread of not being able to get in contact in a situation like that..thankfully it wasn’t them, and they were both okay.. on the lighter side though, she described eating clams, fried eels, and her grandmother would make her the best rice pudding she’s ever had to this day! I am so so lucky to have her, and so blessed to have the book she’s written on her life! I can’t wait to see her this Easter. :)
I grew up in the States in the 1950s. My Mum and her mother were both Englishwomen. Bubble and squeak was our normal Monday supper, made from the leftover roast beef, mashed potatoes, cabbage, and parsnips from Sunday dinner. And beef tongue was a regular item on our table. Leftovers were thinly sliced and became a cold tongue sandwich with mustard.
My parents were married in 1946. The war was over, but rationing was still in place. My grandmother had to save up sugar ration tickets to give the baker for the wedding cake. Pictures of the cake show it wasn’t covered with frosting, but had a few frosting rosettes on it.
Oh I haven't heard of the frosting rosettes and I LOVE that idea! I have seen a woman talk about the faux hat box that was decorated to look like a cake and placed on top of the real cake that was tiny and not full of icing. Thanks for sharing this.
Queen Mother Hane, my parents were also married in 1946. I remember the sugar rationing very vividly. I was very young and saw my mom accidentally spill some sugar from a big bag. She actually cried and Begged me to Promise to not tell dad. I never realized how significant that was til much later in life.
@ Caper here Here in the U.S.of A. my great-aunt Alice told me about the vouchers. I remember that she told me about gasoline, shoes, and sugar vouchers. I cannot remember but think that flour may have been one. My father said that you could only get one pair of shoes every 2 years. He had to walk to school and to work with cardboard inside of his shoes, because of the holes in the souls of his shoes. I know that there is a lot of rain here in Florida, so he had to change out that cardboard often. It is a good thing that he was not in the snow. If you know where these vouchers are located they may become handy in our near future, huh? lol. Seriously, I would love it if you could send me the list of types of vouchers that they gave out. Thank you, Caper. I am a U.S.of A. citizen. Please anybody out there, I would love to hear the list of our citizens vouchers. Thank you all, and I love you everyone. This is Mrs. Ace X, in Florida.
Day after Pearl Harbor, my grandmother went out and bought a 50# sack of flour and 50# sack of sugar. She grew up in Germany during WWI and knew rationing was coming.
My grandmother lived in the country with her parents and siblings. She was born in 1914. They always had a large garden full of green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, a grape arbor and strawberries, corn and 2 plum trees. They made sourdough to make bread, pies, rolls. I know they had chickens, ducks and a pond had catfish. My mom was born in 1939, I was born in 1959 and it has stayed basically the same. Honestly, they worked jobs and kept their place in fine shape. The house is over 125 years old, it has a summer kitchen bc no air conditioning when I was growing up. Used coal in the furnace. Boy the world has changed!
My mother would turn 103 this coming February. Now I know why we had potatoes with every meal. I think she could have turned them into lobster given the will. So many different recipes!
@@robynjefferson4779 actually there is Irish on her side. They lived in the mountains 12 kids dad killed in an accident. I guess at that point they would have eaten cardboard need be
@@staceykersting705 Same here, cabbage will keep for months if you keep it cool. We'd grow them and store them under the house when I was a kid. Lots of Vitamin C in cabbage.
My paternal grandmother grew up during the Depression with 12 other siblings on a farm and she developed a hoarding habit that carried over to adulthood. They cooked strange things to survive and I thought that was why she cooked like she did. Now that I know this, it was a combination of both. Good video!
Shortly before WWI, my paternal grandmother and her mother cooked for the biggest logging camp in Montana. They were the only cooks, but they had a man who cut wood and carried water, and a girl who helped with washing and other chores. One time, the bosses of the camp decided that the (massive) pies should be cut in five pieces instead of four, and the loggers went on strike! (The bosses caved.) Men from Wyoming & Idaho would go to the camp, lured by its reputation of good, plentiful grub. My grandmother showed my mother an article in "Montana Outdoors" in which she was interviewed! My father was born in 1940. His older sister, Sue, was @ eight years older than Dad. Grandma and Grandpa were still working in the camps, but they were very poor, living in a rickety log cabin. However, Grandma always kept the food coming. There are stories of my toddler father going from door to door asking, "Do you have a dry crust?" Of course Grandma was mortified!
@@beautylovess13 She did use sawdust in her bread when we were younger until my grandaddy caught her. She also cooked beans with only vinegar because when she was a kid (13 total) there wasn't a lot of money for spices and seasonings. It wasn't that bad actually.
Yes, a lot of people who grew up during that time became big hoarders… always keeping things “just in case” and always trying to repair something instead of buying a new one. Both of my grandmothers were like that (R.I.P.🙏🏾)
My grandmother was the same way, throwing away food was almost impossible for her, she even ate spoiled food. The cupboards were full of newly wrapped blankets and she still had clothes from the 1940s. Underwear and handkerchiefs (made of cotton) were also in abundance, half a closet was full of these alone. She had to starve and freeze a lot during the war, that must have been the reason.
My mother told me they ate cornbread and gravy for dinner many nights. That was all they could afford and were glad to have that to eat. Red beans and rice were something they also ate when the family had enough money.
My grandmother taught me about a lot of these things. She was born in 1951 so a few years after the war, but her family kept up these cooking habits for a long time and the impression always stayed with her. She lived in Germany for a few years and picked up some of their rations-inspired food as well, like grated potato cakes with apple sauce. She absolutely loved cooking and she enjoyed it more and more as she got older and more exotic/luxury items became widely available. She taught me to cook well and I love it, always have. I miss her a lot but I know she watches me cook sometimes :)
@@amazingsupergirl7125 I guess it just depends on where you're from, what your background is like... my grandma only passed it down to me because she loved cooking so much, I don't think everyone would. I don't know much about what it was like in the US back then, how similar/different it was. we definitely had similar rations! (UK)
I was born in 1943, and these recipes bring back so many childhood memories of my mom's family dinners (some of which I thought were delicious - others, just awful typical child!). At the time, I had no idea these were "make do" - Now I realize how resourceful our families became during war time.
I love potato pancakes with applesauce. I love potato pancakes with roast beef. But it sounds like we both were lucky enough to have family that love to cook. And I don't mean to sound sentimental, and I'm sorry if I do, but I am so glad I was raised by family that taught me to love food and be grateful that we have food to eat. I used "we" because I got the feeling that you were taught that simple but important lesson as well.
My mom grew up during the depression, and still used a few methods that were used to mitigate food scarcity, such as making meatballs with ground beef, breadcrumbs, and eggs. I still make meatballs the same way, I also add finely chopped onion. Mom had a copy of "The Good Housekeeping Cookbook", which was given to her as a wedding present. The book had a section devoted to substitutions, like how to make fake eggs, etc., along with a bunch of great recipies using simple and readily available ingredients. I think that the cookbook went through several re- printings, I found a copy in the 1970's, which I gave to my college girlfriend.
My mom made hamburgers that way, but I never thought of it as a way to stretch the ground meat (although we were 2 adults and 7 kids using maybe 1.5 lbs. ground beef); it just made the burgers tastier.
I am glad to see a video on this. I personally have my great grandfathers WWII ration book. When I first touched it I was in awe because of the history and to think he touched it himself.
M’y Mom lived in France when the Germans took over… She ALWAYS had a fear of not having food. This is why my home always had extra! My Dad grew up in the Midwest, he appreciated all that we had, but he often reminded us not to tease Mom about hoarding food, that we needed to be grateful that we never felt true hunger
We still eat sawdust. They call it cellulose now. My grandparents were dairy farmers during WW2. No problem getting meat, milk, eggs and veggies. One of the few times it was a plus to be a farmer!
And that is one reason I like to grate my own shredded cheese since it is used to keep shredded packaged cheese from sticking together. Also I find bricks of cheese don't mold as quickly.
When we were kids our dad taught all of us how to raise, pluck, cook chickens. We could choose to help kill them or breed for eggs. I choose eggs. The damn rooster I had last year made me wish I was better at killing chickens. I absolutely believe, now, roosters are little dinosaurs. He was excellent at guarding the Hens, though.
here in central indiana we have a plot of several thousand acres owned by a " paper " company . it gets clear cut every few years when the trees are 4 inch - ish in diameter . ive always felt strongly that this was being made into food . we are surrounded by corn , soy beans , and trees . it doesnt take a genius to figure out what most of our food products are made out of . once i looked at fruit pies at our local savalot store . they had apple , cherry , and peach pies . upon reading the fine print , no fruit was existant in either of the three pies . :{>
My grandmother was raising her kids when the Great Depression and WWII hit ... She taught me a LOT ... and the main thing is to be prepared ... period.
I have a small cookbook that belonged to my grandmother. It is called “How to can and preserve with rations during wartime”, and was given out by the local bank during WW2.. its very interesting, and also has recipes for cooking on a wartime budget. Very cool.
@@colleenpritchett6914 No kidding. I bought 2 packages of bacon, 2 cans of biscuits, and a gallon of milk the other day and it was 17.59.. Thank goodness it’s deer season and we canned from the garden this year..
@@wvcricker5683 I’m a widow and he never taught me to hunt, so I buy from farmers. I didn’t get much of a garden in but I’d did buy bulk vegetables which I’m still canning and dehydrating, done now to beets and potatoes. I know so many who look at me when I asked if they have put anything by…just blank stares. These people are going to really hurt especially since most can garden or preserve. Went to the store yesterday and butter was $6.19 on sale for a pound. Gas had jumped 20 cents. And we haven’t seen anything yet. Folks don’t understand we are in a depression,myhey just haven’t used the word yet. My God help us all
My nana in the early 1970s (she passed away in 73 or 74 iirc. I wasn't in double figures at that point) would make parsley soup. It was, from the dredges of my memory, a sort of potato soup with a lot of homegrown parsley in it. Possibly some leek. Dad said they had a good garden during the war. He continued to grow food well into my teens (and I was a bit of a late arrival. My big sisters were heading for high school when I was in nursery!) My dad's family lived in the countryside (working from age 14 on the railway, though, so he had some hair-raising stories!) and they'd barter with farmers for butter, cheese, sausages etc (Bampa was one of the few people who could charge the old acid batteries that the farmers got all their electricity from. Dad & Uncle Al had a tedious, heavy task to do!). All the children would collect hedgerow goodies for Nana to do her magic with. We did the same in the 70s (the hedgerow thing, no need to barter by then!), and hubby even did it in the 90s into this century to make wine. Nana would also grow stinging nettles in her small garden and make us nettle pop. It was quite like ginger beer. I have no idea if ginger beer, as it is here, is in the USA. It's not alcoholic, it's a "soda" which tastes like ginger - more like ground ginger than stem ginger. If you're pregnant with morning sickness (or tbh, just nauseous. I just attach it to pregnancy because I lived off it for three months with my last baby!), it's absolutely fantastic. I haven't had nettle pop since she passed away, but I still remember it! I've made parsley soup - _a_ parsley soup - and it was as good as I remembered.
Reminds me of my grandad - even into his 90's he would reuse a single teabag to make as many cuppas as possible before throwing it away, I think his record was 5 cups, and if one went cold he'd insist on it being reheated in the microwave rather than just make a fresh one 😅
My Grandma insists I reuse a teabag to make her teas too! She is 94, probably does 3 cups. My Oma lived in Austria during the war (told story to my Mum), she said they had found bacon in horse droppings. She and her neighbor took it home to share amongst the two families, washed it and cooked it. She said they were lucky to find it, at this time no one had any meat. I can never look at bacon the same 🤢
It confuses the issue to combine US and European food shortages. Mass hunger throughout Europe does not compare to US rationing. I suppose most people today do not appreciate what was required to win the war against fascism.
My 82 year old Dad was a little boy during the war, but he still remembers the rationing. The family gave up all but a couple of their pots and pans. They used the pony cart and bicycles to get around. Fortunately they lived in rural Southern California and my Grandparents had both grown up on farms. So they had chickens, a cow, horses, and a HUGE garden. My uncle raised rabbits for the Air Force (fur lined jackets) and they got to keep the meat for the family. There are still a few recipes that we use. Most of them are bean soup and simple salad.
@@TygerBleuToo He had such good stories from his childhood. Of the lamplighter who walked down the street, lighting the gas street lamps every night (and extinguishing them every morning at dawn). Of the horse-drawn fire equipment from the firehouse down the block, the horses' horseshoes striking sparks on the cobblestone pavement at night. When he was 14, Lindbergh flew the Atlantic. When I was 14, Apollo 11 landed on the moon.
My mother was born 1924. This brings her back to me and all the stories of her own experiences during WW2 . One was that when she and friends were going out to dance, they would take turns drawing a black line down the back of each other's legs to look like they were wearing silk stockings because all silk in USA was used for parachutes. Thankyou , I really enjoyed this, and am sharing with my daughter 💕.
My mom was born in 1927, my dad was born in 1922, and I agree these videos bring back stories from my parents. I wish I had paid more attention. We may need their innovativeness in he coming years.
Only 2" of water in bathtub.. Painted a 2" line in tub, so wouldnt get too much. I thought it was funny- in parents yearbook, someone wrote that they "liked cars with tires"!!! (Dad had to explain....)
The stamp system transitioned into a sort of reward system that lasted well into the 70's. I remember my mom saving her stamps for small appliances and cookware that my sister has to this day. :)
If you remember they also had Plaid Stamps. My mother used her Plaid and S&H Green Stamps to get a brand new folding shopping cart and an iron. Those were the good old days!
Which ever of us kids helped mom carry in the groceries from the car got the S&H green stamps for our book . I still have a Berkeley fishing rod and real that got circa 1982 !
