All posts tagged: Fortnight in 1916

Eating in 1916 – a dinner

Thank you all for your comments and support following my last post!  You’ve given me a lot of ideas, and I really appreciate knowing that so many people are reading and being part of this community. I’ve felt much perkier today, and mostly the fortnight isn’t too bad, and some things are really lovely. Food has been one of the nice surprises.  There are numerous recipes in NZ newspapers of the time, and daily menus given in lots of newspapers, so it was pretty easy to do my food research.  I was a bit  dubious about the menus (So much meat!  So many brassicas!  So few spices!), but, by picking ones  that sounded a little more interesting and appealing, even within the constrains of the time, and winter food, I’ve actually been very pleasantly surprised. One of the happiest finds was the amount of vegetarian menus and vegetarian recipes available in New Zealand newspapers of the 1910s.  Vegetarianism was quite a popular fad, and was sometimes recommended for invalids.  I haven’t relied too heavily on …

1916 Megrims

Day 10 of the Fortnight in 1916, and I have woken up blue and glum and over it. I don’t want to be in 1916 anymore! I did not want to get up this morning and spend 45(!) minutes dressing: brushing my hair and putting it up and putting on all the layers of required clothes. I don’t want to have to wait for the kettle  to boil*, and be in the kitchen while I make breakfast because I can’t just stick toast in the toaster and just walk away. I definitely DON’T want to do today’s chore, which is laundry.  Last week’s was the trial one: this is the real thing.  I have a full week’s worth of clothes, and sheets, and I’ve decided to really give it a proper  and have gone through Mr D’s closet and fetched out every business shirt I thought would benefit from a bit of Sunlight Soap and a good scrub, so there is a large basket. And it’s cold, and grey, and windy, and hanging laundry will …

A Fortnight in 1916: the halfway point

I’m halfway through the Fortnight in 1916 project – 7 days of life in 1916 down, 7 more to go. What’s going well so far, and what’s been hard? Things that are better/easier than I expected: Food: I really thought the 1916 diet would be a struggle, and was quite worried about some of the dishes, but most of them have been very pleasant surprises.  The emphasis on fish (over mutton and other meat, which was being exported to Britain in large quantities), the wide variety of vegetarian dishes (evidence suggests it was a reasonably popular trend in 1910s NZ), and the reduction in bread (due to its high cost during the war) have helped.  I’ve really been enjoying things like swedes and steamed cauliflower, and  I haven’t been craving fresh greens, nor fruit other than apples, nor seasonings like garlic and ginger that usually feature heavily in my cooking.  There is actually a lot of vegetables – just in slightly different forms.  While the cooking is all quite simple, you are generally using fresh, …