More People Seeking Info About Depression Era WW2 Era Survival Tips

[Akita]

Here's a good link.

http://offgridsurvival.com/depressionerasurvivaltips/

[LadyFenix]

Not very much info at the link you posted. Perhaps you could find another source that would be more helpful.

Unfortunately, too many people think the four basic food groups are frozen, take-out, pizza delivery, and a latte and muffin from Starbucks.

Homemaking and cooking are no longer taught in public schools. The current generation has grown up, thinking someone else is supposed to do cooking and meal preparation. Not them.

It isn't often discussed, but a lot of the reason "why" people managed to survive on next to nothing in the Depression era was because women in the family were very skilled at basic cooking and being able to produce a filling edible meal using whatever they had on hand. Those "meals" were nothing like what we think dinner or breakfast should be, today.

The publishing company that produces the "Reminisce" books and magazines has marketed a couple of books about what the 1930's wives and Mothers cooked to get their families thru hard times. The types of food and meals that regularly appeared on dinner tables in the Depression described in those books are real eye-openers.

[merlinfire]

Originally Posted by LadyFenix

Not very much info at the link you posted. Perhaps you could find another source that would be more helpful.

Unfortunately, too many people think the four basic food groups are frozen, take-out, pizza delivery, and a latte and muffin from Starbucks.

Homemaking and cooking are no longer taught in public schools. The current generation has grown up, thinking someone else is supposed to do cooking and meal preparation. Not them.

It isn't often discussed, but a lot of the reason "why" people managed to survive on next to nothing in the Depression era was because women in the family were very skilled at basic cooking and being able to produce a filling edible meal using whatever they had on hand. Those "meals" were nothing like what we think dinner or breakfast should be, today.

The publishing company that produces the "Reminisce" books and magazines has marketed a couple of books about what the 1930's wives and Mothers cooked to get their families thru hard times. The types of food and meals that regularly appeared on dinner tables in the Depression described in those books are real eye-openers.

You mean this? My basic food groups

[Mic]

Don't laugh now..........but about school? I had to fill a slot in my schedule for an elective in the 11th grade. Yep. I took "Home Making". lol Got to cook stuff for a year in there. It's an elective I don't think has been offered for quite a while now in school.

No laughing here, I did a similar class when I was in the 9th grade. It was called "Survival Skills" which I thought was misleading advertising at the time

However I am very glad I took the class because I learned how to cook and do other basic, well, as it turns out, survival skills.

[ShellbackBill]

Trying to learn to survive the way they did during the last great depression is not going to work.

America was mostly a farming country during the last great depression. It's nothing like that now.

[TxHills]

Originally Posted by Mic

No laughing here, I did a similar class when I was in the 9th grade. It was called "Survival Skills" which I thought was misleading advertising at the time

However I am very glad I took the class because I learned how to cook and do other basic, well, as it turns out, survival skills.

Ha! You captured me before I could delete my post.

[Akita]

Originally Posted by ShellbackBill

Trying to learn to survive the way they did during the last great depression is not going to work.

America was mostly a farming country during the last great depression. It's nothing like that now.

The greatest population of America was still in the cities. Same as today. And the old skills, are exactly what will help people in a dire, national emergency.

Even if the 'exact procedure' has changed, the 'principal' of the information remains the same.

[NorIDhunter]

Originally Posted by ShellbackBill

Trying to learn to survive the way they did during the last great depression is not going to work.

America was mostly a farming country during the last great depression. It's nothing like that now.

So what's the alternative when the trucks stop running and the stores are empty?
Dumpster diving?

I listened to an interview w/ FerFAL the other day where he talked about a video that was made of a little girl in Argentina during the collapse.
"What did you have for dinner last night?"
"A tortilla."
What did you have for breakfast this morning?"
"Nothing." (crying)

I just read a book "Clara's Kitchen: Wisdom, Memories, and Recipes from the Great Depression". If one can't learn anything from that, I don't know what you can learn from. Bur you'd better start now and not wait for the collapse itself, as lots of their food came from their garden.

[MikeK]

Originally Posted by Akita

The greatest population of America was still in the cities. Same as today. And the old skills, are exactly what will help people in a dire, national emergency.

Even if the 'exact procedure' has changed, the 'principal' of the information remains the same.

During the depression and WWII both, the greatest population was rural. It wasn't until fairly recently that it changed to mostly urban. Within the last couple or three decades or so. Which is pretty surprising when you consider the size of our cities.

[Ramona M. Faunce]

One thing that my Mother-in-law taught me was to beat in a raw egg in the mashed potatoes. This makes it light and airy and gives the whole family part of 1 egg.

Then she kept the egg shells to put in the coffee pot filter. That way you would get the vitamins from the egg shell as the water was dripping through the grounds.

Never through your bread heels away. They can be used in meat loaf to make the entree go farther.

