Wartime Wednesday: The Humble White Potato

Wartime Wednesday: 

The Humble White Potato

French fries, mashed, hash browns, home fries, scalloped…just a few of the ways the potato is eaten here in the United States. According to Wikipedia and several other sources, the potato is native to the Americas, and the Spanish are the ones who introduced the fleshy tuber to Europe where it would quickly become a dietary staple.

Part of the nightshade family Solanaceae, potatoes are related to peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, paprika, and chili powder. Intriguingly, white potatoes and sweet potatoes are not related; they come from two different plant families.

During World War II, potatoes were eaten by everyone from civilians to soldiers and European- and American-based POWs. Research indicates that the British people consumed about four-and-a-half pounds per week. Spuds contain high levels of vitamins C and B6, potassium (more than bananas) and magnesium, fiber, and antioxidants, yet are low in fat, sodium, and cholesterol making them a nutritious and healthy food option.

As a root vegetable, they are easily grown and easily stored. They are also quite cheap. In the United

States, potatoes also became an essential part of citizens’ diets, and victory gardens were filled with potato plants, and the potato processing industry expanded as a result. In Britain, the Women’s Land Army cleared thousands of acres to plant (literally) tons of potatoes to feed the masses as well as the military. According to an article on historyhit.com, by the end of the war production had doubled since1939.

The Soviet people and her troops were starving by 1943, so authorities encouraged the population to plant potatoes. The Nazis promoted potatoes in Germany through radio, newspapers, and training courses (of all things!), resulting in an increase of annual consumption from twelve million tons to thirty-two million tons. Sadly, a large percentage of potatoes were exported from the Netherlands to Germany during the winter of 1944-1945 cause severe famine among the Dutch people.

Because of strict rationing, Norway, Belgium and other countries under German occupation added potatoes as a main food source. With an extensive fishing industry Norway was able to increase its dependency of fish such as cod, herring, and salmon. Likewise, neutral Sweden increased potato production to prevent food shortages.

When all was said and done, the humble white potato may have saved millions of lives.

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Love’s Rescue

A prostitute, a spy, and the liberation of Paris.

Sold by her parents to settle a debt, Rolande Bisset is forced into prostitution. Years later, shunned by her family and most of society, it’s the only way she knows how to subsist. When the Germans overrun Paris, she decides she’s had enough of evil men controlling her life and uses her wiles to obtain information for the Allied forces. Branded a collaborator, her life hangs in the balance. Then an American spy stumbles onto her doorstep. Is redemption within her grasp?

Simon Harlow is one of an elite corps of American soldiers. Regularly chosen for dangerous covert missions, he is tasked with infiltrating Paris to ascertain the Axis’s defenses. Nearly caught by German forces moments after arriving, he owes his life to the beautiful prostitute who claims she’s been waiting for the Allies to arrive. Her lifestyle goes against everything he believes in, but will she steal his heart during his quest to liberate her city?

Inspired by the biblical story of Rahab, Love’s Rescue is a tale of faith and hope during one of history’s darkest periods.

Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/u/mKwLAv

Sources:
https://histclo.com/essay/war/ww2/cou/bel/occ/w2bo-food.html
https://www.historyhit.com/how-did-potatoes-become-political-in-wartime/
https://the1940sexperiment.com/2023/02/14/how-many-potatoes-did-people-eat-during-ww2/
https://histclo.com/essay/war/child/ww2/food/cou/eur/w2cfc-swe.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgeBWzocLqU
https://museum.wales/articles/1084/The-ration-years-of-the-Second-World-War/
https://www.mofga.org/stories/stories/potatoes/

Photo Credits:
Poster: U.S. Archives
Potato Pete Cookbook: museum.wales.
Girls with potatoes: courtesy Imperial War Museum

Wartime Wednesday: Holiday Meals During Wartime

Holiday Meals During Wartime

Tires were the first item rationed in the US after the attack at Pearl Harbor when authorities realized rubber was going to be a crucial war materiel. It would be another four months before various foodstuff found its way onto the list, with sugar being first in May 1942. Coffee followed in November that year, then meats, fats, canned fish and canned milk, and cheese.

People integrated meatless meals in their weekly menus as well as learned how to cook “variety meats,” a euphemism for organ meats. My parents had very different experiences during the war. Mom lived on a large farm, as did many of her nearby relatives, so her family already raised most of their food. They were more impacted by gas rationing because of living so far from town. Dad lived in Baltimore City in a row house that had very little yard, so their space was limited for inputting a Victory Garden. They ate lots of canned vegetables and went without.