@@bluedragonfly5145 My Sister and I just donated several books and sheets of the S&H Green Stamps to a thrift store that helps our local Animal shelters get the Animals Spayed and Neutered along with their shots..We also had An S&H Green stamp wall holder that held all the Books & Stamps it was Adorable!
The folks, in every country involved, who rationed without complaint and relied on creativity to feed their loved ones, won the war along with the soldiers as far as I’m concerned. My mom used to tell me about how my great-uncle would hunt every day so they could enjoy fresh meat during rationing!
Imagine this happening today. Cries of MaH rIgHtS would ring out and protests would ensue. It’s gross how entitled people are in this country these days. Especially because these same people feel the poor are so much lesser than them.
Plenty of squirrels died for the cause. Rabbits, too. I'm not a vegan or anything, but one thing good to know; lentils are a good meat substitute. Try beans a couple times a week. Great for your health.
@Cherish God Our whole family learned generosity thru previous generation's hardships. To this day, my now grown kids are known for feeding ppl, esp children.
My Dad was US Army Retired. My Mom was from Germany. She said towards the end of the war, getting a rotten potato was a treat. She said at 1 point she ate wall paper to survive. There was zero food wasted when I was growing up, we ate lots of leftovers.
I have a German friend who told me they would have to polish stone to get a bowl of broth a day. She said they had no shoes, what they had they would cut the front off so there was room for their feet for another year. She is now 83 and as fit as a fiddle. When she turned 50 she decided to start exercising which she went on to teach. We cruise together at times and she gets up early to be at the gym at 5:30 a.m. (and in bed by 10 p.m.).
My mother in law used to make her families never-ending wartime soup. You put barley, lentils, vegetables and pork hocks(if you had them) into a covered saucepan and boil. It would stay on the stove top and you'd just top up with water and veg as you used it. It had to be boiled everyday so it wouldn't go bad. She always made it in the winter and the older it was the better it tasted! There was one time when she was away that I was supposed to boil the soup for her. By the time Id remembered that evening I lifted the lid and discovered that a gross brownish foam had erupted out of the soup. I had to tip it away. She was not very happy with me at all!!
Remember the child's nursery rhyme, "Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold, pease porridge in a pot, nine days old"? They weren't kidding. Keeping food perpetually heated was one way to keep it from spoiling.
I remember WWII even though I was very young at the time it occurred. We had "Roosevelt coffee", meatless meals, and various other creations. My parents grew a huge garden and they had an orchard which they used for bartering. For example, they would trade a bushel of tomatoes for a little sack of sugar or salt, circumventing the ration stamps (which was probably illegal). My mother churned butter from a neighbor's cream, and as payment for the cream, she would mend that neighbor's clothes. (There were no new clothes to be had). We also raised chickens, so we had meat and eggs. On Saturdays there was a "food market" at the local courthouse. Old people and those who were poor or disabled could get a week's worth of free food to take home, mostly fruits and vegetables. People would deliver food to those who couldn't make it to the courthouse, but let it be known they needed food. My father would also load up the car on weekends (we could drive very sparingly, on Saturdays and Sundays) and take fruits and vegetables to the Black neighborhood so their children would have food. The people knew his car, and they would run to meet him with hugs. One thing I remember is that because there were no new clothes, women got creative with creating "new" dresses from parts of old ones. There was a "sewing club" to which women would bring their previously-worn dresses, and they would either cut them up and give pieces of cloth, buttons, or trim to one another so that "new" attire could be created. Women darned hosiery and underwear to make them last. It was considered an honor to be able to sacrifice for the war effort.
I love your family. I wish people were more into helping others like that now days. This would be so much nicer. Thank you for sharing such lovely family memories.
My grandparents were in the great depression and my dad and uncles were in WWII. I remember that my grandparents and parents would never throw food away. It was never given the chances to spoil as every meal was planned out and leftovers were made into the next day's meal. Despite my parents having quite a bit of money, I rarely ever had new clothes. It was hand me downs and blue jeans with patches sewn on from other blue jeans and the trick was trying to match the faded parts to match the area that was being covered. If any home appliance broke, dad would fix it and despite my parents having 7 figures worth of wealth, they only purchased 1 new vehicle their whole life when they were in their 80's and my dad figured that he was getting too old to wrench on a car anymore to fix it. Even as I got older I still had a hard time throwing out old lunch meat or some other items in the fridge that the kids did not end up eating like they said that they were going to. I am still amazed to see new clothes on the rack at the store that has fashionable tears or patches already in them selling for $40.00. That is what my clothes looked like when they were worn out. What will be next for this generation to purchase, brand new cars on the lot with rust holes and dents in them?
My grandparents lived threw the depression & WWII but luckily were on a farm they made potato pancakes I love them - also German dishes like hot lettuce a soupy stuff you put over mashed potatoes- it had a vinegar added to it & actual lettuce topped with sliced hard boiled eggs & crumbles of bacon I love that too haven't had it in many decades - but nowadays when I cook I think how hard it was for .y grandmother (mom mom) to make everything from scratch the hard way no convenience- & I can barely do it "with" modern day convenience
Omg, I grew up eating this minus the potatoes… cooked lettuce w a piece of fat back, boiled egg, and vinegar. I had no idea we were poor until I was a teenager.
It was simple recipes with not too many ingredients. I dislike expensive restaurants for that reason. More about decoration and presentation than homemade taste. Kids were much happier back then too. It was a peaceful time where the family did things together.
My grandmother raised her own vegetables, kept a dairy cow or two, laying hens, and a steer for slaughter. She already knew how to make her own butter and ice cream. Her uncle was a wheat farmer and kept her stocked. She always made extra for the neighbors who were struggling.
My grandma said during The Depression, they barely had enough food most of the time for their firstborne toddler to eat. She was pregnant with my mom and went days without food. As a result, my.mom was a sickly child. No medical insurance to get her diagnosed. Later in life, the dr's determined my mom with a heart murmur and also she had lifelong teeth problems. My mom ended up dying of congenital heart disease. Am grateful as sometimes poor neonatal nutrition can end up with a malfunctioning or misshaped organ and can be passed on genetically. My heart always checks out at the dr's amazingly well. I have always believed in many of our health answers are in our foods. My now grown daughters also research even more now that internet is available and diligently work their small budgets to pull out their kids foods preferences along with the best possible nutrition. Most of the kids do not really like the taste of junk food or fastfood. When I raised my daughters in between temp jobs in a high unemployment area, I rarely bought them junk food. Ice cream was an ok treat as it had some nutrition in it like milk and eggs. Definitely no dye colored foods including candy. Only a few times I had to break the rules as in between buses and I had no water, juices or granola or stringcheese snacks on me. Shopping last minute in a hurry at the grocery stores ended up not being able to find any decent nutritious foods. I was on paper foodstamps those days. I worked two jobs and still went to highschool so I taught my girls to respect the hardworking taxpayers having to pay into the system by choosing healthier foods to keep us from getting sick(and a double liability to the taxpayers for avoidablr dr's or hospital visits). My daughters sometimes bring up this topic and thank me for this food nutrition plus budgeting skills.
My parents married in ‘41.I still have her wartime recipe pamphlets, like eggless cake. If a special cake was needed, friends and neighbors contributed ration stamps-sugar stamps from one, eggs from another. Everyone had vegetable gardens. Many kept chickens and rabbits. Folks helped each other.
I have my family’s booklets. They state the coupons must be removed in the presence of the cashier. I wonder if this was actually followed. Did people have to buy the item themselves and give it to the neighbor? I remember my grandma talking about giving tickets to people who weren’t as good at stretching food, and teaching them what to do. Reusing coffee grounds; using meat to cook soup, then removing it and using it for a different meal.
We 3 kids are still alive. Our parents died a few years ago. All the stories they told us, I should write them down, are full of our history at that time. My parents got married MARCH 45, my brother was born SEPT 45, I came into this world JAN 48 and our sister AUGUST 50. Mother was able to breastfeed my brother. Solid food were turnips, pots bread. I I was born premature, not easy at that time. My bed was layed out with warm bricks. Hot water bottles were not available. The same food as my brother. My sister was born into the new BUNDESREPUBLIK OF GERMANY. ( FEDERAL REPUBLICK OF GERMANY, NOT THE DDR). She got ORANGES and a wider range of food . My brother turned out to become strong, no malnutrition. I was skinny, but was a very good athlet !!! My sister always had problems with her weight, but she turns out to be 74 in AUGUST. There were stories my parents told us, it was a very , very hard time, to organize food. HAMSTERFAHRT (HAMSTER TRIP ): with a Rucksack on their back, they went late at night ( e.g. when harvest came), to collect leftover potatoes, turnips etc ?!?. They were like HAMSTER , collecting all useful things to survive . And we have survived ! Mother was 85 and father nearly 91 when they left this world. We have learned so much through our parents . I wish my BROTHER AND SISTER AND MYSELF MANY MORE GOOD YEARS TO COME . BLESS YOU ALL.❤🙏🙏🙏❤
My granny told me all about this when I was really little. They lived deep in the hollers of Arkansas at the time. They did trade whatever they grew or raised on the small bit of land they had with neighbors to get by. With nine boys the rations didn't go very far either.
Sounds just like my Granny. She raised 9 children in the hollers of West Virginia. She did a lot of canning/preserving and they ate lots of pinto beans. They were poor but she made sure the family didn't go hungry. She was one hard worker!
I was a little girl in the early 70's, when the oil embargo hit. Daddy was a gas hauler. He lost his job. His brother lived in Tennessee. Thought he could get him a job with him. So Daddy went to Tennessee. Leaving Momma, me and my older brother. We worked a garden, had egg layers, a pig, after morning chores in the summer my brother would fish in the neighbor's pond. That winter he would hunt on Saturday and Sunday mornings Before Saturday chores and church. He was 8 years old. We split the chores or just did them together. But my greatest memories came out of that year. Sitting between my Momma and my Nonna stringing and snapping Blue Lake green beans, On the porch. Standing in a chair helping Momma can whatever was ready that day. Making biscuits. It taught me so much, when we had so little($). Trying to teach my son to make 2 ingredient biscuits(sr flour and butter milk). He'll get the hang of it. I've babbled on enough. Keep the memories alive and teach the next generation. Blessed Be to all. Yes i am an controlled hoarder.🤗🤪🐿️🧚♀️
@@stormmiestone5363 thank you for sharing that. That reminds me so much of my own childhood with my granny and family. Beans, oh how I remember my cousins, granny, and aunties. All of us drinking the sweetest tea you ever tasted and snapping beans. You brought back so many beautiful memories. Thank you for that, I'd forgotten a lot of that over the years 💙
I was born in 1940 and remember a great deal about the war years. We always had plenty of good food to eat, and no doubt living in Miami helped, as there was always plenty of fish, fruit and vegetables. I do remember my grandmother making "Depression Cakes" and they were delicious. Even long after, when my grandparents became well off, they never forgot the depression or their frugality, although much of the hardship was kept from me. "Hobos", as wandering homeless men were called at the time, arrived regularly at our door and were always given something to eat. People helped one another in a way not seen today, but which we may well see again if the world continues on its present course.
Remember grandma telling me stories of how people starved...what she cooked for survival .always remembered that. We are so blessed today..and we do not seem to care..
My mother, who was a teen during the WW2 years, was a wiz when it came to making sure that no leftovers ever went into the garbage pail. The result was often a dish we kids called "Shut-up-and-eat-it" as that was what she said whenever we tried to push the dish away.
I keep shaking my head when folks today whine about a "food shortage". We don't have a "food shortage" problem. We have folks who are spoiled, can't use their resources and waste food!
Yet. We don’t have a food shortage yet. With gas at $1.80/litre, and food prices skyrocketing, it won’t be long before there’s shortages of food. The mistake is thinking it can’t happen.
@@thenoneckpeoplerepresentat8074 it's up to $2.20 where I live and they reckon prices could well hit $4 a litre by the end of the year (using current exchange rates - I'm in the UK). Food prices are rising, gas and electricity prices are soaring and petrol prices will probably double within a year. This is the time to learn how to survive and to prepare for things getting worse.
@@JaneAustenAteMyCat Fuel and fertilizer prices almost doubled and still people bury their heads. Must be nice having the financial resources to weather the storm.
I read that we Brits were the healthiest we've ever been shortly after the war. My gran didn't have a garden, just a cobbled yard, what she did have was a variety of containers growing different things, including a Hip Bath growing beetroot.
Bubble & Squeak caught my attention, as it was something that my family still cooked from time to time. I was blessed to have my Grandmother with me till the rip ol' age of 105. Also, I'm no Spring Chicken. One day, and I remember her being over 100 at the time, I asked her about Victory Gardens. This was back when folks stayed in the same house for most of their lives. She pointed out where her garden was, describing what all they raised; pointed out where the next door neighbour to the south's garden was; where the person behind her had a garden. I asked about her neighbour to the north. Grandmother said, rather flatly, "Well, Mrs. S______ didn't really get into the Victory Garden idea. She was more of a 'Victory Girl.'" To this day, some 20 years later, I still just about fall out of my chair when I think of that little conversation. Hmm...think it's looking a bit like time to resurrect that Victory Garden idea again...
What WWII dish sounds the best to you?
Whipped cream part!!! Lol tomorrow I gotta go get more stuff for Thanksgiving & whipped cream is 7th on the list
Bubble and Squeak is highly recommended.
Im a extremely picky person so i doubt I’ll eat it
we never had any of that.
