Rationing

[Gail]

Thinking about the rationing of food during the war.

How well would you manage having your food rationed? I'm thinking t,hat if food needs to be rationed you are likely not going to get lots of it.

[Outta Here]

I would manage terribly! 

I am the grand-daughter of two people who farmed the land until their retirement--they had huge family farms until their 20's, then farmed their own backyard garden between their 30's and 60's. I helped in the digging, the sowing and the picking of the harvest (mostly long beans). But I never learned the how and when to do so! I was an unskilled laborer for them. Now, in my late 40's, I do nothing more with my yard than mow the lawn and trim the hedges. I would love to have my own garden, but I don't know how to go about it. 

Food rationing would drive me nuts. I have specific foods I need to have to feed my family best. 

Quote

On 8 January 1940, bacon, butter and sugar were rationed. This was followed by successive ration schemes for meat, tea, jam, biscuits, breakfast cereals, cheese, eggs, lard, milk and canned and dried fruit. Fresh vegetables and fruit were not rationed but supplies were limited.

 

The above is from Wikipedia. (Argue with me all you like about Wikipedia not being a reliable source, I don't mind. It's good enough for this discussion in my opinion.) It seems to be in line with what my grandmother tells me about rationing.

I can easily live without bacon, butter, sugar, meat, biscuits, cheese, eggs, lard, milk and dried fruit. I would find it unfortunate to live without tea (particularly hibiscus tea and green tea). If oat bran is considered "breakfast cereal", then I'd be at a huge loss! We eat about 3 cups of oat bran weekly (I make oat bran muffins for breakfast). 

The biggest loss I'd feel is the loss of fresh vegetables and fruit. If potatoes were part of that rationing, I think we'd nearly die! We all need carbohydrates for energy.

__

My grandmother tells a story about her experiences with rationing during the war. She lived in Florida with my grandfather who was stationed there. She worked at a deli/sandwich shop and at a grocery store. Her mother and father were still on the farm in Missouri and had food aplenty. One day, my grandmother wrote home and said how much she would love to have some of the onions from the harvest that year--onions, of all things, were very hard to come by. A week or so later, her parents shipped her a huge box of onions! She took a few in with her to work and gave them to her co-workers. She said her boss took the onion and put it in his coat pocket--wearing it the rest of the day. She said he called home and asked his wife not to cook dinner, he was going to surprise her with "hamburgers with ONION!" Well, according to my grandmother, the wife's glee could be heard through the telephone line!

Can you imagine? The excitement over a single onion!

Let us hope and pray we never have to be excited over an onion.

[dgrimm60]

GAIL

OTHER items  rationed  during WWII ===COFFEE--SHOES AND  FOOTWEAAR===SILK AND NYLONS===GASOLINE

 

dgrimm60

[dgrimm60]

GAIL

I would try my best to  make it on  what was given

dgrimm60

[Liz]

I don't think I would have done very good back in the '40's, but then they made everything from scratch, I doubt I would have been a very good cook either. If for some reason they had to start rationing food now, I think I'd do pretty good, because we are so used to substituting this for that anyways, because of food allergies, special diets, etc.

[Gail]

How hungry would you get before Leviticus went out the window?

I don't imagine that rationed portions have many more calories than to just keep you from starving.

I was thinking about the starving besieged inhabitants of Jerusalem resorting to cannibalism. I don't know if human meat is clean or not but starvation does desperate things to people.

 

[Gail]

Just think 

if your government was to implement a food rationing program today, what, iyho, would a sample weekly package consist of to preserve the lives of the general public?

Thanks, Aubrey, for your list. Nutritional knowledge has sdvanced since then! I would think that dried lentils would be a cheaper protein to distribute

[Outta Here]

You were probably gracious. But let me ask you, if you were severely allergic to ham, what would you have done? My husband is allergic to so very many things there is nearly nothing an average "do gooding" person could  prepare in advance that he'd be able to eat without modification. What would you say, or do, if the food was something that would hurt you? And furthermore...would a ham really hurt you? I'll leave that to you to decide. (I know what my answer would be: yeah, the ham would hurt me. But it I were starving enough, I might be driven with madness enough to eat it.)