In the early years of our marriage when money was tight (paying off student loan, car payments, etc.) we tried our hand at gardening. We were marginally successful, but we constantly fought the deer, rabbits, and birds for our produce. And I hated weeding! We probably would have been more like Dad’s family and stuck with canned food.

During my growing up years, we went to my maternal grandparent’s house for Thanksgiving where

aunts, uncles, and cousins joined us for a feast that included turkey, ham, and meatloaf plus three kinds of potatoes, and every vegetable you can think of. For Christmas my paternal grandparents visited us (probably because the thought of loading the car with four kids and their gifts, then schlepping five hours was not my parent’s idea of a good time). Mom spent most of the morning in the kitchen, and we typically had a turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, and the iconic green bean casserole. We could count on leftovers.

During the war with meat at a premium, stews, soups, and casseroles were often served for the holidays. Desserts were limited and were often composed of fruit rather than sugar (although corn syrup and maple syrup were popular substitutes).

Here are recipes from the Victory Cookbook for a yummy and cost-effective wartime meal sure to please you and your family:

Chicken Pie with Sweet Potato Crust
3 Cups diced cooked chicken
1 Cup diced cooked carrots
6 cooked small white onions
1 Tablespoon parsley
1 Cup milk
1 Cup Chicken Broth
2 Tablespoons flour
1 Teaspoon salt
1/8 Teaspoon pepper

Crust:
1 Cup sifted flour
1 Teaspoon baking powder
½ Teaspoon salt
1 Cup cold mashed sweet potatoes
½ Cup melted butter
1 egg, well beaten

To make crust: Sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Work in mashed potatoes, melted butter, and egg. Roll ¼ inch thick.

For casserole: Arrange chicken, carrots, onions, and parsley in layers in casserole dish. Combine milk and chicken broth. Add slowly to flour, blending well. Cook until thickened, stirring constantly. Season and pour over chicken and vegetables in casserole. Cover with sweet potato crust. Bake in 350-degree oven for about 40 minutes.

Dessert: Baked Stuffed Apples

6 large, red apples (your choice)
1 Cup chopped bananas
1 Cup chopped cranberries
1 Cup sugar
1 Teaspoon cinnamon
Chopped nuts (your choice)

Cup off stem end of apples, but do not peel them. Remove core and a portion of the pulp, leaving the walls about ¾ inch thick. Mix bananas, cranberries, sugar, and cinnamon. Fill the cavities in the apples with the mixture, cover with chopped nuts, and bake in 350-degreee oven until tender, about 30 minutes.

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The American World War II Home Front in 29 Objects:

Unlike Europe the American mainland escaped physical devastation during World War II as it was not subjected to full-scale invasions. However, that didn’t mean the United States wasn’t impacted by the war. The ramifications of large economic, cultural, and societal changes forced Americans to reconsider entrenched beliefs and traditions.

Artifacts collected from across the nation tell the stories of the American people whose lives were shaped by this second “war to end all wars,” World War II.

Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/u/47pLxR

Photo credit:

Tires: Pixabay/Florian Berger

Turkey dinner: Pixabay/Linda Rosium

Apples: Pixabay/Rita E.

Wartime Wednesday: The British Home Front During WWII

Wartime Wednesday: 

Life on the British Home Front

Britain went to war on September 3, 1939, but the first six to eight months was referred to as the “Phoney War.” Not much happened, leading people to believe the conflict would be over quickly and painlessly. The government is said to have “muddled through” during that time. Then came the defeat at Dunkirk and the fall of France. British citizens realize their optimism had been misplaced, and they were in for a long, hard struggle.

Beginning in September 1940, England was bombed by the Luftwaffe relentlessly for nine months. Known as the Blitz (short for Blitzkrieg), the attacks killed 60,595 civilians and injured an additional 86,182. St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of London, and Parliament were just a few of the buildings that were hit. After the bombing of Buckingham Palace, the queen mother, Queen Elizabeth, remarked, “I’m glad we have been bombed. Now we can look the East End in the eye.”

Food rationing began in January 1940, and clothes in June 1941. According to more than a few sources, by 1943, almost every necessary household item was difficult to get, many unobtainable.

The war was also a time of great upheaval for children. Over one million were evacuated from towns

and cities during Operation Pied Piper. The idea was that they were safer in rural areas that had less chance of being bombed. I met a woman several years ago who had been evacuated from London as a young girl. She commented that she had a positive experience. The family treated her as one of their own, but she went on to say that her relationship with her biological family was never as close after the war. They’d been separated for five years.

Those children who did remain in the cities dealt with threats of gas attacks, bombings, rationing, and the disruption of school. Male teachers were called up leaving a void, and school buildings were damaged. Some schools moved to requisitioned country homes miles from the city, so children boarded keeping them away from their families for the duration.

