Month 2 - Food

This month I will be concentrating on food in the wartime. I will be covering different aspects of this topic week by week including food rationing, wartime recipes and digging for victory. I will also be attempting to live of rations for a week and posting daily updates on how I'm doing.

Our food month kicks of with 'Dig for Victory' week. In October 1939, just a month after the outbreak of war the Ministry of Agriculture launched their 'Dig for Victory' campaign encouraging people to turn their gardens into mini-allotments, or 'victory gardens' as they were known and to start growing their own food. This not only helped families bulk out their rations with a supply of healthy fruit and vegetables but helped free up space for war materials on merchant convoys. Every spare bit of land including parks, tennis courts and golf courses were used to grow vegetables. Even the moat at the Tower of London was used to grow vegetables.

In addition to helping the war effort these victory gardens also helped boost moral as gardeners felt empowered by their contribution of labor and rewarded by the produce grown. The Ministry of Agriculture published many leaflets to help budding gardeners and 'food flashes' were shown at cinemas with valuable planting and gardening tips.

By 1943 over a millions tonnes of vegetables were being grown in gardens and allotments.