大象传媒

The only fruit we had to eat was just what grew in England. They'd dug most of the apple trees up and we didn't grow any pears. Fresh vegetables were just what grew. When there wasn't any it was just carrots. We hadn't got a very big garden anyway. But it's a wonder we didn't end up looking like carrots. They said they were good for you - we should have had perfect vision.
Sweets didn't come in until a long time after the war had finished. I mean, I think it was 1952 when rationing finished. You can't imagine it can you, existing on 2 ounces of butter. We'd be a lot healthier if we did. There wasn't much meat. You either had a joint at the weekend or in the week - you didn't get both. My dad was lucky because neither my mother nor me drank tea, so he got the tea ration.
Cookery lessons were none existent because there was no ingredients. Your mother couldn't allow you the fat to cook with. You were only allowed so much and if you used it up on that then you had none left for normal use.
But I do remember making a Christmas cake one year - only I had to use normal sugar instead of icing sugar and had to grind it all up with a pestle and mortar. That took up a complete lesson at school - grinding up all that sugar. But it tasted gorgeous. I used the recipe for years after, it was so nice. I remember one ingredient that you wouldn't expect. To make it dark - you know a proper dark fruit cake - you added gravy browning. Just a couple of drops, but it made all the difference.

[This story was submitted to the People's War site by Wolverhampton Libraries on behalf of Jean Davis and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions]

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