Blackout restrictions were just that – restrictive – and penalties were harsh for those who broke the rules. Air Raid Precaution wardens patrolled the streets and were quick to point out if a light could be seen. Blackout curtains were heavy, unwieldy fabric and as the war progressed became unavailable, so blackout paper became a replacement. Vehicle headlights were fitted with covers to reduce the glare, making it difficult to drive. Numerous accidents were reported. Walking in the dark was also a dangerous proposition, so most folks stayed home at night if possible.

Rationing continued until 1954 – nine years after the war began!

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A Lesson in Love

He thinks he’s too old. She thinks she’s too young. Can these teachers learn that love defies all boundaries?

Born and raised in London, Isobel Turvine knows nothing about farming, but after most of the students in her school evacuate during Operation Pied Piper, she’s left with little to do. Then her friend Margery talks her into joining the Women’s Land Army, and she finds herself working the land at a manor home in Yorkshire that’s been converted to a boys’ school. A teacher at heart, she is drawn to the lads, but the handsome yet stiff-necked headmaster wants her to stick to farming.

Left with an arm that barely works from the last “war to end all wars,” Gavin Emerson agrees to take on the job of headmaster when his school moves from London to Yorkshire, but he’s saddled with the quirky manor owner, bickering among his teachers, and a gaggle of Land Army girls who have turned the grounds into a farm. When the group’s blue-eyed, raven-haired leader nearly runs him down in a car, he admonishes her to stay in the fields, but they are thrown together at every turn. Can he trust her not to break his heart?

Amazon link: https://amzn.to/3YHgUb0

Wartime Wednesday: Meals in a Time of War

 Wartime Wednesday: Meals in a Time of War

Much is made about rationing during World War II. If you think about it, we take food for granted until we can't have something, either because of choice (diet) or lack of availability. During World War II, America not only had to feed her citizens, but her troops, and lend aid to the other Allied nations. Sugar was the first item to be rationed, followed by coffee, then other foodstuffs. Many citizens located in rural already grew their own food, but additional acreage was turned into fields. Backyard gardens popped up in suburban areas and container gardens made a showing in cities where space was limited.

Everyone, from the government to newspaper and magazine publishers issued helpful hints and

recipes. Many periodicals accepted recipes from the general public to fill their pages with point- and money-saving meals. 

Cooks were encouraged to use "Alternate meats," a euphemism for organ meats, and a plethora of recipes were created to make these items palatable. (To the day she died, my mom, who was a child during the war, had little good to say about liver, tongue, or other "alternate meats.")

As someone who loves sweets, I would miss not being able to have desserts at every meal. I imagine that maple syrup and honey became highly popular during the war. Check out these recipes from Ontario, Canada's The Windsor Star.

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War's Unexpected Gift (A Merry Heart anthology)

Love and war don’t mix. Or do they? 

Eager to do even more for the war effort, nurse Gwen Milford puts in for a transfer from a convalescent hospital outside of London to an evac hospital headed across Europe. Leap-frogging from one location to the next, nothing goes as expected from stolen supplies to overwhelming numbers of casualties. Then, there’s the handsome doctor who seems to be assigned to her every shift. As another Christmas approaches without the war’s end, can she find room in her heart for love?

Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/47MO5Ms

Wartime Wednesday: License Plates during WWII

Wartime Wednesday: License Plates During WWII

Author Photo

Do you give your license plate much thought? Do you have a “vanity tag?” In the early days of automobiles, registration wasn’t required. Finally, in 1901 New York became the first state to require license plates, interestingly made by the individual owners, rather than being issued by state agencies. Typically handcrafted on leather or iron, they featured the owner’s initials. Two years later, Massachusetts distributed the first state-issued plates. Reporting the very first plate issued to Frederick Tudor, a worker with the highway commission, featured the number “1.” One of his relatives reportedly still owns the plate, and to this day in Massachusetts having a low-numbered plate is highly desired.

The earliest American license plates were made from porcelain baked onto iron or ceramic, but they

Author Photo

were fragile and most didn’t last. By the 1930s plates were made of metal, and a new plate was issued each year upon renewal. However, in 1942, that practice came to a screeching halt with the advent of World War II. Metal was needed for the war effort, and many automobile factories were converted to munitions or other war-oriented purposes. In an effort to conserve metal, many states stopped issuing front plates and revalidated the plate with a small metal tab indicating the year. Other states, such as Wisconsin reduced the size of their plates. Eventually, some states issued stickers to affix to the windshield.

