#foodconservation

Can vegetables, fruit and the Kaiser too! 

Together We Win: The Philadelphia Homefront during the First World War closes on Friday, April 21st. If you haven’t stopped by yet, make sure you do. If you are unable to make it, you can check out our WWI poster collection, era music, and the WWI Test Kitchen at http://togetherwewin.librarycompany.org/

Take the Eat out of Wheat

Eating gluten-free is not a recent trend.The Food Administration during World War I promoted going wheatless.The ravages of the war led to a food crisis in Europe, and they desperately needed wheat.The United States also had over four million servicemen to feed.The Administration urged Americans to eat potatoes whenever possible (the weight of potatoes made them impractical to ship across the Atlantic Ocean). Corn, called the grain of America, could be used to make corn bread, griddle cakes, muffins, and other baked goods. “War bread” could contain any number of alternative flours, including rice, barley, rye, oats, potato, or buckwheat. Another aim of the Administration involved stopping food waste, especially of bread. If every one of the twenty million American households wasted one slice of bread that would equal 875,000 pounds of flour wasted! To curb this waste, many WWI-era recipes contain bread crumbs as an ingredient to use up stale or leftover bread.

Come see our current exhibition, Together We Win: The Philadelphia Homefront During the First World War, up now through April 21st.

Located in Germantown, “Little Wakefield” served as a demonstration center for the National League for Woman’s Service teaching women “if you cannot be a fighting soldier, be a farming soldieress.” They held classes in home economics and canning and preserving, grew fruits and vegetables, and cultivated bees. They produced peas, beans, corn, cabbage, peaches, and raspberries on four acres. Today it is a part of La Salle University as the St. Mutien’s Christian Brothers’ residence.

Linda August, Curator of Arts and Artifacts and co-curator of the Library Company's exhibit, Together We Win: The Philadelphia Homefront during the First World War, was inspired by food during her WWI research. Many of the recipes she found include the use of corn products, as well as alternatives to wheat flour and animal-based proteins and fats.

Together with Digital Outreach Librarians, Concetta Barbera and Arielle Middleman, she highlights recipes that embraced the food conservation effort through stop-motion animations and video. In honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, we wanted to share our first foray into the War-Time Cook and Health Book: Apple Brown Betty.  

You can see the full video at: 

http://togetherwewin.librarycompany.org/apple-brown-betty/

and explore the online exhibition here:

http://togetherwewin.librarycompany.org

Recipe From: Lydia E. Pinkham Medicine Company, War-Time: Cook and Health Book (Lynn, MA, 1917). Gift of William H. Helfand.