This Is What People Ate When They Had No Money During The Depression

TBI ^ | 11-18-2011 | Vivian Giang

[Freddd]

Peanut butter and syrup, yep, and a real treat for our school lunch bag, was peanut butter sprinkled with sugar...

[djf]

Dandelion greens, not my favorite, but edible.

One of the reasons I mention cabbage and kale is that if you start them one season, they will grow up and often make it through the next winter.

When it warms up, they will start to leaf up again to flower. And at this time, the greens are EXCELLENT!

Cabbage plants produce a type of sugar in the leaves as an antifreeze.

Early in the year, the cabbage greens are sweet as any fruit you might find. Really sweet. Probably pound for pound as much sugar as apples!

[dancusa]

I do this in the spring - but with fiddleheads and brookies

My Memere' used to cook up the best fiddleheads. This was a great vegetable in northern Maine other than potatoes and wild berry picking in the summer.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***When you are hungry enough, everything looks like food. :p***

I remember reading a book by Elmer Keith about one of his kin in the Civil war.

He was on sniper duty and so hungry every time he thought of his mom’s rancid lard tub that she saved to make soap, his mouth would just water.

No THAT’S hungry.

My dad saw lots of real hunger in WWII Europe. Refugees from the war starved for anything, even GI garbage.

[GeronL]

I think my dad mentioned something about flour and water fried pancakes used as bread. He made them once in a while and we put syrup on them and eat them up.

[mountn man]

Mustard sandwiches, yes I’ve done that too, still do. I did mayo sandwiches when it was available.

Growing up in the 60's, I'd spend the summers on my grandparents farm. Oh those were the days.

My cousin and I would have sald dressing or Miracle Whip sandwiches. YUUUM!!!

[Bellflower]

I love chipped beef on toast.

I make it now, or a variation of it. I use good pastrami, half and half, butter with flour in it to thicken it and put a little mustard in it for a little kick and add a little good beef bouillon type product for extra flavor with a little salt and pepper. MM MM good!

[SkyDancer]

It’ll be the 1930’s all over again and this time no way out. The Dem’s will keep raising taxes and raising taxes and wind up bringing everything to a standstill. Then the trouble will begin, I think.

[GeronL]

I’ve had gravy & bread as the main course in a meal, and fried taters on the side if we could afford it.

[GeronL]

I don’t recall her growing potatoes, but lettuce and tomato was from the garden. She’s 93 now and has a better memory than I do. Always interesting to hear her talk of the old days.

You should record it, I wish I'd recorded my dads stories.

[goat granny]

can we call you a cotton pickin freeper...:O)

[3D-JOY]

I seem to remember the old recipe for creamed chipped beef.

4 oz beef
4 Tab flour
4 Tab fat( butter for me!)
gently fry it to a gooey mess and slowly add...
4 cups of milk

I never had to look up a recipe

[GeronL]

whoa.

rancid lard.

I hope I’m never THAT hungry

[P-Marlowe]

Do you know what can grow and be eaten without a lot of sunshine? I have big trees on my property and the spots that get sunlight get it only for 5 to 6 hours. I really like them but growing food has been a problem.

You can grow marijuana with grow lights in your garage and then take the money you make and buy food.

[GeronL]

My dad picked it when he was a kid, LONG before I was a thought

[Fiji Hill]

"Animal Crackers" was a hit song in 1935, so such snack food must have been popular at the time. I have never seen animal crackers, but I do remember animal cookies from the 1950's and '60's. However, these would have been too sweet to add to soup.

Animal Crackers--Mae Questel (1935)

[antceecee]

I remember my Memere would cook up swiss chard and all the kids
would accuse her of picking leaves in the yard and feeding them
to us.... miss her.

[txhurl]

You can grow marijuana with grow lights in your garage and then take the money you make and buy food.

---

Now that’s a funny deal going down. ‘Yeah, I got a QP skunk. I’m asking a bushel of potatoes, 7 chickens, 4 gallons of milk and some peanut butter, and I could get more so be quick’

[maine-iac7]

yep

We kids used to get out of school in the fall 2-3 weeks to pick potatoes.

We loved it. We got to work alongside the grownups as equals, we learned hard work - but loved it. It was in the sunshine and out of school - and we got jingle money in our pockets...the amount directly commensurate with how many potatoes we picked. Good growing up lesson.

[firebrand]

When I was a kid there was one family on the block that still had an ice box. The ice man would come in a truck and throw a piece of burlap over his left shoulder and then heave the block of ice on top of it with tongs.