Other states experimented with alternate materials for license plates such as a soybean-based fiberboard. The method of production is similar to today’s medium-density fiberboard (MDF). Heat and pressure bind layers of material into a flat, usable shape, with soy fibers and glue or soy flour as a binder.

Interestingly, Illinois and Michigan had the most success with soy-based materials, partly because of the efforts of carmaker Henry Ford, who for many years prior to the war had touted soybeans as a renewable material that could be used to create a wide range of plastics, especially within the automotive industry. In 1941, he had unveiled a plastic-bodied car constructed of panels made of “soybean fiber in a phenolic resin with formaldehyde used in the impregnation.” The plastic had been developed in his Greenfield Village Soybean Laboratory.

A downside to the use of soybean plates was their attraction to animals. One website told a story about a goat that was “reputed to have eaten an Illinois license plate in 1943.” An article in the Great Falls Tribune (Illinois) reported about an incident with a turkey, and a story in the Helena paper warned citizens of the likelihood of pigs being attracted to the plates.

Fortunately, with plates made of metal again, being pilfered by animals is no longer an issue!

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Will a world at war destroy a second chance at love?

Estelle Johnson promised to wait for Aubry DeLuca, but then she receives word of his debilitating injuries. Does she have the strength to stand by him in his hour of need?

Aubry DeLuca storms the beaches at Normandy, then wakes up in the hospital, his eyes bandaged. Will he regain his sight? Will the only woman he’s ever loved welcome him home or is he destined to go through life blind and alone?

Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3TNRrHP

Traveling Tuesday: Travel During WWII

Traveling Tuesday: Travel During WWII 

Photo: Pixabay/
Rene Rauschenberger

Until March 2020, when that-which-shall-not-be-named occurred, most people traveled without a second thought. For the most part, airfare and gasoline were affordable, so folks took regular vacations to visit family or simply get away, perhaps going somewhere they’d never been or return to a favorite location. Then lockdown happened, and travel came to a screeching halt. Now allowed with certain mandates and policies attached, trips are no longer the easy excursions they once were. 

Perhaps this has given us some appreciation for travel (and the severe shortage thereof) during World War II. 

Passenger air service continued during the war, but was primarily used for the war effort: either troop transport or civilian travel on defense industry business. The commercial airlines were pressed into military service, so they only way you could travel by air was to receive permission by the military or federal government. The naval situation was much the same with oceanic travel only done by the military (to say nothing of the danger of taking a ship across enemy-filled waters.) 

Photo: Pixabay/
Siggy Nowak

Train travel was available to civilians, but crowded with military personnel who took priority, so it was often difficult to get a seat. There was large-scale migration to industrial centers as people took jobs in the defense industry, and many women followed their husbands to military camp. 

Travel by car was limited by gasoline rationing, so people carpooled or took public transportation (buses or local trains) which again were severely overcrowded. However, drivers who used their cars for work deemed essential for the war effort were classified differently and received additional stamps. Others were limited as follows: 

• Class A: Three gallons per week 
• Class B (factory workers, traveling salesmen): Eight gallons per week 
• Class C (essential war workers, police, doctors, letter carriers) 
• Class D: Motorcycles 
• Class T: Truckers 
• Class X: Politicians and other “important people”

Photo: Pixabay/Cindy Jones

Coupled with the long hours that people worked (often six days a week doing defense work) they generally limited vacation and long-distance travel. In an interesting aside, major league baseball was incredibly popular, and a special letter from President Roosevelt, known as the “Green Light Letter,” approved continuation of the sport, but a directive from the Office of Defense Transportation ordered that all spring training take place north of the Potomac River and east of the Mississippi River to cut down on travel. 

Do you still take travel for granted or has that changed? 

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Spies & Sweethearts

She wants to do her part. He’s just trying to stay out of the stockade. Will two agents deep behind enemy lines find capture… or love? 

1942. Emily Strealer is tired of being told what she can’t do. Wanting to prove herself to her older sisters and do her part for the war effort, the high school French teacher joins the OSS and trains to become a covert operative. And when she completes her training, she finds herself parachuting into occupied France with her instructor to send radio signals to the Resistance. 

Major Gerard Lucas has always been a rogue. Transferring to the so-called “Office of Dirty Tricks” to escape a court-martial, he poses as a husband to one of his trainees on a dangerous secret mission. But when their cover is blown after only three weeks, he has to flee with the young schoolteacher to avoid Nazi arrest. 

Running for their lives, Emily clings to her mentor’s military experience during the harrowing three-hundred-mile trek to neutral Switzerland. And while Gerard can’t bear the thought of his partner falling into German hands, their forged papers might not be enough to get them over the border. Can the fugitive pair receive God’s grace to elude the SS and discover the future He intended?

Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/u/m0Od9l