Potato sour cream
I was a little girl during WWII. Fruit was something we never got. The corner Grocery store gave me an orange once. He said he had gotten a small amount of fruit and was giving a piece of fruit to the children that came in with parents that were regular shoppers there. I still remember getting that orange. I was thrilled! I must have been a precious moment to me because 80 years later, I still remember him handing me that orange.
What a wonderful story! Thank you for sharing this memory with all of us, I love to hear about the challenging moments in history from those who actually lived them. There is such a deep human connection in it. God bless!
That made me cry.. God bless you 🙏
@@Ilovelife67 Me too! Maybe I’m getting soft in my old age, but I choked up as well. 😎🇺🇸
That’s an awesome story thanks for sharing
That's a lovely memory.
My mom.lived through the war in Greece She always said if you have milk ,bread butter and eggs you have everything. She was always so grateful for everything. She lived to 96 and I learned how to survive from her .❤
I say the same thing. Milk butter eggs and bread.
My mum was born in 1944 in Greece similar she's 79 now
❤ thank you
And from the "milk, eggs butter and bread" comes today's "French Toast Alert" meaning bad weather was imminent and to go get what you needed before the storm.
That's still relevant to me to this day. If I have food for dinner, I'm so thankful and I know I have all I need ❤
My mom grew up in the depression and ate alot of home grown potatoes, carrotts, stringbeans. Also elbow macarroni and home grown stewed tomatoes for the sause. Also a white gravy made of flour, water butter and salt and pepper. Would also have rice pudding and custard. Alot of other things. I was born in 1946 with 4 older siblings and 2 younger siblings and my mother would still cook us the greatest meals with so many of these being meals she ate during the depression. They were delicious. Also soft boiled egg on toast, oatmeal, malted cereal etc and of course cod liver oil every morning. 1 tsp. In the morning to all 6 of us. Those were the good old days. My mom passed away in 2016 at 92 yrs. Old. I miss her so much, she was my best friend. She was the most generous, loving mom ever.
Sorry for your loss. Thank you for sharing your story. Your dear mum sounds like an amazing woman.
@@daniellealex1795 thank you. She is my hero. I miss her everyday. I am now 76 and pretty much bedridden and from the time I wake up and until I fall asleep she is on my mind. I know I will be with her again. I am so blessed that I was chosen to be her daughter and her my mom.
We just lost our Mom at age 101. She came up through the Depression and WWII with our Grandma who passed in 2001 at 103. Both passed on amazing cookery making delicious meals with very little! They also kept alive habits of thrift. Just about everything was repaired and when that was no longer possible, repurposed into something else. Very, very little got thrown out. They had a huge Victory Garden beside the house, the location of which now houses a Firestone tire store! Austerity proved to their advantage considering how both lived to hit 100!
@Jean B • I never knew my mother, but you have described what her sisters where and did because of the times. My grandparents, still quite alive, at the time, were born in the 1890's. Papa, himself, was18 yrs old when Arizona was made the 48th state. Alaska and Hawaii had to wait 47 years, until 1959, for statehood. I grew up with history all throughout the home. An autographed copy of Grants Memoirs from the '90s, thousands of marks from the Weimar Republic and lots of newspapers with headlines of Capone, etc. Even had a great-aunt who was a Charleston girl at a speak-easy. Then , there came the Big One, WW11. The rest is history-literally.
She was lucky. And obviously not living in the Netherlands at that time...
My father planted fruit orchards wherever he lived. He had clear memories of eating out of trash cans and was determined to always have his own food growing.
I remember my grandmother telling me she was so hungry sometimes when she was little she ate from garbage cans.
My mother made roast tongue for Sunday meals in the 40’s, served with vegetables, potatoes, etc. It was a fabulous meal for the entire family!
@@euphoniahale5181 Actress Audrey Hepburn, as others in Europe during the war, lived on tulip bulbs to fill themselves up.
My mother was pregnant during WW II, and she told me that she was always
hungry.
@@MsBackstager
She said she was so petite because she never had enough to eat.
Precious souls all pulling together to help. Dear mommies doing their best to be creative with what they had. Melts my heart... I appreciate all that they did!
...thanks in great part to the hoarders who bought out everything and sold it on the black market!
@@oliviamartini9700 The length of the 2nd world war in the UK was a lot longer than in the US added to that Britain was bombed continuously with huge home losses, rationing was strict yet no one starved, hoarding was subject to being fined and in some cases jailed, by the end of the war, no one in Britain had anything to hoard, just like the rest of Europe.
@@alisonsmith4801 I am aware of this. We Canadians (along with Australians and South Africans) fought alongside the Brits from day one, and also sent "Bundles for Britain" for years to help out. It would have been very different if the States had joined BOTH wars much earlier.
But my point was that there are always assholes who exploit and exacerbate the suffering, like the ones who bought all the toilet paper and hand sanitizer last year and resold them for quadruple the price.
(And yes, the black market was strong throughout)
@@oliviamartini9700 Never let it be forgotten the sacrifice of our Commonwealth brothers and sisters, we never will in the UK, but we bore the brunt of a relentless war with rations that North America never came near to endure, yet at the end of rationing they found Britons where healthier than they had ever been, and your correct as someone who works for a huge chain of a British supermarket I've witnessed during the start of the Pandemic the stupidity of us supposedly " Keep calm and carry on " Britons and it's a bloody myth, greed and selfishness ruled every where, bloody good job we had had more resilience and commitment in 39 to 41 than we had falling to piece's over toilet roll, pasta and rice in 2020.
I can remember my mother serving things like "creamed peas" on toast for lunch or supper. Simply canned peas in a white sauce. Very cheap but filling. I remember dishes made with cows tongue as well. This was in the 40s..and both of my parents had grown up during the Great Depression..so my mother was very good at budgeting and cutting corners. I'm 78 years old and still have one of her old cookbooks with some of her favorite recipes from those years.
My mom did cream peas with chip beef in a jar, I ate bread in milk sometimes for ceral in the 50s
@@debbie189 My grandpa would break up a piece of bread in a glass, pour milk over it and eat it with a spoon before going to bed every night of his life. He called it 'soppy'.
Whoever made this video is apparently unaware that tongue is considered a delicacy, as in delicatessens used to always have it on hand, and it wasn't exactly cheap.
@@greyeaglem Yup. Beef tongue is actually delicious if cooked properly: low and slow. Beef tongue tacos are absolutely delicious.
I loved that dish! Remember having that recipe that dish in the early to late 50 s, and Mom would put some chipped dried sliced beef along with it! You are so right, it was delicious! Ever thought about starting a blog on those recipes, with others? Now would be a great time with this Covid and the inflammation.
The best part of this video is reading all the stories in the comments. Thank you everyone for sharing!
Agreed! It's strange and familiar, but makes me wonder if (the majority) Americans will ever be that humble and gracious again.
My father grew up during the war in a boarding school in Scotland. My mother on a small farm just outside of Liverpool. My dad told me he was given a small jar of marmalade which was to last him the entire month. They emigrated to Canada in the late 50's and when the recession happened in the early 70's I remember them giving up coffee, cigarettes, etc just to make ends meet. They built a garden with fruit trees in every house we lived in. Our summers were spent picking fruit and vegetables and taking them home to can. We had a root cellar and by the end of October it was filled to the brim with that bounty for the year. They had 8 children and fostered 2 more. Somehow we managed and even thrived. They instilled in me a love of working with my hands and taking nothing for granted. Forever grateful ❤️❤️
Thank you for sharing your families story, god bless you all ❤
My grandma grew up in Japan during WW2. The Imperial Army took peoples food for the war effort. She experienced almost 10 years of near starvation. Once, she had to buy a handful of little sparrow birds to eat. She also ate what she could find on the beach. Later in life when she came to the USA she was a food hoarder with 2 freezers in the garage, and closets in the house packed full of food. Even when it went bad she didn't want us to get rid of it, she needed the security of knowing it was there.
At lot of people of that age, the depression era, do that. My dad lived during the depression and he hoarded and saved everything. I remember when I was building a house and using a nail gun. He would gather up the spent nails and I asked him why.......you never know when you'll need them. You can't reuse nail gun nails, but that's the way they were. Nothing goes to waste.
My grandparents also.
I get the fear of running out of food.
My mom hoarded food. I remember us having 2 full sized freezers overflowing with food, cupboards overflowing with canned and boxed goods, all because she grew up during the Great in Depression. I buy enough and then just a little more for my little family.
@@danicegewiss862
Cold and hungry are good teachers.
My grandmother's boys went to WWII. When I was young she would say " waste not want not" and had a garden and canned until her 80's. Humility and grace. Courage and temperance.
There are some studies that show you can live longer if you've gone through a period of calorie restriction. Both Okinawans and some Ashkenazi Jews who lived through WW2 had to cut way back on food and both often live past 100 years old.
My grandma said that too. Used to tick me off.
Who are you talking about? Your uncle’s?...
@@randalllaue4042 and possibly her father.
🙂❤
My husband grew up during the depression. His idea of wealth was having food on the table.
Mine too. Growing up poor, I have this phobia of not having food even though I work now. Even though I grew up in the 90s lol
Absolutely! Roof over our heads and food on the table = wealth and contentment! Anything more is superfluous but a welcome bonus!
Same with my dad
It truly is
@@eduardocardona6608 So few realize this, and it seems like acceptance is more important to some than anything else.
I was born in 1935 so was young during the war, we never realized how hard it was for Mothers who did a wonderful job keeping us fed on very little with no grumbles.The difficulties were always kept away from us children.
Thank you, as I was talking to my grandma about her life born in 34 I couldn’t understand why she didn’t realize how incredible her mom was until I pointed it out,
I'm 70. My grandma grumbled about depression cooking until the day she died. Literally!!
@@francisfischer7620 😂 Awe! Yeah, it was definitely a time to make do, and not everyone had as much to make do with.my grandma was lucky bc they had their own gardens, and her dad had a little store.
I was also born in 1935 Kansas
@@farmtheland oh wow, AND you can use the internet😮 my grandma never learned how to use new technologies of any kind. That’s Amazing you can! She just passed away 2 weeks ago 😭 I miss her so much. Hopefully u stay around a lot longer bc the wisdom from your generation is very much needed. She is my husbands grandma, and became mine, I didn’t meet her until she was already almost 80. I was in my early 20’s. She completely changed my life, and my family’s for the better forever. One thing she impressed upon me is U r never to old to make a difference.
Am I the only one that has a sinking feeling that this situation could happen here now if we continue on the stupid path we are currently following?
Yep. By 2022. Let's go Brandon.
@@suzannakoizumi8605 🙄
It will be worse because there are very few farms. The local Farmers kept people alive
I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet...🤨
Sadly 😢
While the US had food rationing like the rest of the world it was not as severe as it was in the UK and Europe because of our vast amount of arable land and the lack of bomb damage. Food rationing was not only limited to the types of food available also the amount allowed per meal. So while we rationed we didn't suffer like other countries. What is truly humbling was how people endured this without any major complaint and pulled together to win the war despite rationing, shortages, bombings, and losing loved ones. They truly were the greatest generation.
UK food rationing ended in 1954. Not only did they endure the war stoically, but for nearly 10 years afterwards.
Yeah Britain sent food to our friends in Europe while suffering severe hardship ourselves, of course nowadays since " Brexit" the anger and venting towards us in Britain from our friends in Europe has been writ large and I say this as a remainer.
@@alisonsmith4801 How soon they forget. Continental Europeans have had their 'bacon saved' by the Americans several times during the previous century. My own maternal grandfather took 2 German machine gun bullets during the last major offensive in WWI ( Meuse-Argonne ). We have rarely asked anything in return, but have surely received many 'kicks in the teeth' from our so called European allies.
Sad indeed!
@@jaycorby My own Great Grandfather signed up in 1914, losing his life at Arras in 1917 and is buried in France, a North Eastern lad buried far from home, doing his bit for " King and Country ". We British are regularly told we where just a small part of the second world war, insignificant I read somewhere, well if enduring nightly bombing and severe rationing then still maintaining enough moral to defend our country in both the air and at sea and stop an unstoppable enemy from invading us and help change the outcome for the entire world ...
I wouldn't call that insignificant but sheer bloody mindness.
@@alisonsmith4801 Britain can hold its head high! I have considerable English heritage in my pedigree, and I can say with pride that it is unthinkable that my 'people' would have ever surrendered to the Nazis.
The only 'beef' I have with John Bull is the way they treated my Irish ancestors, but that even has its positive side...they wound up over here!
My parents both were Depression Era kids. Dad was also a World War 2 Navy veteran. They had hard times, all through till probably the 1950s. One thing they both said, that even if they didn't have much money. They ate well. Dad's family, were dairy farmers, and mom's parents lived not too far away, in a small coal mining town, in what they called a, "patch". Both of my parents sides, had gardens, raised chickens and rabbits, etc. Hunted, fished, and canned vegetables and fruits. My parents continued to have gardens, fruit trees, berry patches and so on, till the early 1980s. Mom could sew just about anything, fix things, dad and her built our house, and it's still there. They tried to make us as self sufficient, as possible. Hopefully, they did?
God bless each and every family for their sacrifices. Thank you!!!
@Paul: so many Americans don't know how to garden, sew, preserve food, cook from scratch these days. I wonder how we'd do in a
major crisis. My husband and I can do all these things, but we are in our 70s and 80s.
Same here with my grandparents
You might like the novel, Jordy, Bounce, and Lilli. ...The story of a couple of little kids and their cat, growing up together in the post-war 1950s. I loved it.
@@bookmagicroe9553 no worry..there are a lot of young people making gardens, having their chickens for eggs...and if we live close to farmers..that's a big plus!!
My grandma and grandpa got married in 1946 and had at their wedding reception sandwiches, and a tray of Italian cookies. That was the wedding meal for everyone. Brooklyn, NY. She said things were simpler then and everyone enjoyed what they had.
