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My mother's uncle worked at a grocery store. He would bring home the fruit and vegetables that were getting old and the family would stay up canning the good parts, making jam, etc. She said they would have starved without it.
I well remember the last 4 years of the Great Depression. Things were better for me than my parents earlier. We still ate like it was the beginning of the Depression. The main stays were a pot of dried large lima beans with cornbread one night followed by fried potato sandwiches the next. Ketchup was still a luxury. We went to the packing houses for cucumbers and tomatoes and got the culls free. Well not free as it cost 30¢ for gas to travel round trip for the bushels of veggies. No longer eat dried limas but still love the fried potato sandwiches once a month. Wish I could more often. I thought I had it bad until a friend told me her family survived on lard sandwiches in Wisconsin. Then my mother told me a couple of years back about her friends family survived on poke greens cooked like spinach. They grew around outhouses back then. Then another family caught catfish out of a strip mine pit and boiled them. Lard cost more than they had. My grandparents were farmers that ate well during the Great Depression as they had chickens as well as plentiful produce. Parents didn't like the farmers way of life and nearly starved. Right now we for good reason are as nearly self sufficient as possible. In the event another such period of time occurs the deed restrictions would be ignored and I'd raise chickens and dare anyone to set foot here to tell me to get rid of them. It's history like spoken here that today's generation doesn't really believe happened. My 96 year old mother still talks about it.
Our parents comfort foods from the old Country or the Depression era ?
My dad raised in the country with a lot of kids, one working dad...
In a glass of milk, saltines and a spoon...grilled cheese sandwich with peanut butter inside.
My mother, Czeck heritage....noodles, while hot and strained stir in an egg and
diced onions with butter, salt and pepper in a bowl...makes me wonder if as a kid they had butter...
Also, some old world, unsliced Rye bread and butter...just plain or dipped in homemade tomato sauce.
being born at the end of the depression all I have to go by is what I was told: of course Boston Baked beans was one comfort food and creamed eggs on toast was another. I am sure there were many more, but as I have mentioned so many times before, we may have gone with out expensive cloths or depended on hand me downs and we may have made other sacrifices but we generally ate very well. I do remember dad grinding our meat and mom making home made noodles. She would roll them,cut them very think and lay them all over the kitchen to dry; over the chairs, on the table, on the sink counter, wherever she could find room.
http://scratchinit.halversen.com/wp-...ermilk_002.jpg
also Beet Soup with neck bone meat, potatoes, beet greens and a scoop of sour cream on top.
Potato babka grated potatoes, eggs, flour, a plethora of bacon and bacon fat, baked 'til browned in a pan...
cut in small wedges, served with a dab of sour cream.
Or sliced thin and fried with eggs for breakfast.
http://scratchinit.halversen.com/wp-...ermilk_002.jpg
also Beet Soup with neck bone meat, potatoes, beet greens and a scoop of sour cream on top.
Potato babka grated potatoes, eggs, flour, a plethora of bacon and bacon fat, baked 'til browned in a pan...
cut in small wedges, served with a dab of sour cream.
Or sliced thin and fried with eggs for breakfast.
http://scratchinit.halversen.com/wp-...ermilk_002.jpg
also Beet Soup with neck bone meat, potatoes, beet greens and a scoop of sour cream on top.
Potato babka grated potatoes, eggs, flour, a plethora of bacon and bacon fat, baked 'til browned in a pan...
cut in small wedges, served with a dab of sour cream.
Or sliced thin and fried with eggs for breakfast.
Growing up I hardly remember us using sour cream for anything. I doubt my parents bought it during the depression days. Now, as for neck bones, yes, we had them quite often. By quite I would say a few times a year, maybe 3 times. I still love them as much as I love the chicken or turkey neck.
Yea we are very fortunate and should never take plentiful food for granted
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