Misc/Chat BBC Historic Farm Series

[Jaybird]

BBC put out a series on historic farming starting in 2005 with The Green Valley (ERA 1620). With all the talk of no food I thought you all may like it. I found all of the Wartime Farm series on Youtube. Can Probably find the rest of them also. Five time periods in all. I've watched the Victorian Farm series and really liked it. Hope you all enjoy it.

Wartime Farm Episode 1
RT 59:28

The other 8 episodes are there also.

BBC historic farm series - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Limner]

We just finished watching War Time Farm, and it was Excellent. And maybe gives us a glimpse of our own future.

 

[moldy]

War Time Farm was very enlightening - at the time I watched it, it really bothered me how the hosts could just minimize the murder of the farmer that refused to turn over his crops. Now I can see it happening here WAAYYYY too easily.

 

[anna43]

I watched the War Time Farm several years ago, but with current events being what they are watched it again last week. I've watched the other series in the past, but don't recall them so much.

I'm always seeing people saying that we can learn how to handle a new depression by studying the Great Depression. I don't think that is true, because the way people live today is so far removed from daily life in the 1930's it just will not compute. However, I do think the War Time Farm helps us understand the sacrifices made by the general population during those years to support the war effort. It can give us insight to what we may be facing regarding food shortages.

gDonna's Generations Before Us -- this website is very interesting regarding WWII. This couple are history buffs and spend a year studying what life was like in a prior time, collecting information from diaries and newspapers and then they try to live like that year as much as possible in 2022. This year they are doing 1943 including food rationing. They've been doing this for several years so you can read through those other years too. With current random shortages seemingly increasing and the senile old man in the White House telling us food shortages will continue, I find gDonna Generations Before Us very enlightening.

One thing that really bothered me is that rationing also meant you had to tell how much of each item you already had. I don't know if that meant you had to turn over the "extras" beyond the government mandated limits or that you just didn't get ration stamps for those items until they were used. That is a question I would have asked my mom but she passed away on Christmas Eve at age 100. We have a gentleman who comes to church who is 103 and still sharp, maybe I could ask him or call his dd and have her ask him for me. The idea of all the hard work I've put into growing my gardens and processing my harvests, plus the expense of the store bought items being confiscated scares/angers me. I'm low income so there have been sacrifices made to stock my pantry which I consider an insurance policy against hunger.

 

[Jaybird]

Just wanted to add there are four more time periods in that series you should check out. One of my favorite things to do when my grandmother was alive was to listen to her tell stories about growing up on the farm during the depression. Very different way of life. Never hurts to pick up information on the old ways of doing things. I think we may be using them sooner than we think.

 

[anna43]

My paternal grandmother (1895-1979) was raising her family on a tenant farm during the Depression years. They farmed with horses, heated/cooked with wood and were as self-sufficient as anyone could be during those years. Since they had no money in a bank, they lost nothing when the banks closed. She often commented that life didn't really change for them through those years. Their fuel came from the timber on the land, water from their well and lights from electricity or kerosene. They raised their own meat (hogs, chickens, occasional beef), eggs, dairy (milk, butter, sour cream). Nuts from the timber in the fall.

My dad commented that he liked going to his maternal grandparents because that was the only time he got to play. He and his two brothers were basically slave labor and as soon as they could get jobs, they turned earnings over to their parents. They rode ponies to school which was 5½ miles and stabled their ponies at their paternal grandmothers.

My mother's family lived in town and my grandfather had a gas station which also served as bus depot, ice delivery and did fuel delivery to both town and farms. So they had income, but mom said there was often nothing to buy. Mom said many of the people in town kept a cow and chickens. The neighbors would hire someone to take the cows out to graze the roadside ditches after morning milking and then bring them back in time for evening milking. Even in town the ladies grew big gardens. I recall in the 1950's grandpa coming home for noon lunch and telling us that the last debt he'd carried from the Depression had been paid that day. He was so pleased that his trust in mankind had been confirmed.

There really was no recovery from the Depression until WWII which brought jobs and incomes, but rationing and empty shelves so a whole new issue. Almost all of the men my dad's age (1921-2002) served in the war and it about killed my dad that he was declared 4-F and not eligible to serve. When my great-grandmother died (1866-1943) her obit stated that 8 of her grandsons were on active duty in the military. She had 10 grandsons one of which was 4-F and the other an essential worker. The attitude of the community was no sacrifice was too great to support the soldiers. People would donate their gas rations so neighbors could go see their sons. In fact, mom said if a person had good tires, they would put them on the neighbor's vehicle for the trip. Tires were extremely rationed.