Monday, May 27, 2013

Food For Victory

I've been spring cleaning for the last two weeks.  It's amazing what you'll find when digging through piles of old crap you've shoved in a corner and forgotten about.  One really neat thing I found was this old Kerr home canning book, printed in 1943.


 This was the special National Nutrition Edition, a war-time call to all housewives to pitch in their own skills and efforts to help their country.  I found it in a giant pile of old books my cousin bought a an auction for me.  I would never ever use these recipes, because canning is an exact science, and they've been testing and improving the methods every year since people first started to can, so that the recipes in this book are very outdated and potentially dangerous.  Still, I find it really fascinating.  For instance, this book was written before people started using powdered pectin in their jams and jellies, and you sealed said jams and jellies with paraffin wax!

Since it was war-time, and food was in short supply, everyone on the home front was encouraged to grow a garden.  There was a really strong emphasis on highly nutritious food because everyone needed to be strong and healthy.  That's why the government told everyone to eat like this:


Click to see it larger.
Everyday, eat some milk or cheese, citrus fruit or tomatoes, green or yellow vegetables, fruits or other vegetables, whole grain bread or cereal (or fortified), meat, poultry or fish, eggs, and butter or other spreads.  Then once you eat all of those things, you can eat whatever else you want.  My guess is, once you've eaten all the vegetables, fruits, eggs, dairy, butter, meat, and whole grain bread, you're going to be pretty darn full. 

2 comments:

  1. Hi Julie.

    I decided to pop over for a look after reading your letter to Tom Naughton. When he called your blog a good one, he was so right. I enjoyed reading through your posts and have added it t my list to follow.

    Blessings

    ReplyDelete
  2. @MargieAnne, thank you! I appreciate the compliment, and I'll be sure to return the favor by checking out your blog too!

    ReplyDelete