 

[Gail]

Having food allergies adds to the challenge of the rationing scenario. I wouldn't wish that on anyone  

[Liz]

I always heard that if you were to eat human flesh, that it gives you the shakes, like Parkinson's. And no I don't think I would ever resort to cannibalism. I heard a lecture once from an Auschwitz survivor, she said that when her fellow prisoners did resort to cannibalism, she would eat grass, but not just handfuls, she would carefully pick out each blade of grass and choose which one looked greener, longer, etc. She said this way it kept her mind focused on the grass and not what was happening around her. She was an amazing person to listen too.

[Gail]

That's a creative way of coping!

[GayatfootofCross]

On 2/10/2018 at 8:02 PM, The Wanderer said:

One of several responses I would have to that is that "Leviticus" is not my sole authority on all things food wise.  Its not something that I would feel any major pressure from should a rationing situation ever happen to me. In essence, it has already happened. A friend who thought they were helping gave me a large ham one day for a gift as we were really pinching the pennies. I wonder, what do other forum members think might have been my response?

Hey Everyone!

Both Jesus to the Jews face and Paul to the Greeks stressed "to eat what is set before you" so not to offend the hosts.

Basically our church looks at Levitical food laws as holy laws ..not dietary laws.

whatever.

Even Jesus says what goes in your mouth and poops out doesn't make you unclean i.e. Impure..    but what come out of your mouth i.e. your Words.

 

Even when trying to sharpen and narrow the focus of Christian living (outside of the ten commandments of Love)

..the only dietary law given was reduced to not eating animals strangled. Nothing about which animals.

The Good News were able to be given to All without all the rituals/requirements...just to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ!

wooo hooo

Now let me ask in my most melodious voice...

Since our Church stress good habits and healthy living ..Isn't a violation of our health to starve to death in the dungeon while there is a Honey Glazed Spiral Ham in the fridge?

 

 

 

 

 

[Outta Here]

I feel like...if it got right down to it and I spent the previous days in my life honoring God and His wishes to my good health including abstinence from caffeine, alcohol, narcotics, unclean meats and fatty fried "foods"...well, I feel as if God might well honor His word:

Quote

1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

 

 

[LifeHiscost]

11 hours ago, GayatfootofCross said:

Hey Everyone!

Since our Church stress good habits and healthy living ..Isn't a violation of our health to starve to death in the dungeon while there is a Honey Glazed Spiral Ham in the fridge?

I guess that would/could be mitigated by how one felt about the body being referred to as the temple of God.

19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? ... 1 Corinthians 19

Or even perhaps Jesus' attitude toward pigs when delivering  a couple persons who were possessed by demons.

 

²⁸ And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.

²⁹ And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?

³⁰ And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding.

³¹ So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.

³² And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters....Matthew 8

 

God is Love!~Jesus saves! 

 

 

 

 

 

[GayatfootofCross]

14 hours ago, The Wanderer said:

I dont think this is quite what the author intended for that passage. It is clear, upon a detailed reading, that the Apostle said what he did and why; but he was not in saying this, making it a rule for everyone in every age. Are you saying that the Bible tells us we can shovel garbage into our guts and dismiss it away with "well Jesus says so.?"  Well, I am glad we are friends, and I dont have to worry about what to eat if I ever come to your place.

lol! shovel garbage lol

I don't think the Bible is giddy about that!

Maybe you can help me with what these verses are saying.

Luke 10:8 "When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you.'..'" -Jesus

1 Cor 10:27 If someone who isn't a believer asks you home for dinner, accept the invitation if you want to. Eat whatever is offered to you without raising questions of conscience.- Paul

..and as I quoted before when Jesus states what we put in our mouth doesn't defile us. Matt 15:11

And of course if allergic to raw eel or something please tell the hostess.

And if ever we find ourselves serving my best dish. it would be my world famous Oatmeal Patties in Mushroom Gravy!