The Influence of World War 2 Cooking on My Meals Today

In 2020 and 2021 I watched a bunch of videos that discussed or demonstrated the eating habits of ordinary English people during WW2. Prior to the war, Britain imported a large proportion of the food. Because they were unable to import much during the war, there were severe shortages of many foods. The Ministry of Food put together a plan to produce as much food as possible on their country's farm land. In addition they heavily encouraged citizens to grow gardens anywhere they had space. The sparse foods that could be bought in shops were stretched substantially with homegrown produce. 

When the war was over, the government analyzed statistics for disease and mortality during the war compared to that from before the war. Despite suffering some severe shortages of purchasable foods, the English were actually healthier by the time of the war's end. The hypothesis is that the people were eating far more vegetables and locally grown fruits which led to better health, better body size, and this reduced mortality from disease in the general population.

I was thinking about this as I was putting together tonight's dinner. I served meatloaf, rice, fruit and one vegetable. I was fleshing out the few purchased ingredients with homegrown produce. I packed the mini meatloaves with celery, garlic, tomatoes, herbs, and onions, all from my garden. 

I sautéed the green beans that I grew in my own yard in oil and seasoned with garlic and soy sauce. 

The plums were picked from our tree yesterday. 

I even added more garden herbs and a diced tomato to the gravy. 

If I take away all of the foods that we grew for this meal, there would only be ground beef, 1 slice of homemade bread, brown rice, salt, black pepper, vegetable oil, sesame oil, a spoonful of flour for the gravy, and soy sauce. 

It's unknown if we'll live longer or be healthier than if we'd eaten more of the Standard American Diet than our usual meals chock-full of fruits and veggies. But I do know for certain that we spend less for foods than if we ate the SAD. And our meals are tastier because of how I cook and all of the garden produce that I use.

Two Weeks, No Car

Tomorrow morning will be two weeks without a car. It seems there's some sort of hang-up with the insurance company and damage not visible in the initial photos sent to the claims adjuster. Anyway, two weeks is a long time to go without good transportation. 

I still have my two feet, and one of the nearby bus lines is a little over a mile away. However, the bus line that goes down the highway where all of the grocery stores are located is two and a half miles away. That's a little long to walk carrying much in the way of groceries. Despite this, one of my daughters needed some things from Walmart, and she was willing to bike up to the highway, then take the bus to the store. The other day she did just that. I asked if she could pick up one head of cabbage and one gallon of milk for us. Those are the only groceries that I've bought in over two weeks. So far in September, I've only bought those two items plus one package of hot dog buns bought on Sept. 1. My grocery spending may be very low this month.

I love having a tidy fridge

We're doing okay with groceries for the most part. One of the benefits of not being able to shop is that my refrigerator looks quite tidy. Under our usual circumstance, the shelves and drawers are loaded with plastic containers, plates, and bowls of leftover foods. Not much in that department today. But still, we have plenty of milk, lots of produce, eggs, enough condiments and sauces to make meals interesting, a couple of types of cheese, and a few other items in the fridge.

my free pile cheese dome on a pie plate

Something we did run out of last week, and that my family really enjoys for its convenience, is the individual servings of string cheese. They're not as inclined to slice or cube some cheese for themselves. So, I cubed up both mozzarella and cheddar cheese and tucked the cubes under this little cheese dome. I picked up the cheese dome from a free pile a few years ago and just now found a good use for it. I'm not fond of the floral painting. I'd rather the dome was simply clear glass. But for free, I'll take it. Maybe I could scrape or buff the paint off.

No word on when the car will be ready. Tomorrow I'll need to take a bus (the one that's a mile away) to get to a Bible study that is just starting up for the year. I don't know who will be there, so I can't call someone for a ride. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we won't have rain in the morning. 

I've kept us stocked in goodies and treats by baking. Last week we had brownies. Today I made a batch of almond-coconut bars. One of my daughters made caramel sauce for dipping apple wedges. With a well-stocked pantry, there's no shortage of goodies.

There is a silver lining to being car-less. Without any place to go, I am a lot more productive around the house and yard. And that's something for which I'm grateful this evening.