Wartime Farm -truth or fiction?

[magsmay]

I've watched them struggle with food rationing (mock turkey for Xmas) - surely in the War the best fed people were the Farmers -they had hens for eggs and could pinch the odd bit of milk from the dairy cows -or was this not allowed? did they have to give all their produce to the war effort and get everything off Ration. I've talked to my mother about this - in WW2 she was a child/young adult in a mining colliery in NE England and she said they hardly knew the rationing was on - everyone had allotments with hens, veg, the odd goose and everyone bartered between one another for stuff. Surely the Farmers did the same thing? or is this a programme showing what was supposed to happen instead of what really happened?

[B00]

Probably the latter.

Still, it's fascinating watching isn't it?

[B00]

I like it yeah Triggs- they did things throughout the war that I personally wouldn't have thought of, I find it all really interesting.

[magsmay]

@boo

yes I really like the programme -wouldn't mind getting dirty down on the farm with peter ginn lol!

[Graham-W]

My Dad, now aged 87, was brought up in the country. During the war rabbit was the staple meat, caught by snare rather than shot. Plenty of eggs and a chicken mysteriously died, just before Christmas.
There was usually someone in the village who was killing a pig, half to the war effort and half shared between neighbours.
Sugar seems to have been the main shortage for making preserves etc.

[magsmay]

yes graham -my mum told me most people topped up their protein with rabbit - her dad had greyhounds and a terrier -maybe they are going to show rabbit hunting in another episode . I remember my grandmas making 'wartime' recipes even in the 60's -they were nice!

[Graham-W]

Mum was brought up in town, youngest of 14 kids. Offal goes a long way. She still enjoys tripe and onions, pigs trotters, liver, kidneys and all the cheap cuts.

[Ric.ror]

It's worth watching for that Peter bloke alone I think
I was told by someone that the reason the labour government insisted council houses have such big gardens was so a working man could always feed himself

[B00]

According to the programme Graham pigs were pretty scarce during the war. as they were pretty much all culled due to not being viable. Was your dad part of a Pig Club? Apparently this entailed a couple of pigs being fed well basically leftovers by a group, then culled when the time came and that group then got a dibs in it.

[Graham-W]

BTW. During the war there were only 5 of the 14 still at home.

[Graham-W]

I think pig clubs were more of a town thing. I'll check with him but I think a few sugar beet, wurzels, a few pounds of grain, a bale of hay etc. could be "lost" on its way to the war effort.

[Barmaid]

My father was a farmer's son. They never went short of anything that they could produce themselves. They had a herd of cows and a dairy, geese, hens, pigs, and some arable. they were in such a rural location the war almost passed them by.

[Graham-W]

I've just remembered a little poem my Dad's sister, Aunty Maggie, used to recite to me when I were a lad.

Rabbits hot, rabbits cold.
Rabbits young, rabbits old.
Rabbits tender, rabbits tough.
Thank the Lord, I've had enough!

Always made me smile.

[carolegif]

My Mum and Nan said you could buy anything you wanted from the spiv down Smithdown Road!!!

[bookbinder]

I suppose that, if you were a producer (of anything), during the war, you could always arrange for a bit to accidentally fall into your own cupboard.

[paddywak]

The houses in the colliery village I grew up in, (I was born in 1948) all had huge gardens especially ours which was a corner plot and dad kept half of it under veg and the other had poultry on it until he became physically incapable then I used to pop up and look after it. He often said that they never went short of meat and veg during the war as there was always somebody who had a surplus to swap. Poaching was rife with every thing from rabbits to venison being available if you knew who to talk too and right into the late fifties I can remember one old boy who used to go round the village collecting old food stuff for his pigs which when slaughtered where sold cheap round the village. The only thing Mum and Dad remember being short of was sugar and stuff like chocolate.