seaweed Carrageen (Chondrus crispus) to make agar, an important ingredient in bacteriology.
Food queues in wartime London, 1945
The 900 Day Siege of Leningrad or Tree bark, plantain and Pavlov’s dogs Further abroad, however, more serious privations were occurring during the conflict. Leningrad had huge national symbolic significance as the cradle of the Russian
Plant and pigeon photos: S. Kirk
Rose hips for children’s health
perilous journey to deliver their precious cargoes. However, although external supply routes were largely cut off, our invaluable countryside was not.
Conkers for Lucozade!
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The
There was also a more official dimension to the gathering of wild plants. The Vegetable Drugs Committee oversaw the delegation of collection of medicinal herbs to the County Herb Committees in a kind of collectivised foraging for the gathering of useful plants for the war effort. Various local organisations such as the Women‟s Royal Voluntary Service, Women‟s Institute, the Boy Scouts, Girl Guides and schools all participated in the effort. Cigarette cards depicting herbs were even produced as aids to identification. Probably the most enduring folk memory from this period is the mass gathering, a hefty 1,957 tons between 1941-5, of rose hips for the extraction of their vital vitamin C. But the unexpected also appeared, including conkers from the Horse Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) to provide a source of glucose for Lucozade no less, and the
Seaweed for agar
FORAGE KNOWLEDGE
The gathering of food from the wild became one source of alternative nutrition. A number of guides were produced; “They Can‟t Ration These” appeared in 1940 and was followed by “Hedgerow Harvest” from the Ministry of Food in 1943. In the preface to the former, the author, the eccentric Vicomte de Mauduit, states: “The object of this book is to show where to seek and how to use nature‟s larder, which in times of peace and plenty people overlook and ignore.” In the book, which is still available as a reprint, not only is there a great deal of information on where to acquire food from the wild - divided up into chapters by habitat - but an abundance of recipes both terse and full, such as squirrel tail soup, bracken asparagus and stewed starlings, as cookery skills ranked high among this man‟s many talents.
Bushcraft Magazine