Remember that bit in MARE’S WAR when she meets the little girl who stares at her? Later we read that she was also supposed to be working a bit in the garden –? Well, I’ve just found a museum celebrating that gardening effort — the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, England is having an exhibit that shows just what all those kids had to do during WWII. The museum is supplying a “genuine 1940’s farming experience,” to anyone who comes along to visit them, as well as an exhibit which highlights the Ministry of Food, which is the British equivalent of the FDA, and which passed out food stamps and recipes in an effort to help people cope with the food they had and make do with the foods they couldn’t have.
Much like American 4-H Clubs, there were British kids in Pig Clubs and London transplants living on farms and in small villages, competing about who had the largest hens and the best egg yields. And best of all, they both had fun and kept their country fed and self-reliant.
Which is just awesome, of course.