Help Feed Yourself

[jeffrey]

When the US wasn't completely consumer focused: "Demonstrate your thrift at home."

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Done! The backyard is full and I reclaimed another small planting bed in my vacant lot garden just this evening. Might be able to get some fall veggies in there this year. I've also got my eye on the elderberries in the city parks and have located my source of pectin for the elderberry jelly-- delicious cider apples from tree in a parking lot.

For anybody canning this year, you might be interested to know that the Department of Agriculture publishes superb how-to info. But they have changed some of their sanitary recommendations as compared to ten years ago. (They are stricter about partially fermented pickles, for example.) So if you want to use the latest science-based canning techniques look up the Agriculture Department.

P.S. I wish the image were sharper so that we could read the whole thing.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I really wanted to be able to read that poster, so I tried to locate it on the web. I found it, still unreadable, at a site that features a lot of food & garden related posters from WWII. The messages, sentiments, and artwork are interesting.

Objects and Images How Does Your Garden Grow Online Exhibit State Historical Society of North Dakota This page as well as the following one have the posters. The site as a whole is very interesting.

[Broken Arrow]

Wow, I just posted that on my blog. But you beat me to it handily.

[jpg7n16]

I copied the image file into a MS Word document, then made it 275% zoom. You can read most of it that way.

Grow Vegetables and Fruits
If Your Soil is Fertile and Sunny
Don't let your land loaf. Keep it working all season. Don't assume that the season is too far advanced to begin garden operations. Some vegetables may be planted at practically any time until past the middle of summer.
Start new crops between the rows of others that are soon to be removed.
Begin over again in late summer and plant vegetables that mature best in cool weather, such as radishes, lettuce, spinach, kale.
See that your garden toward fall is full of potatoes, beets, turnips, cabbage, and other staple foods that be stored for the winter.
Grow lima and navy beans for harvest when ripe.

Can or Preserve Surplus Perishables
Dry fruits and sweet corn and such other vegetables as may be preserved in this way. Can only the products that can not be kept otherwise. Concentrate products so that each jar or can will hold as much food and as little water as possible.
There is a shortage of containers. Don't let one be wasted in your home. Empty spices and similiar materials from jars and fill them with food.
Reserve regular tight-sealing containers for perishable vegetables, meat, and fish.
Use wide-necked bottles with parafin seals for putting up fruit and preserves; use glasses or crocks for jellies and jams; use bottles and jugs corked and sealed with parafin for fruit juices, catsups, and other liquid products.

Keep A Flock of Hens
If You Soil is not Suitable for Gardening
A small number of chickens can be kept in almost any back yard. They can be housed at small expense in piano boxes or other large packing cases. They can be fed to a large extent on table scraps and vegetable waste. Their eggs should make a substantial addition to the family food supply.
Surplus cockerels from hatchings and old hens will take the place of a considerable quantity of purchased meat. Separate roosters from hens after the hatching season and produce infertile eggs. Such eggs are much more easily kept in good condition than fertile eggs.
Preserve surplus fresh eggs in water glass or lime-water.

(Children canned and saved these perishables for winter use.)

Make Every Jar Help Feed Your Family
Can this year if you have never canned before. The conservation of food is a vital neccesity under war conditions.
No previous experience is neccesary. Canning and preserving are simple processes and may be carried out by children or adults with home utensils.
Put up more food that ever this year if you usually pack for winter use.
Write today to the U.S. Department of Agriculture or your State agricultural college or ask your county agent for explicit directions for growing vegetables, for raising chickens, and for canning foods at home with the ordinary home utensils.

Demonstrate Thrift in Your Home
Make saving, rather than spending, your social standard

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

That was really nice of you. Thank you.

[rob62521]

Cool poster! We can't use our backyard for a garden because it is so shady. We are using a portion of our front yard and to heck with the neighbors! Those homegrown tomatoes are tasty!