... or pretended to
They laughingly called those weddings "football weddings" because of the way the sandwiches on Italian rolls were tossed to guests. Very popular type of wedding in those days. My parents talked fondly about them.
My grandmother lived with us (my parents, me and my 2 brothers) in the 1960s and if I complained that the meat at dinner was tough she would say it's tougher when there's none.
Lol!
🤣
Lentils are a great alternative.
@@moniquemosley2122 jhhsife
I surely agree with grannie .they were grateful for whatever they had. Today we as a society really take too much for granted .At least most.
My grandma canned fruit and vegetables, had a stocked freezer and pantry, and always fed company that stopped by. She did this to the day she died. Her form of caring for others was to feed them. She had to go to work in a factory when the guys went off to war. She didn't talk much about that time but her frugality was directly linked to that timeframe. She always said to save your change for a rainy day because that day would come. God bless her sweet soul.
Yes, so many of our Grandmothers showed their love in this way. God bless all of their beautiful sweet souls.
Grandma had electricity? U must be so young! At grandma's house, they ate almost exclusively what they could grow in the yard. They got permission to grow in the vacant lot next door, too. My grandma sold a big wagon of produce in town most weeks of the year, too. They also had a few laying hens. Ate tons of potatoes, beets, carrots, cabbage, onions...
@@staceykersting705 That was when she was older. All the times I remember she had electricity. But, when mom and her brothers and sisters were young, my grandmother didn't have electricity or running water.
My grandmother in North Carolina was the same. I always brag on how she always had food from her garden, canned or frozen. So that when we came to visit, there was always more than enough delicious food. She canned pickles and veggies. She had frozen soups, pies, and other dishes. She also worked as a maid while she maintained her own household duties without all the updated appliances people have today. Yet she was always prepared and was never in a rush. They don't make women like that anymore. 😪
Sounds exactly like my family. They were not allowed to waste any food. That meant left overs was a sure staple. It was crazy what they did to try and elevate flavor and the perception of the eaters. One thing I haven’t heard here: SPAM. Was this not around ww2? When we were kids it was our meat many nights, and my mom mom crispy thin slices that were liked by all of us.
I remember my Grandmother cooking up some weird concoctions, but mostly, we did ok as my GF raised his own beef. He started with just a couple of young cows. That meant we always had milk, cheese and butter. Both my Mom and grandparents raised gardens and canned. The small town they lived in turned a warehouse into a sort of canning factory where people had all they equipment needed to can; they just brought their own vegetables and meat. There was a large river that ran at the southern end of town, so fish were bountiful as well. Given a choice, I'll take a little town like that to a big city any day.
Big cities are dying, so you're right.
Didn’t you have to give half of all home killed stock to the govt? And a lot of the canned stuff??
I can't handle the gossip because everyone knows everyone else in small towns ;-)
@@Jack_Russell_Brown sorry I was thinking of UK 🇬🇧
I just figured it was everywhere
@@kasie680 : Which half?
My mother told me about this situation. But, she really explained how much people "helped" each other in every which way. There was so much sharing, kindness and giving. Families took in relatives; sometimes borders. My mother always gave back after WWll by sharing her canned fruits/vegs - baked goods and outgrown clothes. She was quite active in her children's life. My father was all of this too (he was gainfully employed during the Depression and the War). Note: my mother was the youngest of 12 children, all of whom became successful after the War.
You had a wonderful family and a good neighborhood, consider your family blessed. Often, maybe most often, people become predatory in these situations.
Unless one lived on/owned a farm during WW2, I can’t imagine feeding a family with 12 kids. Also, until I saw this video, I didn’t realize how much American family’s “did without” then (and this following on the Great Depression. Especially compared to the over abundance of present day.
This is why my grandmother called me food spoiled. She was born in 1906.
That would have been one of the the toughest timelines to have been born in. People born in the early 1900s likely lived through WW1 , Spanish flu, dust bowl, great depression, WW2, Vietnam and Korean Wars.... a lot happened in 80 years time! No wonder they see average modern people as weaklings.
Yeah, I immediately think of people who look at their fridge/pantry and say "There's nothing to eat" or "I don't want to cook/I don't want to eat what's in there" and proceeds to order takeout
Holy smokes
One kick ass lady right there
I'm still using one of the recipes from mine.
I had to do a double take when I saw the picture of the soldiers walking along side the tank. The second man in is my father!
How wonderful
Or WOW so proud 🙏🙏🙏
That is amazing!
Amazing!
Wow
These days, we as Americans don't truly realize just how spoiled we are when it comes to food compared to 80 years ago.
And how much of that food is killing us.
Yeah I can't imagine how they made it on those rations. Dad told me
The UK came close to starving with
The U boat blocades.
Atleast they knew what they were eating then lol
@@sycoticpsycho it's called gluttony. And not all of us practice it. It's why I don't support Mukbang videos.
@@prosolokid7796 And I know what I am eating now. As a Vegan I eat a healthy and wonderful diet. I don't mess with fast food or Door Dash. I cook all my own food.
My parents grew up in the Great Depression. Then my father was in WWII. We had some poor times until my father got a restaurant and the whole family worked there. We never were rich but we had all the necessities of life and went on a big road trip every year. Once in a while we would have a lean week but my parents knew how to get through it. I have made it a hobby to study how they did it back then. My grandchildren lived with me and I'm proud to say they never went hungry and aleays had good food and places to go because I went fre and cheap. Their friends parents never understood how I could do what I did with all of them. We had a blast! I am now 72. I have excellent memories because I took advantage of learning about living frugally. You can be happy even if you live on cash.
I have an account from an old teacher of mine who lived through the Japanese occupation of Singapore when the British retreated. He grew up eating a thin rice gruel with dried anchovies and salted vegetables. Twice a year, on New Years and his birthday, he got a whole hard boiled egg to himself due to how destitute his family had become in the post war years after the Japanese occupation.
Really puts in perspective how fortunate we are!
I should appreciate hard boiled eggs more. We take things for granted when that thing is plentiful.
And now I understand my grandma and her strange meals. I thought they were just weird American Jewish food.. Nope, her meals were carryovers from her childhood. Thanks for the nostalgia. Miss you Grannie Annie 💙
What were some of her meals that she made?
I had a granny Annie too!! Ukrainian sooo yea alot of this is familiar to me
Just got the very same revelation! Especially the cows tounge!
Yes! I miss my Jewish grandma too. Her latkes were very filling, and we would have them about once a week. Very economical.
@@janedoeski9196 🥜
My grandparents born from 1870 to 1899 all went through the Great depression as all their children. My dad and my uncle were in world War II Army. My mother born in 1927 told me that sometimes they would only have potatoes to eat for a week. I remember when I was young having to use the outhouse and drink from the well. I've eaten snow ice cream and because grandmother could not afford a chocolate bar she gave me cocoa powder mixed with white sugar in a bowl that I ate with a spoon dry. I remember getting milk delivered in glass bottles onto our doorstep even into the 60s when I was young. If everyone would start planting vegetables everywhere there is a space we would be a lot healthier than buying that junk from Walmart etc. I remember if you got a tomato it was red, ripe and delicious. Nowadays they are basically orangey red with no flavor compared to what I ate when I was young.
Our back yard soil is very poor and rain is scarce and our water supply is full of chlorine and amonia, amongst other chem. But one year it did rain !!!! And I grew greem beans, corn, tomatoes and had a huge pumpkin patch. Our apricot tree even put out a bumper crop. How happy I was! Roasted corn on the cob, fresh veggies, apricot pies and pumpkin recipes gallore!
@@pamtyree6634 did you know that corn was a modern-day invention through breeding it was never corn like that in the past and even in the Bible when it talks about corn it's not talkin about the plant corn is talkin actually about grains. Corn isn't good for you and especially if you didn't grow it yourself for the simple fact that they spray it down with glyphosate which is a nasty chemicals that leads to Parkinson's. What a lot of people don't realize is that while they think they don't spray the peanuts with glyphosate but what happens is they grow the peanuts on the same ground as they grow the cotton and they spray the cotton down with it it is soaked into the ground and then of course peanuts develop underground and so they get this glyphosate. I've learned a lot more than I ever have about health since I've been listening to Dr. Eric Berg here on UA-cam and some others. Check it out if you'd like.
My mother made snow cream for us, when I was a child. I loved it. She was a child when the war broke out. We are citizens of the U.S. of A. She put milk, sugar and vanilla extract in it. Do you know if they had and used the same ingredients? This is Mrs. Ace X, in Florida.
@@acex8124 yes, and when they finally were able to acquire an old wooden bucket with metal container and gears with crank homemade ice cream maker oh boy...lol
I was a teenager in the late 60s in Duncanville TX. We had milk delivery from Bordens. He would even bring in the milk and put it in the refrigerator!
My grandmother used to make wedding mints. Everyone still wanted those at their wedding back then! Since she couldn’t afford butter, milk or cream, she would mix mashed potatoes, mint flavoring and powdered sugar! They were actually quite good!
Do you have the recipe? Sounds interesting 😮
@@crystal7743 it's the same as potato candy, there are recipes online.
It's pretty basic mashed potatoes, confectioners sugar, mix well roll into a couple balls, refrigerate, roll out spread peanut butter, roll up refrigerate until firm cut into slices.
Potato candy is delicious.
My parents lived through the Great Depression & WWII. Dad never talked much about those times, but Mom did. She was thankful she lived in a small farming village in the Midwest, because her family had room for a vegetable garden, they could raise chickens, and her brother could hunt & fish. Her brother also got a job building roads & bridges because of the WPA program begun by FDR's administration, & Mom got a job at a sewing project, so that provided a little income to buy things they couldn't raise or grow. For her parent's 20th wedding anniversary, relatives & friends gave them a gift of 20 silver dollars. That $20.00 lasted them a year. Old clothes were never just thrown away. If they couldn't be mended, then thread was carefully removed from the hems & reused. If the fabric couldn't be sewn into something else, it could be used to make quilts. Everything was reused & recycled (long before "recycling" became a thing). Mom made today's recyclers look like amateurs. Dad did, too. He kept any piece of wood or dab of paint from his carpenter jobs if he thought he might be able to use it later. He made me a book holder in 1981 with a base made from a piece of oak over 100 years old that he & his father salvaged from an old house they tore down sometime in the 1930's.
FDR was evil bad socialist Neil Ronald Reagan Neil free market economics
In New York people ate frozen food, olive oil and kraft dinners as early as the 1930s. Clearly they lived in the lap of luxury compared with everyone else. Now they are the suffering ones eating offal and cabbage. Look who's laughing now!!!
My grandparents never felt poor she send she always ate well.
My grandparents lost their farm during the Great Depression, but everywhere they lived after that Grandma kept a vegetable garden, up to the 1970s when I was a child. Her favorite "coffee" was Postum too! During WWII, my mom described making their own margarine blocks with a yellow food dye pill that was blended in, ration food stamps, how stockings were a luxury and ladies painted on leg makeup instead. Her family always cooked at home and used every last scrap of leftovers - for soups, casseroles, etc. When I was a child we saved old clothes and linens to tear into dust rags & cleaning rags whenever possible. It was just common to reuse, recycle and eat leftovers in the Midwest in the 50s and 60s where I grew up.
My Mom & Dad too. Dad was a Marine Corps pilot in the South Pacific. Mom worked for the department of the navy.
I live in Amsterdam ..My grandfather told me many horrors of the fall of the Nederlands . During WW2 . And how a Canadian Troop saved his life , Thank you Canada for being there . Love to All Canadians .
A Canadian veteran who took part in the liberation of the Netherlands told me this story. He and his tank crew were billeted with a married couple, who had fields of corn growing. So he said "I'll swamp our rations for corn." They asked why he wanted it. "To eat, of course " "But ... that's cattle feed !" He and his men borrowed the wife's big pot, picked, shucked and boiled a big heap of corn, and ate it, while their hosts sat there with their mouths open. I always wondered if the couple started eating it themselves. If they did, they probably buried the cobs after dark, so the neighbours wouldn't find out.
I have a 96 year old friend who was with the Canadian army in Holland. He has fond memories of the people there and is invited every 5 years by your country in appreciation for what they did.
Yeah I love canaidia
My grandfather was in the Canadian military. He fought in Holland in WWII. He drove tanks. He also stayed a few years after the war to help the people of The Netherlands. He never would talk about what he experienced. My boyfriend's grandparents are from Holland. They had to eat grass to survive because there was no food. Eventually they emigrated to Canada. Their descendants, including my boyfriend, to this day will not eat corn. It's animal feed to them. Even the tender peaches and cream they don't like.
@@marylyn5965 That's interesting because for the last few generations, Irish people wouldn't offer fish or seafood to visitors. My grandparents called it "famine food".
After watching this, it gives me alot more appreciation for what foods are so easily accessible to us in the grocery stores.. I don't think people realize how precious our food is and the process that goes into producing/distributing food
I have become much more aware of how lucky I am to have so much food available to me and I am truly grateful for it.
Not "realising" is a choice. They know, they just think they'll never need to find food the old fashioned way. A lot of them are going to pay for that hubris in the coming months.
That had to be a stressful time if you were trying to raise and feed your children with your husband away at war? On top of it all that point-system of rationing food put the clencher on it! Much respect for those moms!😉😎
Soon we will all know first hand what it feels to live like this again. Build back better.
Thanks Tina N. It's funny you say that because I think in my head how greatful I am to farmers since I am not the best at growing vegetables. I am fine with fruit and flowers, but growing enough veg to support my family-I so need more practice. I thank them in my head all the time and wonder how I can say thank you. Silly I know, but I appreciate your comment.
