CSA pick up November 11

My great grandfather fought in the first world war.  He fought at Vimy ridge. He came home with medals that he let his grandchildren (my mother included) play with and lose in the sand box. When he got home from the war, he and his family had a decade of profitable farming until the great depression hit.  My grandma remembers gathering items from their gardens and leaving baskets of food on people's front steps.  People who were hungry but too proud to ask for help. The late 1920's brought on record grain harvests.  A glut of grain on the world market meant that commodity prices crashed just as the drought of the dirty thirties began.  Farmers who had debt loads from growing their farms in times of plenty had a back stock of grain that they could not sell, and drought conditions meant that they could not try other crops.  During this time 2 government organizations were started.  The prairie farm rehabilitation association (PFRA) taught farmers soil conservation techniques and until recently provided bare root trees to farmers to plant wind breaks in their fields.  The wheat board was also established to help farmers pool sales and market their grains.  Recently farmers, the public and government have forgotten the history of these organizations, and both have been dismantled.  The millions of trees that the PFRA gave out to be planted are no more.  And many farmers who no longer remember the dust bowl 1930's are ripping up the wind breaks that they planted decades ago. During the second world war, basic foods were rationed.  The general public had to make do with small allotments of  sugar, eggs, meat, coffee, tea and produce.  For allied governments around the world, feeding the soldiers on the fronts took precedence over feeding the local populations left at home.  Women used to cooking with butter and lard and an excess of eggs now had to learn to use innovative solutions in the kitchen to stretch rations to feed their families. Everyone was encouraged to plant their own gardens.  These "victory gardens" fed the at home populations, leaving commercial agricultural products free to feed the boys on the front.  So how did our government, as well as the US and UK governments encourage people to do this?  They used an army of home economists to teach the average housewife how to eat and cook seasonally.   The British government sent Home Economists out to the bingo halls, the dance halls and community centers.  Celebrity status Home Economists wrote cookbooks to teach people to use their rations wisely.  They taught those left at home how to raise chickens for eggs, how to kill that chicken and make stock with it, how to plant and raise a garden in your front yard,  your boulevard, your office roof top.  And they taught them how to use what we had to eat in abundance.  In Canada certain foods that were in great supply but could not be shipped abroad were deemed "patriotic foods" as the population at home were encouraged to eat apples and lobster!  "In addition to food conservation, nutrition also emerged as a national priority during the early years of the war. In 1941, following warnings from the country€™s leading nutrition experts that upwards of 60 percent of the country was suffering from some form of vitamin and mineral deficiency €“ and following the release of figures showing alarming rates of medical rejections by the Canadian military €“ the federal government responded by launching their first ever national nutrition education program."  wartimecanada.ca Statistics showed that the per capita consumption of nearly every nutrient had increased during the war.  All of this while many items were heavily rationed.  Victory gardens, eating seasonally and locally, made Canadians healthier. The University of Manitoba recently closed the doors on the department of Home Economy.  We've forgotten how to eat seasonally, preserve the harvest and be food independent.  And there is no longer that group of professionals to show us how to do it when we forget.  Beginning next year Crampton's will be partnering with a registered dietitian to offer food preservation courses.  We're hoping to keep the knowledge of seasonal eating alive and well.  Because you never know when we will need to plant another victory garden. And on this remembrance day, let's not forget how lucky we are to be born into this time and place, of peace and plenty. This week's CSA to contain Remember to eat from the top down to ensure the freshest of produce. Basil, spray free hot house Herbs, organic Lettuce, spray free hot house Tomatoes, quart, organic hot house Tomatoes, spray free hot house Cucumber, spray free hot house Kale, organic Apples, spray free Carrots, organic Delicata Squash, organic Onions, organic Mix shares to also receive Red Cabbage, Organic Pork Steak, freely ranged Produce plus shares to also receive potatoes, organic soup mix, spray free Produce only shares to also receive Potatoes, organic Parsnips, organic