This Is What People Ate When They Had No Money During The Depression

TBI ^ | 11-18-2011 | Vivian Giang

[Vince Ferrer]

Some of my family remember eating road kill because they didn’t want to waste the meat. Nearly every culture has food that to others seems disgusting. I imagine that most of that type of food, when traced back, comes from a period of near famine.

[The Great RJ]

During the Obama Depression, you just take you EBT card to the store and load up on junk food,

[ctdonath2]

Another reason to pimp my tagline!

[Beowulf9]

My father, bless his heart, showed me this wonderful depression meal called 'one eyed sams' http://www.bushcraftusa.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49018

[Bellflower]

Do you know what can grow and be eaten without a lot of sunshine? I have big trees on my property and the spots that get sunlight get it only for 5 to 6 hours. I really like them but growing food has been a problem.

[SkyDancer]

Great grandma told us about Depression meatloaf which was actually oatmeal mixed with lard. Those people today who wail and moan (via Twitter, the internet, etc) on how poor they are. They have no concept whatsoever on what poverty really is.

but I digress

[SIDENET]

Good to read. Thanks for posting, blam.

I'm on a primal/paleo/whatever diet and eat a ton of eggs and apples. I eat a lot of other stuff, too, but eggs and apples work great for me, are healthy, and are dirt cheap. I'm over 40, and carry absolutely zero extra weight.

My wife is Korean and often will make a simple soup like seaweed, kimchi, or radish and will have it with brown rice. Very healthy and super inexpensive.

[GOP Poet]

Excellent! I grew up the youngest of a very large family. It sounds exactly like a dish my mom made us at least a couple times a month. Honesty? I liked it :-). Salt and pepper come in handy and the grease was great on those potatoes. Simple stuff when one doesn’t have much and they are HUN-GRYY! :-). Bless you for giving these families recipes to build strong children and parents.

[JimSEA]

We still have what is called chipped beef on toast around the kids. The Army version wasn’t near as good.

[GeronL]

Clara sure uses a lot of cooking oil. Was it not rationed during the depression? I know sugar and some other things was.

[Publius]

Not the Depression. World War II.

[GeronL]

stir-frying potatoes and hot dogs we still do to this day because its cheap;

[djf]

Dandelions were originally brought to the new world as a food crop.
Ridiculously easy to grow, a perennial that will come back year after year and the bigger it gets, the higher the yield...

[LaybackLenny]

To this day, I occasionally enjoy a bowl of bread and milk, a depression-era staple which I picked up from my Dad. Just white bread broken up, sprinkled with sugar (maybe a little vanilla), and doused in milk.

Mrs. LaybackLenny looks at me like I'm from another planet. LOL!

[Cold Heart]

Stone Soup

I was trimming up some vegetables for dinner one night as my grandson watched. I pointed out to him that everything I was putting in the mulch container was edible.

[Slump Tester]

My dad used to put big slices of onion between a couple pieces of bread. He’d eat the whole thing.

[blam]

My favorite (Depression Era) meal that my mother cooked for us for breakfast was, tomato gravy and buttermilk biscuits.

[Dagnabitt]

My father had some Depression and then wartime childhood deprivation stories. He didn't bother to tell them, however, because my mother's childhood included 5 years in occupied Holland. Eating tulip bulbs, burning her wooden toys for heat, and the “disappearance” of dogs and cats kind of trumped Dad's sugar-shortage tales.

[Cold Heart]

My favorite with hot dogs is champagne:)

[CrazyIvan]

My grandmother made sugar sandwiches for the unemployed men who came to the door in Omaha.

That brings back an old memory. I remember my grandmother
telling me pretty much the same thing. She used to put some
cinnimon or other spice on it and butter.