Mom born in ‘22 told of family living in CA would send a big box of oranges from their trees to her family in the mid-west during the depression and WWII.
They continued to gather for Thanksgiving, most of which would save back rationed items so that when they came together they could make deserts. The men would have gone hunting or an uncle who had a farm would bring a turkey. The ladies would make pies /cakes and side dishes….once they came together, so would their celebration to give thanks!
My grandmother was visiting my first apartment and I told her I hadn’t gone shopping for the week so there wasn’t anything really to eat. She sent me to run some errands and when I returned she had a four course meal ready. She didn’t drive so there was no way she went to a grocery store. She would just laugh and say “the alternative isn’t acceptable”.... They don’t make them like her anymore!
This the type of grandma I’m trying to be one day 🥺
I can whip you a meal up with nothing! Meal magician! I have done this many times😊👍 Veggie loaf with crackers and oats! I have done this!
@@bettyc.parker-young1437 . 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽. It really is a lost skill but apparently you have it! Individuals like you amaze me. 👍🏽👍🏽
Awh, love this so much. My grandma lived through the Depression as well and she could cook like no one I've ever met. Everything from scratch, literally not how we think of it these days. I miss her so much.
One thing I remember, no one complained! Everyone knew it was for a good reason!
I never realize just how much the civilians had to sacrifice during the war. They truly were the greatest generation
General Patton after the war said, "We fought the wrong enemy!" I personally think Edison was one of the greatest inventors in the late 1800s when America really became the richest and most powerful in the world.
@@youareright4917 Edison was the biggest thief ever.
@@steppy3736 Edison invented the world's first.. 1. Stock ticker machine.. 2. Duplex telegraph.. 3. the first quadruplex telegraph.. 4. the worlds first Science Lab for Inventions.. and you think he stole all of those great inventions? FROM WHO???
@@youareright4917 he didn't invent anything. He just patented things first.
If only people today had the willingness to sacrifice that people had in those days.
My Dad's parents had a huge garden that got them through the Depression & then World War II. What they didn't use immediately my Grandma Ola canned. Some people nearby had chickens & my Grandparents traded garden produce for eggs & chickens. Grandma baked all their bread, rolls, pies, etc. Meat was for holidays & coffee was served only every other Sunday. Leftover coffee was either reheated in a saucepan or used to make red eyed gravy. Egg shells, used coffee grounds & any peelings, etc. went into the compost bins for next years fertilizer. Seeds were collected & dried for the next years planting.
Nyvgrandma
I still make red eye gravy with ham eggs and biscuits. Absolutely delicious.
Thanks for the idea. I'll have to look up a "red-eyed gravy" recipe. An overseas friend sends me packets of coffee to try for Christmas, and I enjoy trying them, but am not a coffee drinker. The gravy would eliminate waste.
Kathy, my name is Ola! Where did your grandparents live ?
My grandmother passed this pass May. She was 96 years old. Born in 1927, by the start of the second world war would have made her around 12. As i got older and older i never realized just how much she had lived through. She was from a family of 8 siblings. All my great uncles were pilots and navy men in the war that died in combat 🫡. My grandmother was secretive about her life. She never let on to much about the past. I wish I could go back and ask her just what living through all of that was like. She had a small shrine in her living room of old war memorabilia. She had literally had old military weaponry and pictures laying around. She was a switch board operator for the original southwestern bell phone system. I wish i would have asked her these important questions before she came down with dementia. I know in couldnt have been the man i am today weather i agreed with her sometimes or not. R.i.p Grandma Carmen. We are from Houston Tx.
My dad continued to eat some of these things, but he couldn’t stand to eat beans any more. He said he ate 10 lifetimes worth of beans in a five year period. Lard and sugar sandwiches were a real treat. Sh!t on a shingle was another hit. He once ate laundry starch to stop the hunger pains. He teased us with a story of saving up to buy a box of cracker jacks with his sister. One got to chew it and the other got to swallow. They had 8 hungry kids in bed on Friday nights and his parents would splurge and cook and eat a steak. He said the smell was torture and their tummy’s would growl! I cannot stand to waste food to this day❤️ May you all have the food you need and remember how blessed we are!
i truly hope this is a true story because it really touched me. you are right. we are too blessed. makes me want to re-evaluate the way i just take things for granted. Thank you
I remember being hungry enough to eat toothpaste when I was young.
@@unicornhollowhomestead I’m so sorry. We need to take care of children better.
Sounds good. Soggy cracker jacks but probably better than french fries.
We lived in the country. Bullets were rare so every shot had to count but my brother and dad would go hunting and what ever they got we ate and were grateful for it. We would grow vegetable, lots of cabbage as it would keep for months in a crawl space dug under the house. My grandmother would scoop fresh snow adding some sugar and flavoring and it was our 'ice cream' treat. Bread crumbs were saved to thicken soups or eat as cereal. We had chickens so plenty of eggs. My grandmother would tie strings across the kitchen when she'd make noodles. She'd cut them into slices and hang them over the strings to dry. She'd make loads of them and we'd keep them in old pillow cases to have for a meal over the weeks till it was time to make more.
Just want to say how awesome the narrator is. Truly pleasant and entertaining sir...
It’s almost a modern Trans-Atlantic narrator accent
He sounds like the actor James Woods.
It's good overall but sometimes it's laid on a little thick
Yes, and he isn’t trying to crack corny jokes as well.
He sounds like French Stewart who played Harry on the TV show 3rd Rock from the Sun.
My mother used to tell us how she would heat a can of sweetened condensed milk, causing it to caramelize. This would provide a sugar substitute that she could use to bake cookies and cakes.
That is a great tip!
I use this method in order to make caramel sauce for banoffe and other deserts
Creme brûlée 😋
Dulce de leche!
My family still does that. We call it 'dulce de leche'. I never thought to use it as a substitute, we use it as a dessert topping. A little drizzle goes a LONG way
My daddy, who was born in June of 1918 in southern Illinois, the youngest of 6 children. told me one of his very best Christmases was when he received two gifts one Christmas morning…one was a jackknife and the other was an orange. He was 78 in 1996 when he died from lung cancer but he always remembered that jackknife and orange from when he was 11 or 12. I miss my daddy.
the elders in my family received candied orange peel for Christmas made by their great grandmother. It was a treat they always looked forward to. They also had pickled watermelon rind.
May he rest in peace
I miss mine too! N my mom! Unfortunately nowadays some kids Cannot Have A Jackknife or even Watch Scarry Movies or See Abuse in their Homes!!! Very SAD!!! We will Pray 🙏 For Jesus to let those kids Be Freed from the EVIL Spirits that are Destroying A Happy Blessed Peaceful Life They Could Be Enjoying😢!!!
I remember being told by my grandma that my dad ( born during the depression) received an ice cream square with a Christmas tree in the center at school. he thought that was the best thing ever and refused to eat it, he stuck it in his shirt pocket where it melted before he made it home to show his mom. I could see my dad doing that. I miss him dearly also he passed in 2019 at the age of 87. God bless dads🤍🕯️🤍
@@ladybearbaiter My mom used to make candied orange and lemon peel. It was a welcome treat. She also used to make steamed pudding that was very tasty I remember it was made in a small coffee can in the oven. Thank you for bringing those memories back for me. Bless you.
Saving and using those S&H green stamps was fun to our family. Mama used to get a strip of those everytime she got groceries. That was back in the day when laundry powder boxes had a drinking glass in them.
And towels!
And "Golden Wheat" pattern dinnerware! We had the whole set of dinnerware and both the juice/milk size glasses. Here's your bit of trivia, it was "Dus" laundry detergent! I saw a set of the dinnerware a few months back at our local thrift store, but decided against buying bit, the trim on the dishes was actual gold, so I couldn't use them in the microwave...
I remember pasting Green Stamps and saving coupons from some kinds of cigarette packs. I was born in '58
I was born in 1953. S&H green stamps as well as blue chip stamps continued up into the 60s. My mother used to save them. Also Chesterfield cigarettes had stamps as well.
I still have framed print that my grandmother saved books for. There is the number of books needed on back.
My parents grew up during the WW2. I remember stories my parents told us about food they ate. They ate road kill (porcupine,squirrels ,etc.)
We are so wasteful in todays generation and also blessed because of the bountiful the earth has to offer . Thank you farmers, fishermen, and all the people who bring food on our table. I’m very grateful!
Yes, thank all of them for all they do.
However, all of this is being taken away from us purposly. The world is already at war, they just haven't announced it yet.
Times are already very rough for some, in Europe more than in the new world, but it's still bad and will get worse.
We are indeed moving into very rough times and it will endure for some time unfortunately 😪.
Thank you indeed to all the farmers, ranchers, fishermen and women who supply us with nourishment 🤗
My grandparents had 6 kids during the depression and WWII. Grandpa could grow, catch, or fish to keep everyone well fed. In looking at these stories I realize how fortunate they were. People today don't understand how bleak things were because of the illusion of plenty. That plenty can change in 48 hours if circumstances allow.
Not wasteful, we just have no need to by hyper conservative with food.
my mother lived in war time Japan. One of the things she made for me recently was a steamed bun made from rice flour and minced vegetables. it wasn't particularly the tastiest thing, but it was something she looked forward to eating everyday as a child. I was grateful to taste the experience without the war, because it was one thing she could remember that made her happy despite the horrific memories of living in Japan during those times
I like rice flour breads and pastries.
This is a sweet story and great comment! Thanks for sharing! Do you happen to know how to make this steamed bun? Care to share?
Now that remind me of, “grave of fireflies”😭😭😭💔💔💔
@@lilyhudson8470 Yeah, thank the good ol muricans for that.
I was fortunate in multiple ways, yes I have many wartime recipes and postwar appliances qnd cutlery. I used to can, until my trailer in Japan got destroyed by my neighbors on a free for all, including some appliances. They all got drafted now they know what it's like.
Who else used to watch Claras channel ❤ Great Depression cooking…. Such great ideas for today too!
Yep and Phyllis Stokes. She is gone now too but her son does periodic videos, sometimes with his children. It's worth a look.
My dear lovely mother would feed eight people on $40 a week she went to three stores bought all their sale items and baked bread and cakes and pies I was her little helper and she had meat and vegetables and a dessert at every meal 50s and 60s and 70s
@@gardenlady2041,Yes, I love both those channels,Clara grew up on dandelions from the yard and they both made great meals.
@@Bernadette-di4gl did that with my mother and still get dandelions in the spring. I also make wine. I didn't this year. I just didn't have the time.
@@gardenlady2041 ,Yes,even Martha Stewart said to do that, I am in an apartment,so I just bought the dandelion root extract for myself and my son cuz he had bladder cancer and I got it for my vision and diabetes,it was on sale $16.00 a bag.
I remember once my Mamaw had some leftover mashed potatoes. We ended up in the chicken house and garden all over mashed potatoes. With the mashed potatoes as her inspiration she whipped up a amazing meal. We had tater cakes, , boiled eggs, sliced tomatoes, fried green onions, and onion cucumber salad. It was amazing to eat fresh from the earth and watch her make something out of nothing. God knows id love to go back and do it again. I love and miss you Mamaw.
Iv haves fried tater cakes onion tomatoe cucumber salad green beans with only ends of fried bacon n cornbread soaked in buttermilk WE DIDNT WASTE FOOD LIKE PEOPLE DO TODAY WHICH PISSES ME OFF!
@@Sh-ih5vk My children remember tater cakes. We had mashed potatoes a lot. They didn’t come from a box!
Menus were so much different when I was a girl back then. Fresh fruit and vegetables were seasonal. Jams and jellies provided the vitamins during the cold weather
and vegetables had to be canned. Local areas ate local grown food .We take for granted today the great variety in our supermarkets brought in by trucks and ships from afar. There were no supermarkets and no fast transportation. No freezers, either. Kids were excited to find an orange in their Christmas stockings! The 1960’s introduced new seasonings and new food. And it’s gotten “worse” (to me.)I still prefer the “simple”food.!
I feel so much better when I eat simple foods. It's like when you fill your gas tank with premium gas and your engine runs clean.
My mom was born in 1964. She got an orange in her stocking every year. It’s crazy how much the world has changed so quickly in such a short amount of time.
We got apples, oranges, pecans and walnuts!
I knew an old farmer that grew up in the era you are talking about. And told us it was such a treat to get an orange that he ate the peelings as well.
I never once got anything like that. I think this generation’s parents overcompensated…out of love, because they wanted their children to have more/ to have better, the American dream, but in the midst of it, we (millennials/gen z/whatever you want to call it) my generation…got spoiled. There was so much so fast. We went from being thankful and amazed by oranges in our stockings one generation to now expecting stockings full of toys and treats and a tree full of presents. It’s all so much😅whatever you believe etc….it would be nice to go back to basics. Just my rant.
I take care of my 92 year old mother with Alzheimer’s. Her favorite story is of food shopping with her mother and the owner giving her a candy bar. She says it was the first time she ever tasted a chocolate candy bar and was given something of such “value”! 92 years old and it’s her favorite story!
Love her heart.
Oh how precious x
How beautiful. Thank you for sharing this. 🍫🥰
Bless you !
@@margaretmary-dj1ps interesting that I received this today in my email. Mom passed away this week…..thank you.
I was three when WW2 ended. I remember that telephone call that made our parents so giddy, they danced us children around the kitchen in their arms. We grew our own vegetables and had chickens for meat and eggs. My play clothes at that time were made from chicken feed sacks. Food was always held in great appreciation in our home, and our mother taught us to be good cooks. (I am Virginia, not Jim.)
My dresses were made from feed sacks too!
