Food During the War

 

Food was of course rationed, but our diets were supplemented by the Ministry of Agriculture, who provided several items.   Powdered egg was a strange commodity, imported from America.   It was either added in its dry form to such things as cake mixes, or water and/or milk was added to it to make scrambled egg.  

As a very young boy I was encouraged by my mother to assist in the kitchen, and from her I learnt how to cook, which is something I still practice and love to do to-day.  

Marmite, Bovril and Oxo were sometimes available, as well as Cod Liver Oil (which I hated) or a product called Virol, which was a mix of Cod Liver Oil and Malt and was more palatable.   A strange form of concentrated Orange Juice was also available to us as children, and this was provided in square bottles and was imported from California in the USA, as just one commodity brought into the country under President Roosevelt’s “Lend-lease” scheme.  

This allowed certain goods and merchandise to be provided to the UK and allied countries, without compromising America’s then neutrality – of course, the PearlHarbour incident was to alter that.   President Roosevelt described it rather nicely when he said that he viewed it as “Helping to put out the fire in your neighbour’s house before your own house caught fire and was burned down”.  

The orange juice and certain other commodities were available either from the weekly clinic which was held in the village hall in neighbouring Colney Heath, or from the Market Hall in St. Albans, which was behind British Home Stores and adjoined the cattle market.  

The Market Hall doubled as “The British Restaurant”, a scheme whereby cheap, basic lunches were provided. As an aside, restaurants were initially exempt from rationing, but this was resented by many people, as some wealthier folk could supplement their food allowance by eating out frequently and sometimes extravagantly. So new rules were introduced.   No restaurant meal could cost more than five shillings; no meal could have more than three courses; and meat and fish could not be served at the same sitting. 

The British Restaurant referred to supplied another almost universal experience of eating away from home.  British Restaurants were run by local authorities, who set them up in various premises such as schools and church halls or, in the case of St. Albans, in the Market Hall.   The initial maximum charge for a very basic three course meal was 9d.   This was later increased to one shilling.  

Intensive Cultivation from Local Nurseries

As far as fresh foods were concerned, there were three separate nurseries at Smallford during the war, all owned by Danes or Swedes.   Their names were Christensen, Neilsen and Sorenson.   All grew tomatoes, lettuces and cucumbers, and another nurseryman, Mr. Barker also grew flowers.  

They suffered a massive amount of damage when a bomb dropped just to the north of the main St. Albans to Hatfield Road, very close to Sorenson’s nursery.   The explosion shattered windows all round.   I remember going to look at the site the following day and seeing the crater formed by the explosion.   The bomb had actually fallen into the little stream known as Ellen Brook, and it created a large hole, which soon became a pond.   The pond was still there a few years ago.  

Fruit from the Orchards

Christensen’s nursery was directly opposite our house, and between the glass houses and the road was a long orchard with apples, pears, plums, cherries, greengages, and damsons, as well as a large walnut tree.   I can recall in particular the Codling apples and the Morello cherries, which were very bitter.   Mr. Christensen allowed locals to pick the fruits, but we were not supposed to climb trees for fear of causing damage, although, of course, the children did.  

There was another substantial orchard in the village, also in Station Road.   It was owned and run by Mr. & Mrs. Bacon and was called Standard Orchard.   In addition to fruit trees with apples, pears, plums and cherries, Mr. Bacon also kept poultry, which included a small flock of Guinea Fowl.  

In the fruiting season, Mr. Bacon would put a wheelbarrow and various boxes just outside the gate of the orchard containing wind-fall fruits, to which villagers could help themselves.   Although often bruised from where they had fallen, if the bruised or damaged parts were removed, there would usually be plenty left for making pies, jams, etc.   The unusable parts would be put into the pig food or chicken mash.  

Help on The Farm

Because most of the fit men were in the armed forces, there was a natural shortage of labour.   This was supplemented to some extent by the Women’s Land Army, but also by women and children helping on the land, especially with harvesting the various crops.  

I can remember some aspects of the wheat harvest.   Of course, there were no combined harvesters.   On Freddie Simpkins’ farm, wheat was cut with a self-binder drawn by a couple of Shire horses, and tied into small sheaves.    The person responsible for Mr. Simpkins’ horses was Nathan Swain.   

The cut sheaves of wheat would be stood into stooks (groups of about 6 sheaves) to dry.   They would then be transported to a threshing area, where they were threshed to remove the grain, before the empty sheaves were put onto an elevator.   They were then either built into a straw rick or taken away to be stored in ricks elsewhere.  

A system known as “gleaning” was allowed by most farmers.   This allowed local people to enter the field, once all the stooks had been taken away, and collect any corn which might either have been missed by the cutting machine or had fallen to the ground.   Some unscrupulous people might be inclined to help themselves to the occasional stook before the farmer had cleared the field, so it was an unwritten law that nobody could enter a field to glean unless and until all the stooks had been cleared by the farmer.   I can recall that Constable Day was particularly vigilant in enforcing this local rule, and woe betide anyone who transgressed.  

The same gleaning system applied to potato fields.   Thinking about it, it was probably better for the farmer to allow local people to pick up potatoes which had been missed initially than have them self-set among a different crop the following year.  

Towards the end of the war, Mr. Simpkins acquired a Fordson tractor, and I can remember this being used on the potato harvest.   Of course, everything was very labour intensive.   The tractor would pull an implement like a giant wheel, which rotated and spun the potatoes out of the ground.   They were picked off the surface by hand and put in buckets, which when full were tipped into giant wooden boxes on the back of a trailer.   The full boxes were then driven to the farm, using the Shire horses.  

Whilst some sugar beet, swedes and mangolds were harvested mechanically, many were done by hand in a system known as “knocking and topping”.   They would be pulled from the ground with a hooked blade.   The tops would then be cut off, before the roots were loaded into crates.   In the freezing cold winter, Brussels sprouts would be picked by hand.   Farm life was certainly not easy at that time.   

The Labour Force for the Tomato Nurseries is Supplemented

With so many men away at war, the village was short of labour to cope with the need for increased production at the various nurseries, so women and children were roped in to help.   The problem was eased to some extent with the opening of a prison camp for Italian prisoners of war at Oaklands, just a couple of miles from Smallford.   The prisoners were brought daily under escort and required to work under supervision in the nurseries.  

After the war, when speaking to my mother about the prisoners, it became obvious that there was very little animosity between the villagers and the prisoners.   Some of them were quite skilful with their hands, and in the evenings, back in camp, they made all sorts of small toys and trinkets from odd pieces of wood and other scrap items.   I was told that, at Christmas time, some of the items were offered as genuine presents to locals who worked alongside the prisoners.