Why We'll Eat Again?

This journey was inspired by Wartime Farm, a BBC series made by the people who brought us Victorian Farm, Edwardian Farm and Tales from the Green Valley.  There are some very good ration style living blogs out there in blogland, two of which inspired me to create my own blog and document how  we get along.

We're a family of 2 adults and 2 cats, it's pretty incredible to think we spend on average £400-500 per month just on food, lots of convenience food and shop bought cakes, bread etc go into out weekly shopping basket. The main point of this experiment for myself and my husband is to drastically reduce the amount we spend on food and getting thinner and fitter would be an added bonus.

I've read lots of information and heard stories about how the British population were healthier as a nation by the end of WWII. So cooking like they did back then should help us lose weight and become healthier.

I grew up eating things like Pea Soup, Stuffed Lambs Heart, Liver and Onions, Oxtail Stew, Treacle Sponge, Rice Pudding and lots of other incredibly tasty meals that my Mum fed a family of 7 (2 adults, 5 children) on. As an adult, I now avoid eating all the stuff my Mum so lovingly prepared, she was born in 1944 and learnt to cook from her mother and aunts, I didn't appreciate that the food we were raised on was influenced by WWII lean times. Sadly my Mum is no longer alive to be able to ask her to share her recipes, so I'll have to attempt to recreate them from memory.

Armed with some books and the internet I've amassed some recipes to try to go with my 'memory' recipes, my blog will document those recipes. My hubby has decided that one way to help us cut costs is to grow as much of our own fruit and veg as possible. This is a man who doesn't have a green anything let alone a thumb, he is very handy on the DIY front though and does seem to be full of enthusiasm at the moment.

Currently in the garden we grow a lot of herbs, we have a small apple tree, a damson tree (which never gives much fruit!), some rhubarb and we occasionally grow tomatoes and chillies. That lot isn't going to reduce our food bills by very much is it? This is our 2012 autumn harvest.

Autumn Harvest 2012

So the plan is to turn over parts of the lawn to veg beds, take out plants that don't provide food or an alternative use, and by this time next year be growing lots more food of our own, and exceed the above amount of produce by an awful lot. My dear hubby is even talking about getting an allotment, it would be nice, but I need to see him 'dig for victory' on a small scale first before I embark on what could end up being a lot of work for me.

I must stress that this is all about taking inspiration from the 1940's and adapting the thrift, recipes and make do and mend ideals that were part of every day life back then, I'm not looking to recreate the 1940's, build an Anderson Shelter in our back garden or dress in that style, so please no telling me off if I make a pizza with 1940's ingredients or make a cake or pudding that wasn't around in the 1940's. This is about saving money and doing it old style.

I can remember in my teens and early 20's I baked a lot, I made pickles and chutney and even made homemade wine from fruits I picked from the hedgerow. Time to get back to those days and rediscover my knitting and sewing talents and find as many ways to make do and alter things to suit what we need instead of buying something new. Hope you'll stick around for the journey and share your recipes, memories and experiences.