@@elainereese8902 Flour sacks.
@@jamesvoigt7275 those food sack dresses had a soft, dry feel you can’t get in cottons now. I guess it was the lack of finishes.
I remember my dresses being remade by my mother from other dresses she unpicked and remade in multiple colours in larger sizes. We also had our jerseys made of unravelled old jerseys with wool washed dried and then rewound before knitting into new cardigans or jersey.
My grandfather was a steel worker in the US, so he didn't have to go fight. But on Sundays, he went out hunting to provide meat for his family and usually came home with a few squirrels, rabbits and/or raccoons. He kept doing it after WW II ended since it was a cheap way to provide food, but one day in the late 1940s my grandmother put her foot down that she wasn't skinning and cooking one more squirrel and they were going to the butcher to get actual meat.
Was it safe that time eating squirrels or raccoons ? Aren’t they prone to diseases like rabies? I mean yeah u have to make do with hunger but what are the chances getting infected😅
@@edster8416 you can usually tell when they are sick. If you know the animal's typical behavior you can tell when it's off. The one usually associated with being immune to rabies is bats, but they are still carriers and people dont reeally hunt them here. I would definitely not eat an opossum though. They eat a lot of little nusiance stuff and are carriers for a lot of things.
@@edster8416 Watch the show on netflix called "Meat Eater" and you will see their are still a large amount of people who still are eating squirrels, raccoons and even nitro rat's. These people live here in the United States.. -Mercy(sorry for the name confusion I am on my dad's phone at the moment)
I had squirrel once. A friend of a friend had a nut orchard over run with squirrels so he hunted them and gave a bunch to my friend who cooked them in a stew. A little tough but taste was OK. I've also had rabbit at Colonial Williamsburg. I would NOT eat raccoons though. Their diet is to crazy for me to want to do that. The squirrels OTOH were eating nuts and the rabbits vegetables so that is fine.
Gross, lol
In acknowledgement of "Victory Gardens"; Maine just became the first state in the Union to vote that growing/raising your own food is a legal right. Some people don't realize that they do not have the legal right to grow their own gardens or raise their own farm animals for food. I was stunned when I learned about those facts. So I definitely voted that food is a human right.
That is just crazy! I believe your state government needs an overhaul. I don't think you could tell anyone in my county here in Arkansas that we could not grow our gardens. We would just laugh at them.
In North Korea today, people can not legally grow their own food. Everything is owned by the government. Everything.
People risk jail if they plant a small garden.
@@geddylee4082 that is just sick...
Michigan tyrannical governor Gretchen whitmer ban the sell of seed durning the big scamdemic scare ,,,yet she and her hubby did as they pleased as did most of the democrats rino politicians...
@@terrimoore8433 Tyrannical governor Gretchen whitmer in Michigan did ..yet she/ hubby did as they pleased.
I was a little girl also. My dad was a fireman with a slipped disc in his back. He waited to 1945 to get the surgery, which was very rare at that time. But he had a garden, my mom canned, and my dad hunted. So we ate a lot of rabbit,squirrel and some venison. We lived in an area surrounded by military bases. So we had lots of blackout nights and was scary for a 3 or 4 year old. My dad had friends so he would barter with them. Some could get eggs, some could get other things. So they traded a lot of time.even with all of those things I had a wonderful childhood. Beautiful memories. I did shuck a lot of butter beans and snap a lot of green beans for my mom to can. But they are my memories.
And what great memories those are.. kids now a days cannot say the same to many people on the phones and internet that don’t know about real life real world stuff they complain about any and every little thing.. my grandma and grandpa use to use every little thing nothing was thrown out and I would help my grandma as well I love those memories they are the best ❤
Born in the 30's,,,lived through 40's,50's. Mother was an excellent cook. We had a large garden and a kitchen garden, begun in March (midwest region). Gardens were the saviors of the day! Organic and hard work, worth every labor. Loved my life then!❤
Did you live in NC? I did. Surrounded by military bases.
@@verahinnant8021 I miss sitting on the porch shucking beans with my aunts.
There is ALWAYS something to be grateful for.
YES! Give thanks!
Welcome reminder, thanks!
Greetings from the island of Malta where our people were living in shelters for 2 years under constant bombardments obviously basic food was practically non existent yet they survived, so proud of all the Maltese who never gave up!
My grandmother told me of using mayonnaise in baking recipes as a substitute for eggs and oil. I've tried it today and honestly, it's pretty good, and makes for a moist chocolate cake. Oddly enough, sawdust is still being used in food products to this day. Any time you see "cellulose" in an ingredient list, it's indigestible fiber from plant cell walls, which can include wood from trees, and pulp from grasses and algae.
I heard of a chocolate mayonnaise cake and that I heard that it's really really good it makes the chocolate Tangy in the cake moist but there's also another version of strange chocolate cake with chocolate sauerkraut cake where it feels like coconut instead of tasting like sauerkraut reason why is because you have to dilute the sauerkraut
Fun fact: mayo is made by emulsifying eggs and oil, plus an acid and together creates mayonnaise.
@@giovannicervantes2053 Duke's mayonnaise has a good recipe for chocolate cake using their mayo.
@@giovannicervantes2053 Portillo's makes and sells a chocolate cake made with mayonnaise.
Mayonaise cake is really good........but often people mistakenly use Miracle Whip, which gives it a weird tangy taste.
Dandelions were the first greens to come out in the spring. My grandmother used to fix them several different ways. We would eat the buds with a little bacon grease.
Grandma would always ask if I wanted vinegar on my dandelion greens - no, thank you!
We had wild mustard, lambsquarter and dandelion greens each Spring and I loved them. They had to be young, small to be tender and not bitter. Steamed and served with vinegar poured over them and chopped boiled eggs on top they were delicious and very heathy for you. I still gather these three every Spring.
My mother also learned that from her grandmother. Did the same.
My mother was born in 1920, she made dandelions with bacon, onions and vinegar it was warm and good also the dandelions were young. I also was the one who went out to pick them.
My mother picked a green called Lambs quarter It grew wild and was easy to spot because it has a grayish color. I used to enjoy picking it with her every spring.
From the Netherlands: in the last winter people even ate tullips, wallpaper glue, etc. (Hunger winter 44-45). Some dishes I remember my gran making: pavlova (beating egg white to death, it kept on expanding and was a luxury), potatoe pancakes, union soup, leek pie and the ‘mock mayonaise’ (consisting mashed potatoe, vinegar and herbs). My grandparents lived naar the Belgian border and most of the ‘make do’ cooking inspiration came from Belgians (who had experienced WW1 and thus very experienced in ‘mock’ dishes with a few ingrediënts).
Wallpaper glue?!? My word..
And dust cake, the floor sweepings of bakeries or even grass
I remember reading about this after listening to an interview with Audrey Hepburn, who nearly starved to death during the German occupation.
Yes, my stepfather was about 12 at the time. He lived in a flat in Amsterdam with his mother. He remembered practically starving, his mom collected grass to eat at one stage. I have 4hrs of tapes he made talking about his life back then. He watched an attack by the RAF on a gestapo prison once. Flew right down his street...
@@cha0ticT. Wallpaper paste was made from flour and water. the paper was soaked and scraped.
My family was lucky, because my grandparents had a farm before WW 2. Meat like chicken, duck, or pork was always available, as were eggs, milk and butter. Beef was another story. Cows', beef or dairy, had to be registered with the government who had to be notified when the animal was disposed of by sale, slaughter, death or mysterious disappearance. To avoid profiteering by black market sales the government tracked to where and how was the cow disposed of. During one winter my grandparents took Josie an old and now dry milking cow and slaughtered her on a Friday night. The meat was cut, wrapped and distributed to family members. Since it was a weekend government offices were closed so the loss of a cow who "slipped on ice, broke a leg, and had to be humanely dispatched" was reported on the following Monday. Since the family was large enough to account for the amount of meat produced and the circumstances of the situation seemed reasonable.
Yeah mum & dad used to tell me about the rules on the farm during the war. Pretty bad when your ordered about on your own private
Farm. But I suppose everyone had to be a commie to beat Hitler.
@@martinjenkins6467 Thanks for the comment. Fortunately farm food helped to ease the taste of having to eat Spam and/or canned salmon or other non-point foods. 😊👍
Cow meat is disgusting. Iykyk
@@ddpg9976 Did you know beef is "cow meat"? 🤢 2U
@@OleGeezerCirca1941 you should look it up and see what is considered “cow” meat and what type is sold as “beef”
My grandma told stories about her and her siblings picking dandelions for salad and drinking coffee made from a 2nd or third round of water run through the same grounds instead of milk during the war. They were pretty poor at the time. She was first generation here, her parents were immigrants from poland. Crazy the things families went without and did to keep everyone fed.
Your grandma was right.
yes my family immigrated here from italy with nothing . amazing . i still enjoy so many dishes that were considered frugal
You eat the leaves of the dandelion plant, not the flowers or stems on the flowers. Dandelion greens and "poke salat" were a staple in East Tennessee diets back in the day.
@@tncowgirl34 okay,
@@darlenediciccochiriano3072 for sure, we mustnt forget from where we come.
"Finish everything on your plate. There are people starving in China." - Grandma
Box it up and send it to them" - Me.
@@maggiesmith856 Name one!
Eat your rice think of all those poor kids in America eating canned spinach
In the 60's...it was, "there are children starving in Bangladesh."
@@laurimcclish212 Hah, the genocide their own government was funding then
My great grandmother (90) recently wrote about growing up in the Great Depression, and the war.. her mother volunteered as a plane spotter, luckily they never saw any enemy planes.. one story in her writings had choked me up. Her mother was away I think for work (during wwII) and a war plan had crashed on the corner of their street killing two little children. Being that no one had cellphones or anything of the sort, all my great great grandmother knew, was that a plane had killed two little children on her block, where she had left my great grandmother and her little sister that morning. I can’t imagine the dread of not being able to get in contact in a situation like that..thankfully it wasn’t them, and they were both okay.. on the lighter side though, she described eating clams, fried eels, and her grandmother would make her the best rice pudding she’s ever had to this day! I am so so lucky to have her, and so blessed to have the book she’s written on her life! I can’t wait to see her this Easter. :)
I grew up in the States in the 1950s. My Mum and her mother were both Englishwomen. Bubble and squeak was our normal Monday supper, made from the leftover roast beef, mashed potatoes, cabbage, and parsnips from Sunday dinner. And beef tongue was a regular item on our table. Leftovers were thinly sliced and became a cold tongue sandwich with mustard.
My parents were married in 1946. The war was over, but rationing was still in place. My grandmother had to save up sugar ration tickets to give the baker for the wedding cake. Pictures of the cake show it wasn’t covered with frosting, but had a few frosting rosettes on it.
Oh I haven't heard of the frosting rosettes and I LOVE that idea! I have seen a woman talk about the faux hat box that was decorated to look like a cake and placed on top of the real cake that was tiny and not full of icing. Thanks for sharing this.
Canada. Still have my grandparents and father’s ration books.
Queen Mother Hane, my parents were also married in 1946. I remember the sugar rationing very vividly. I was very young and saw my mom accidentally spill some sugar from a big bag. She actually cried and Begged me to Promise to not tell dad.
I never realized how significant that was til much later in life.
@ Caper here Here in the U.S.of A. my great-aunt Alice told me about the vouchers. I remember that she told me about gasoline, shoes, and sugar vouchers. I cannot remember but think that flour may have been one. My father said that you could only get one pair of shoes every 2 years. He had to walk to school and to work with cardboard inside of his shoes, because of the holes in the souls of his shoes. I know that there is a lot of rain here in Florida, so he had to change out that cardboard often. It is a good thing that he was not in the snow. If you know where these vouchers are located they may become handy in our near future, huh? lol. Seriously, I would love it if you could send me the list of types of vouchers that they gave out. Thank you, Caper. I am a U.S.of A. citizen. Please anybody out there, I would love to hear the list of our citizens vouchers. Thank you all, and I love you everyone. This is Mrs. Ace X, in Florida.
@@acex8124 3 PAIRS A YEAR
Day after Pearl Harbor, my grandmother went out and bought a 50# sack of flour and 50# sack of sugar. She grew up in Germany during WWI and knew rationing was coming.
Your grandma was smart
Smart woman.
Smart lady!
My grandmother lived in the country with her parents and siblings. She was born in 1914. They always had a large garden full of green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, a grape arbor and strawberries, corn and 2 plum trees. They made sourdough to make bread, pies, rolls. I know they had chickens, ducks and a pond had catfish. My mom was born in 1939, I was born in 1959 and it has stayed basically the same. Honestly, they worked jobs and kept their place in fine shape. The house is over 125 years old, it has a summer kitchen bc no air conditioning when I was growing up. Used coal in the furnace. Boy the world has changed!
My mother would turn 103 this coming February. Now I know why we had potatoes with every meal. I think she could have turned them into lobster given the will. So many different recipes!
Happy 103 birthday to your beautiful mother God bless her heart ❤️
Yes, with us, it was lots of cabbage. Great replacement for noodles, salad, fills up a soup...mom was a spectacular cook.
Maybe she was Irish?
@@robynjefferson4779 actually there is Irish on her side. They lived in the mountains 12 kids dad killed in an accident. I guess at that point they would have eaten cardboard need be
@@staceykersting705 Same here, cabbage will keep for months if you keep it cool. We'd grow them and store them under the house when I was a kid. Lots of Vitamin C in cabbage.
My paternal grandmother grew up during the Depression with 12 other siblings on a farm and she developed a hoarding habit that carried over to adulthood. They cooked strange things to survive and I thought that was why she cooked like she did. Now that I know this, it was a combination of both. Good video!
