Claud Fullwood

Claud Fullwood's book The Rations Challenge is a diary-style description of the author's attempt to survive solely on WWII rationed items for the entire Lenten season.

I was expecting a little different book than the one offered by the author. It was, however, an intriguing look at how rationing worked during the war and for the author today. The book seemed to me to be more of a treatise on how we can change in the face of present concerns, such as climate change. I was hoping for more information on the history of rationing, as well as its economic consequences.

The book was interesting. It just wasn’t what I had expected or anticipated.

I received this book from NetGalley. However, my review is voluntary, and all opinions are my own.… (altro)

Well this was a timely read, especially now in 2020 with shortages of toilet paper, beans, meat, baby wipes in my local grocery store. This author is a British woman who put a twist on Lent and instead of giving up sweets for six weeks, my old stand by, lived by the WWII ration system for six weeks. In 1943 Britain was importing NONE of its food and EVERYTHING was rationed. Everything was saved, mended , reused.
The challenge was divided up into 6 weeks. You had to plan ahead, make do, eat seasonally. You got (to name a few things) 1 egg a month, 3 pints of milk and 1 lb of meat, 3 oz of cheese, 2 oz of butter, 2 oz of tea, 8 oz of sugar a week, oats and fish were not rationed. People ate a lot of potatoes. You got 16 points to spend on canned food. A can of fruit was 12 points. Meals were monotonous but nutritious. Everyone had an allotment for a vegetable garden. Dig for victory. Women canned and bottled fruits and vegetables. I learned a lot about the Land Girls (now I will watch the TV series), the Women's Initiative which is still active today like our Farm Co Ops are. People kept pigs, chickens and goats then and chickens are becoming popular again today. Family time was precious then and games were popular and as we spend time home with our loved ones during social distancing I know we have started putting large puzzles together. The author wrote one third of all food produced today is wasted which is a travesty with so many hungry people. One trend is buy ugly fruits and vegetables as grocery stores only sell perfect specimens. WWII saw no food waste. Another trend was rationing so everyone one could eat not just the wealthy but the poor too. The government had to get into the nutrition business so the nation would have healthy workers and fighters. We are all in this together!
This book not only talked about the rationing system, the author talked about buying seasonally, buying fair trade and the impact this could have. The author kept a diary of the six weeks eating the ration diet and ways it could be done. There were also recipes from the pamphlets given out at the time. This weekend I plan to try the soda bread and the black berry bread and butter pudding with custard sauce. There were also interviews of people who lived during that time. I wish there had been more of those. Also included in the book is a seasonal calendar and a list of references and books for further reading. All in all I found this to be a gem of a little book and one I will read again. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for a review.… (altro)