Also, you can dice up the bread heels to mix in with tuna (plus tuna water) to make a bigger batch of tuna for sandwiches. The bread would soak up the water and flavor of the tuna.

God bless and keep on prepping.

[LadyFenix]

Originally Posted by merlinfire

You mean this? My basic food groups

**************************

Hoo boy.

WHERE is that face-palm picture when I need it..........LOL.

[letsgetreal]

My grandparents started a family during the Depression......they said the way they survived was to waste nothing and find uses for everything and use and re-use it to death and then recycle it. "Waste not, want not" was the Depression mantra.

[LadyFenix]

There is a series of books called "Stories and Recipes for the Great Depression of the 1930's" by Rita Van Amber. There are five of these books. They're full of Depression cooking recipes, memories, and stories of how things were for average people in those tough years. An awful lot of knowledge (learned the hard way) is packed between the covers of each one of these books.

Until about three years ago, you could buy these for $3.00 or $4.00, each, on e-Bay or in used bookstores. Not any more. Sellers have wised up and are now selling the individual books for an average of $15.00 - $20.00. I have seen them listed for as much as $100.00, each. But, I haven't seen any actually SELLING at that inflated figure.

I suggest buying a set of these books while you can still find them. (Volume III is, for some reason, the hardest one to track down.)

A previous comment was made that someone thought it was not possible to survive in the same way that Depression-era people did. I don't agree with that. It can be done. It just is not going to be easy.

[hillbilly510]

I just read a book "Clara's Kitchen: Wisdom, Memories, and Recipes from the Great Depression". If one can't learn anything from that, I don't know what you can learn from. Bur you'd better start now and not wait for the collapse itself, as lots of their food came from their garden.[/QUOTE]

Clara also has a youtube page calls depression cooking its a blast to watch her cook recopies she ate regularly as a child and talk about life during the depression

[Red Dawn]

Originally Posted by LadyFenix

Unfortunately, too many people think the four basic food groups are frozen, take-out, pizza delivery, and a latte and muffin from Starbucks.
.

Say it aint SO!!!!!!

[LadyFenix]

Originally Posted by hillbilly510

I just read a book "Clara's Kitchen: Wisdom, Memories, and Recipes from the Great Depression". If one can't learn anything from that, I don't know what you can learn from. Bur you'd better start now and not wait for the collapse itself, as lots of their food came from their garden.

Clara also has a youtube page calls depression cooking its a blast to watch her cook recopies she ate regularly as a child and talk about life during the depression[/QUOTE]

********************

She is nearly 100 years old. I wish I had the opportunity to just sit down with her (for at least a week) and listen to her talk about what she has lived thru in her lifetime.

She's a tough old gal. I admire people, like her.

[Writer's Block]

I have a real good over the campfire rat recipe around here somewhere...got taught it on a survival course decades ago when I caught a rat in a snare and, ready to just make soup (like with the squirrel caught the day before) an instructor gave me a recipe...

After that, I was active in attempting to catch another rat...YUM!

[ozzie]

If you can't find or afford to buy recipe books from the Great depression, google is your friend Copy and paste into a word doc and create your own recipe book.

[wyldflwr]

Originally Posted by NorIDhunter

So what's the alternative when the trucks stop running and the stores are empty?
Dumpster diving?

I listened to an interview w/ FerFAL the other day where he talked about a video that was made of a little girl in Argentina during the collapse.
"What did you have for dinner last night?"
"A tortilla."
What did you have for breakfast this morning?"
"Nothing." (crying)

I just read a book "Clara's Kitchen: Wisdom, Memories, and Recipes from the Great Depression". If one can't learn anything from that, I don't know what you can learn from. Bur you'd better start now and not wait for the collapse itself, as lots of their food came from their garden.

I think that was the point, back then people had the skills to garden to help stretch their food dollars and agriculture was far more prevalent then. These days people don't know how, or the farms are producing corn for ethanol or they've been sold off.

There are at least 250 people that work in my building alone. I know a hell of a lot of those people after working there for 8 years. I know a total of 5 people who garden, and not all of them grow their own food.

[Monique]

My parents grew up in the Depression, and I was lucky enough to have my grandmother until I was 40. I grew up hearing the stories and learning some of the skills. The garden and the backyard chickens were their mainstay. During the very worst of it, Grandmother and the children went to her parents' farm while Granddad traveled looking for work. He was a skilled mechanic, so he was usually able to find something and send her a few dollars.
Every day in good weather, mom and her siblings came home from school, changed into "play clothes" and went straight to the garden to work for an hour or so. They lived in the city, but had a huge lot. They fed chickens, gathered eggs, helped with canning, did laundry outdoors in tubs with a washboard.
I hope there are enough of us left who have some memory or knowledge of those times to help those around us if needed.