What kinds of things did she cook? Thanks for sharing!
Shortly before WWI, my paternal grandmother and her mother cooked for the biggest logging camp in Montana. They were the only cooks, but they had a man who cut wood and carried water, and a girl who helped with washing and other chores.
One time, the bosses of the camp decided that the (massive) pies should be cut in five pieces instead of four, and the loggers went on strike! (The bosses caved.) Men from Wyoming & Idaho would go to the camp, lured by its reputation of good, plentiful grub.
My grandmother showed my mother an article in "Montana Outdoors" in which she was interviewed!
My father was born in 1940. His older sister, Sue, was @ eight years older than Dad. Grandma and Grandpa were still working in the camps, but they were very poor, living in a rickety log cabin. However, Grandma always kept the food coming.
There are stories of my toddler father going from door to door asking, "Do you have a dry crust?"
Of course Grandma was mortified!
@@beautylovess13 She did use sawdust in her bread when we were younger until my grandaddy caught her. She also cooked beans with only vinegar because when she was a kid (13 total) there wasn't a lot of money for spices and seasonings. It wasn't that bad actually.
Yes, a lot of people who grew up during that time became big hoarders… always keeping things “just in case” and always trying to repair something instead of buying a new one. Both of my grandmothers were like that (R.I.P.🙏🏾)
My grandmother was the same way, throwing away food was almost impossible for her, she even ate spoiled food. The cupboards were full of newly wrapped blankets and she still had clothes from the 1940s. Underwear and handkerchiefs (made of cotton) were also in abundance, half a closet was full of these alone. She had to starve and freeze a lot during the war, that must have been the reason.
Something tells me we're going to need to adopt this again soon.
Eric right now today we definitly are
I've felt the necessity to start growing our own vegetables and praying I have a successful time with them
This comment held it’s own unfortunately
We won’t,the Russians will..
@@paulritchie5868 Wow, have you been keeping track of gas and food prices? How much a barrel of oil has gone up? When oil goes up, everything goes up.
My mother told me they ate cornbread and gravy for dinner many nights. That was all they could afford and were glad to have that to eat. Red beans and rice were something they also ate when the family had enough money.
@@jwbjpb1338 My mother was ill a lot after the war. When she didn’t feel good, she ate buttermilk and cornbread.
My grandmother taught me about a lot of these things. She was born in 1951 so a few years after the war, but her family kept up these cooking habits for a long time and the impression always stayed with her. She lived in Germany for a few years and picked up some of their rations-inspired food as well, like grated potato cakes with apple sauce. She absolutely loved cooking and she enjoyed it more and more as she got older and more exotic/luxury items became widely available. She taught me to cook well and I love it, always have. I miss her a lot but I know she watches me cook sometimes :)
My mom was born in 1949 and never once talked about anything like this
@@amazingsupergirl7125 I guess it just depends on where you're from, what your background is like... my grandma only passed it down to me because she loved cooking so much, I don't think everyone would. I don't know much about what it was like in the US back then, how similar/different it was. we definitely had similar rations! (UK)
I was born in 1943, and these recipes bring back so many childhood memories of my mom's family dinners (some of which I thought were delicious - others, just awful typical child!). At the time, I had no idea these were "make do" - Now I realize how resourceful our families became during war time.
I love potato pancakes with applesauce. I love potato pancakes with roast beef.
But it sounds like we both were lucky enough to have family that love to cook.
And I don't mean to sound sentimental, and I'm sorry if I do, but I am so glad I was raised by family that taught me to love food and be grateful that we have food to eat.
I used "we" because I got the feeling that you were taught that simple but important lesson as well.
@@amyepstein4868 absolutely yes! I am very grateful both for my family's love of food and the valuable lessons they taught me!
My mom grew up during the depression, and still used a few methods that were used to mitigate food scarcity, such as making meatballs with ground beef, breadcrumbs, and eggs. I still make meatballs the same way, I also add finely chopped onion. Mom had a copy of "The Good Housekeeping Cookbook", which was given to her as a wedding present. The book had a section devoted to substitutions, like how to make fake eggs, etc., along with a bunch of great recipies using simple and readily available ingredients. I think that the cookbook went through several re- printings, I found a copy in the 1970's, which I gave to my college girlfriend.
I make hamburgers that way, too. I add a bit of seasoning as well.
My mom made hamburgers that way, but I never thought of it as a way to stretch the ground meat (although we were 2 adults and 7 kids using maybe 1.5 lbs. ground beef); it just made the burgers tastier.
Still made same way...that's what meatballs ARE! U must have been quite wealthy to have any meat at all.
My dad was a cook in the Navy during WWII and he said add celery to meatloaf, its a secret and brings out the flavor.
I never heard of any other way to make meatballs...
I am glad to see a video on this. I personally have my great grandfathers WWII ration book. When I first touched it I was in awe because of the history and to think he touched it himself.
I have my great grandma and great grandpa's war ration books. They're amazing
I have my father's ration book from when he was ten.
M’y Mom lived in France when the Germans took over… She ALWAYS had a fear of not having food. This is why my home always had extra! My Dad grew up in the Midwest, he appreciated all that we had, but he often reminded us not to tease Mom about hoarding food, that we needed to be grateful that we never felt true hunger
We still eat sawdust. They call it cellulose now.
My grandparents were dairy farmers during WW2. No problem getting meat, milk, eggs and veggies. One of the few times it was a plus to be a farmer!
And that is one reason I like to grate my own shredded cheese since it is used to keep shredded packaged cheese from sticking together. Also I find bricks of cheese don't mold as quickly.
I wonder why everyone didn’t have chickens. It’s a great investment
When we were kids our dad taught all of us how to raise, pluck, cook chickens. We could choose to help kill them or breed for eggs. I choose eggs. The damn rooster I had last year made me wish I was better at killing chickens. I absolutely believe, now, roosters are little dinosaurs. He was excellent at guarding the Hens, though.
@@marciayingling7983 nah corn starch is used for pregrated cheese.
here in central indiana we have a plot of several thousand acres owned by a " paper " company . it gets clear cut every few years when the trees are 4 inch - ish in diameter . ive always felt strongly that this was being made into food . we are surrounded by corn , soy beans , and trees . it doesnt take a genius to figure out what most of our food products are made out of . once i looked at fruit pies at our local savalot store . they had apple , cherry , and peach pies . upon reading the fine print , no fruit was existant in either of the three pies . :{>
My grandmother was raising her kids when the Great Depression and WWII hit ... She taught me a LOT ... and the main thing is to be prepared ... period.
Very true
I have a small cookbook that belonged to my grandmother. It is called “How to can and preserve with rations during wartime”, and was given out by the local bank during WW2.. its very interesting, and also has recipes for cooking on a wartime budget. Very cool.
Don’t lose it you may be using it very soon
@@colleenpritchett6914 No kidding. I bought 2 packages of bacon, 2 cans of biscuits, and a gallon of milk the other day and it was 17.59.. Thank goodness it’s deer season and we canned from the garden this year..
@@wvcricker5683 I’m a widow and he never taught me to hunt, so I buy from farmers. I didn’t get much of a garden in but I’d did buy bulk vegetables which I’m still canning and dehydrating, done now to beets and potatoes. I know so many who look at me when I asked if they have put anything by…just blank stares. These people are going to really hurt especially since most can garden or preserve. Went to the store yesterday and butter was $6.19 on sale for a pound. Gas had jumped 20 cents. And we haven’t seen anything yet. Folks don’t understand we are in a depression,myhey just haven’t used the word yet. My God help us all
@@colleenpritchett6914 Amen! It’s gonna get worse before better. I just trust in The Lord and live day by day..
My nana in the early 1970s (she passed away in 73 or 74 iirc. I wasn't in double figures at that point) would make parsley soup. It was, from the dredges of my memory, a sort of potato soup with a lot of homegrown parsley in it. Possibly some leek. Dad said they had a good garden during the war. He continued to grow food well into my teens (and I was a bit of a late arrival. My big sisters were heading for high school when I was in nursery!)
My dad's family lived in the countryside (working from age 14 on the railway, though, so he had some hair-raising stories!) and they'd barter with farmers for butter, cheese, sausages etc (Bampa was one of the few people who could charge the old acid batteries that the farmers got all their electricity from. Dad & Uncle Al had a tedious, heavy task to do!). All the children would collect hedgerow goodies for Nana to do her magic with. We did the same in the 70s (the hedgerow thing, no need to barter by then!), and hubby even did it in the 90s into this century to make wine.
Nana would also grow stinging nettles in her small garden and make us nettle pop. It was quite like ginger beer. I have no idea if ginger beer, as it is here, is in the USA. It's not alcoholic, it's a "soda" which tastes like ginger - more like ground ginger than stem ginger. If you're pregnant with morning sickness (or tbh, just nauseous. I just attach it to pregnancy because I lived off it for three months with my last baby!), it's absolutely fantastic. I haven't had nettle pop since she passed away, but I still remember it! I've made parsley soup - _a_ parsley soup - and it was as good as I remembered.
What you call nettle soup sounds like ginger ale soda that we have here.
Reminds me of my grandad - even into his 90's he would reuse a single teabag to make as many cuppas as possible before throwing it away, I think his record was 5 cups, and if one went cold he'd insist on it being reheated in the microwave rather than just make a fresh one 😅
I mostly reuse a teabag two times, if i'm lucky 3 times.
am i the only one that uses a teabag like 5 times? the wholee day.. or am i just poor
@@lyanwillems4809 haha two cups max I find, otherwise its basically just hot water
I thought this was just normal
My Grandma insists I reuse a teabag to make her teas too! She is 94, probably does 3 cups. My Oma lived in Austria during the war (told story to my Mum), she said they had found bacon in horse droppings. She and her neighbor took it home to share amongst the two families, washed it and cooked it. She said they were lucky to find it, at this time no one had any meat. I can never look at bacon the same 🤢
It confuses the issue to combine US and European food shortages. Mass hunger throughout Europe does not compare to US rationing. I suppose most people today do not appreciate what was required to win the war against fascism.
They've don't, which is why so many Americans seem keen to embrace it now.
Well looks like we'll have another crack at it...
I didn't get confused.
I thought it was refreshing to get something other than an American view on WW2
@@Nifflerify delusions
My 82 year old Dad was a little boy during the war, but he still remembers the rationing. The family gave up all but a couple of their pots and pans. They used the pony cart and bicycles to get around. Fortunately they lived in rural Southern California and my Grandparents had both grown up on farms. So they had chickens, a cow, horses, and a HUGE garden. My uncle raised rabbits for the Air Force (fur lined jackets) and they got to keep the meat for the family. There are still a few recipes that we use. Most of them are bean soup and simple salad.
My dad (born 1913) would've been four or five years old when WWI ended. He was supposed to have said, "Hurrah! Now we can have sugar on our bread!"
@@Gail1Marie The simple things. How literally sweet.
@@TygerBleuToo He had such good stories from his childhood. Of the lamplighter who walked down the street, lighting the gas street lamps every night (and extinguishing them every morning at dawn). Of the horse-drawn fire equipment from the firehouse down the block, the horses' horseshoes striking sparks on the cobblestone pavement at night. When he was 14, Lindbergh flew the Atlantic. When I was 14, Apollo 11 landed on the moon.
Those dishes are actually luxury which most people in Poland during war 2 never had.
My mother was born 1924. This brings her back to me and all the stories of her own experiences during WW2 . One was that when she and friends were going out to dance, they would take turns drawing a black line down the back of each other's legs to look like they were wearing silk stockings because all silk in USA was used for parachutes.
Thankyou , I really enjoyed this, and am sharing with my daughter 💕.
I really like this memory ❤ I remember you saying it before. I've seen many videos like this one, they are very interesting. And Hi Mom! Lol
In the UK we used to also use gravy browning to colour the legs.
My mom was born in 1927, my dad was born in 1922, and I agree these videos bring back stories from my parents. I wish I had paid more attention. We may need their innovativeness in he coming years.
My mother told me the same
Only 2" of water in bathtub.. Painted a 2" line in tub, so wouldnt get too much. I thought it was funny- in parents yearbook, someone wrote that they "liked cars with tires"!!! (Dad had to explain....)
The stamp system transitioned into a sort of reward system that lasted well into the 70's. I remember my mom saving her stamps for small appliances and cookware that my sister has to this day. :)
S&H Green stamps😀
If you remember they also had Plaid Stamps. My mother used her Plaid and S&H Green Stamps to get a brand new folding shopping cart and an iron. Those were the good old days!
@@Stephanie-vn6ir I was sorting through my grandma’s photos and papers with her, found several sheets of these stamps.
Which ever of us kids helped mom carry in the groceries from the car got the S&H green stamps for our book . I still have a Berkeley fishing rod and real that got circa 1982 !
@@bluedragonfly5145 My Sister and I just donated several books and sheets of the S&H Green Stamps to a thrift store that helps our local Animal shelters get the Animals Spayed and Neutered along with their shots..We also had An S&H Green stamp wall holder that held all the Books & Stamps it was Adorable!
The folks, in every country involved, who rationed without complaint and relied on creativity to feed their loved ones, won the war along with the soldiers as far as I’m concerned. My mom used to tell me about how my great-uncle would hunt every day so they could enjoy fresh meat during rationing!
Imagine this happening today. Cries of MaH rIgHtS would ring out and protests would ensue. It’s gross how entitled people are in this country these days. Especially because these same people feel the poor are so much lesser than them.
Plenty of squirrels died for the cause. Rabbits, too. I'm not a vegan or anything, but one thing good to know; lentils are a good meat substitute. Try beans a couple times a week. Great for your health.
