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3. Food For Thought

We fared better for food than some people in that we had a large vegetable garden and orchard and also kept chickens. To help feed the chickens we used to go ‘gleaning’ in a farmers fields for heads of corn left after the binder had cut and bound the corn at harvest time. My father worked as an accountant on an estate near Stanford and when visiting the game — keepers cottage, usually got rabbits, pigeons and the occasional pheasant. I also remember we ate lots of nettle tops and wild hops for vegetables.

Our surplus eggs were pickled in isinglass in big stone jars and runner beans were salted in layers in large sweet jars. The villagers also bought a canning machine and shared it on a rota to can pears, plums, tomatoes etc. Blackberries were gathered by the basketful. We were also paid 6d. a stone for collecting rose hips for rose hip syrup — invaluable for babies during the war for vitamin C.

It was a real treat to get hold of a bit of material from an old parachute to make a blouse. Because of the shortage of clothing things had to be patched, darned and even made out of old curtains. Sheets had to be ‘ Side to middle’ as we called it. As they worn thin in the centre, they were cut in half and sewn together again with the sides to the middle.
This story was submitted to the “Peoples War Site by Rod Aldwinckle of the CSV Action Desk on behalf of JUNE GOODWIN and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the terms and conditions of the site

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