@Cherish God My mom said, during the Depression, men wd come to the back door, begging to work for food. My grandma wd always manage to feed them.
@Cherish God Our whole family learned generosity thru previous generation's hardships. To this day, my now grown kids are known for feeding ppl, esp children.
@@Honeybeerose88 we can't even get them to wear a mask!!!
My Dad was US Army Retired. My Mom was from Germany. She said towards the end of the war, getting a rotten potato was a treat. She said at 1 point she ate wall paper to survive.
There was zero food wasted when I was growing up, we ate lots of leftovers.
Wow !
I have a German friend who told me they would have to polish stone to get a bowl of broth a day. She said they had no shoes, what they had they would cut the front off so there was room for their feet for another year. She is now 83 and as fit as a fiddle. When she turned 50 she decided to start exercising which she went on to teach. We cruise together at times and she gets up early to be at the gym at 5:30 a.m. (and in bed by 10 p.m.).
My mother in law used to make her families never-ending wartime soup. You put barley, lentils, vegetables and pork hocks(if you had them) into a covered saucepan and boil. It would stay on the stove top and you'd just top up with water and veg as you used it. It had to be boiled everyday so it wouldn't go bad. She always made it in the winter and the older it was the better it tasted! There was one time when she was away that I was supposed to boil the soup for her. By the time Id remembered that evening I lifted the lid and discovered that a gross brownish foam had erupted out of the soup. I had to tip it away. She was not very happy with me at all!!
Remember the child's nursery rhyme, "Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold, pease porridge in a pot, nine days old"? They weren't kidding. Keeping food perpetually heated was one way to keep it from spoiling.
I remember WWII even though I was very young at the time it occurred. We had "Roosevelt coffee", meatless meals, and various other creations. My parents grew a huge garden and they had an orchard which they used for bartering. For example, they would trade a bushel of tomatoes for a little sack of sugar or salt, circumventing the ration stamps (which was probably illegal). My mother churned butter from a neighbor's cream, and as payment for the cream, she would mend that neighbor's clothes. (There were no new clothes to be had). We also raised chickens, so we had meat and eggs. On Saturdays there was a "food market" at the local courthouse. Old people and those who were poor or disabled could get a week's worth of free food to take home, mostly fruits and vegetables. People would deliver food to those who couldn't make it to the courthouse, but let it be known they needed food. My father would also load up the car on weekends (we could drive very sparingly, on Saturdays and Sundays) and take fruits and vegetables to the Black neighborhood so their children would have food. The people knew his car, and they would run to meet him with hugs. One thing I remember is that because there were no new clothes, women got creative with creating "new" dresses from parts of old ones. There was a "sewing club" to which women would bring their previously-worn dresses, and they would either cut them up and give pieces of cloth, buttons, or trim to one another so that "new" attire could be created. Women darned hosiery and underwear to make them last. It was considered an honor to be able to sacrifice for the war effort.
I love your family. I wish people were more into helping others like that now days. This would be so much nicer. Thank you for sharing such lovely family memories.
My grandparents were in the great depression and my dad and uncles were in WWII. I remember that my grandparents and parents would never throw food away. It was never given the chances to spoil as every meal was planned out and leftovers were made into the next day's meal. Despite my parents having quite a bit of money, I rarely ever had new clothes. It was hand me downs and blue jeans with patches sewn on from other blue jeans and the trick was trying to match the faded parts to match the area that was being covered. If any home appliance broke, dad would fix it and despite my parents having 7 figures worth of wealth, they only purchased 1 new vehicle their whole life when they were in their 80's and my dad figured that he was getting too old to wrench on a car anymore to fix it. Even as I got older I still had a hard time throwing out old lunch meat or some other items in the fridge that the kids did not end up eating like they said that they were going to.
I am still amazed to see new clothes on the rack at the store that has fashionable tears or patches already in them selling for $40.00. That is what my clothes looked like when they were worn out. What will be next for this generation to purchase, brand new cars on the lot with rust holes and dents in them?
My Black grandparents made sure their children had enough to eat. My grandmother worked and my grandfather was in the Army.
@@g.k.1669 funny comment
What State was this, please?
My great grandma and my grandma both were extremely careful with food. Passed it on to me. Food waste absolutely drives me bonkers now
Well the first time I saw that Spanish holiday or celebration where they waste all those tomatoes I got a little crazy. Lol
That's one thing I always can hear my grandmother saying "Wasting food is a sin". Not happening here. ;-)
My grandparents lived threw the depression & WWII but luckily were on a farm they made potato pancakes I love them - also German dishes like hot lettuce a soupy stuff you put over mashed potatoes- it had a vinegar added to it & actual lettuce topped with sliced hard boiled eggs & crumbles of bacon I love that too haven't had it in many decades - but nowadays when I cook I think how hard it was for .y grandmother (mom mom) to make everything from scratch the hard way no convenience- & I can barely do it "with" modern day convenience
Omg, I grew up eating this minus the potatoes… cooked lettuce w a piece of fat back, boiled egg, and vinegar. I had no idea we were poor until I was a teenager.
It was simple recipes with not too many ingredients. I dislike expensive restaurants for that reason. More about decoration and presentation than homemade taste. Kids were much happier back then too. It was a peaceful time where the family did things together.
My grandmother raised her own vegetables, kept a dairy cow or two, laying hens, and a steer for slaughter. She already knew how to make her own butter and ice cream. Her uncle was a wheat farmer and kept her stocked. She always made extra for the neighbors who were struggling.
My grandma said during The Depression, they barely had enough food most of the time for their firstborne toddler to eat. She was pregnant with my mom and went days without food. As a result, my.mom was a sickly child. No medical insurance to get her diagnosed. Later in life, the dr's determined my mom with a heart murmur and also she had lifelong teeth problems. My mom ended up dying of congenital heart disease. Am grateful as sometimes poor neonatal nutrition can end up with a malfunctioning or misshaped organ and can be passed on genetically. My heart always checks out at the dr's amazingly well. I have always believed in many of our health answers are in our foods. My now grown daughters also research even more now that internet is available and diligently work their small budgets to pull out their kids foods preferences along with the best possible nutrition. Most of the kids do not really like the taste of junk food or fastfood. When I raised my daughters in between temp jobs in a high unemployment area, I rarely bought them junk food. Ice cream was an ok treat as it had some nutrition in it like milk and eggs. Definitely no dye colored foods including candy. Only a few times I had to break the rules as in between buses and I had no water, juices or granola or stringcheese snacks on me. Shopping last minute in a hurry at the grocery stores ended up not being able to find any decent nutritious foods. I was on paper foodstamps those days. I worked two jobs and still went to highschool so I taught my girls to respect the hardworking taxpayers having to pay into the system by choosing healthier foods to keep us from getting sick(and a double liability to the taxpayers for avoidablr dr's or hospital visits). My daughters sometimes bring up this topic and thank me for this food nutrition plus budgeting skills.
My parents married in ‘41.I still have her wartime recipe pamphlets, like eggless cake. If a special cake was needed, friends and neighbors contributed ration stamps-sugar stamps from one, eggs from another. Everyone had vegetable gardens. Many kept chickens and rabbits. Folks helped each other.
I have my family’s booklets. They state the coupons must be removed in the presence of the cashier. I wonder if this was actually followed. Did people have to buy the item themselves and give it to the neighbor? I remember my grandma talking about giving tickets to people who weren’t as good at stretching food, and teaching them what to do. Reusing coffee grounds; using meat to cook soup, then removing it and using it for a different meal.
We 3 kids are still alive. Our parents died a few years ago.
All the stories they told us, I should write them down, are full of our history at that time. My parents got married MARCH 45, my brother was born SEPT 45, I came into this world JAN 48 and our sister AUGUST 50.
Mother was able to breastfeed my brother. Solid food were turnips, pots bread. I
I was born premature, not easy at that time. My bed was layed out with warm bricks. Hot water bottles were not available.
The same food as my brother.
My sister was born into the new BUNDESREPUBLIK OF GERMANY. ( FEDERAL REPUBLICK OF GERMANY, NOT THE DDR).
She got ORANGES and a wider range of food .
My brother turned out to become strong, no malnutrition. I was skinny, but was a very good athlet !!!
My sister always had problems with her weight, but she turns out to be 74 in AUGUST.
There were stories my parents told us, it was a very , very hard time, to organize food. HAMSTERFAHRT (HAMSTER TRIP ): with a Rucksack on their back, they went late at night ( e.g. when harvest came), to collect leftover potatoes, turnips etc ?!?. They were like HAMSTER , collecting all useful things to survive .
And we have survived ! Mother was 85 and father nearly 91 when they left this world.
We have learned so much through our parents . I wish my BROTHER AND SISTER AND MYSELF MANY MORE GOOD YEARS TO COME .
BLESS YOU ALL.❤🙏🙏🙏❤
My granny told me all about this when I was really little. They lived deep in the hollers of Arkansas at the time. They did trade whatever they grew or raised on the small bit of land they had with neighbors to get by. With nine boys the rations didn't go very far either.
Sounds just like my Granny. She raised 9 children in the hollers of West Virginia. She did a lot of canning/preserving and they ate lots of pinto beans. They were poor but she made sure the family didn't go hungry. She was one hard worker!
I was a little girl in the early 70's, when the oil embargo hit. Daddy was a gas hauler. He lost his job. His brother lived in Tennessee. Thought he could get him a job with him. So Daddy went to Tennessee. Leaving Momma, me and my older brother. We worked a garden, had egg layers, a pig, after morning chores in the summer my brother would fish in the neighbor's pond. That winter he would hunt on Saturday and Sunday mornings
Before Saturday chores and church. He was 8 years old. We split the chores or just did them together. But my greatest memories came out of that year. Sitting between my Momma and my Nonna stringing and snapping Blue Lake green beans, On the porch. Standing in a chair helping Momma can whatever was ready that day. Making biscuits. It taught me so much, when we had so little($). Trying to teach my son to make 2 ingredient biscuits(sr flour and butter milk). He'll get the hang of it. I've babbled on enough. Keep the memories alive and teach the next generation. Blessed Be to all. Yes i am an controlled hoarder.🤗🤪🐿️🧚♀️
@@stormmiestone5363 thank you for sharing that. That reminds me so much of my own childhood with my granny and family. Beans, oh how I remember my cousins, granny, and aunties. All of us drinking the sweetest tea you ever tasted and snapping beans. You brought back so many beautiful memories. Thank you for that, I'd forgotten a lot of that over the years 💙
I was born in 1940 and remember a great deal about the war years. We always had plenty of good food to eat, and no doubt living in Miami helped, as there was always plenty of fish, fruit and vegetables. I do remember my grandmother making "Depression Cakes" and they were delicious. Even long after, when my grandparents became well off, they never forgot the depression or their frugality, although much of the hardship was kept from me. "Hobos", as wandering homeless men were called at the time, arrived regularly at our door and were always given something to eat. People helped one another in a way not seen today, but which we may well see again if the world continues on its present course.
Remember grandma telling me stories of how people starved...what she cooked for survival .always remembered that. We are so blessed today..and we do not seem to care..
My mother, who was a teen during the WW2 years, was a wiz when it came to making sure that no leftovers ever went into the garbage pail. The result was often a dish we kids called "Shut-up-and-eat-it" as that was what she said whenever we tried to push the dish away.
I keep shaking my head when folks today whine about a "food shortage". We don't have a "food shortage" problem. We have folks who are spoiled, can't use their resources and waste food!
Yet. We don’t have a food shortage yet. With gas at $1.80/litre, and food prices skyrocketing, it won’t be long before there’s shortages of food.
The mistake is thinking it can’t happen.
True
@@thenoneckpeoplerepresentat8074 it's up to $2.20 where I live and they reckon prices could well hit $4 a litre by the end of the year (using current exchange rates - I'm in the UK). Food prices are rising, gas and electricity prices are soaring and petrol prices will probably double within a year. This is the time to learn how to survive and to prepare for things getting worse.
@@JaneAustenAteMyCat Fuel and fertilizer prices almost doubled and still people bury their heads.
Must be nice having the financial resources to weather the storm.
@@thenoneckpeoplerepresentat8074 it allows people to bury their heads in the sand, as you said
I read that we Brits were the healthiest we've ever been shortly after the war. My gran didn't have a garden, just a cobbled yard, what she did have was a variety of containers growing different things, including a Hip Bath growing beetroot.
Ian from forgotten weapons did a great series on the British ration scheme very cool I highly recommend
@@andrewstraub131 Thanks, I'll go find that
@@jimfrodsham7938 ua-cam.com/play/PLj9u4Ts2NpEtHrO1NLjk_n9ebj12102sb.html
@@andrewstraub131 👍👍
@@jimfrodsham7938 glad to be of service
Bubble & Squeak caught my attention, as it was something that my family still cooked from time to time. I was blessed to have my Grandmother with me till the rip ol' age of 105. Also, I'm no Spring Chicken. One day, and I remember her being over 100 at the time, I asked her about Victory Gardens. This was back when folks stayed in the same house for most of their lives. She pointed out where her garden was, describing what all they raised; pointed out where the next door neighbour to the south's garden was; where the person behind her had a garden. I asked about her neighbour to the north. Grandmother said, rather flatly, "Well, Mrs. S______ didn't really get into the Victory Garden idea. She was more of a 'Victory Girl.'" To this day, some 20 years later, I still just about fall out of my chair when I think of that little conversation. Hmm...think it's looking a bit like time to resurrect that Victory Garden idea again...
Yes, I have tried to start a garden. However the squirrels get the food before I do.
@@margarettickle9659 Sadly, we are not faster than squirrels! Friend of mine uses rubber snakes in his garden. Might work!