When the Second World War broke out Britain faced much more than a military crisis. Two-thirds of our food was imported, but these imports were immediately halted by the German blockade. If Britain was not to starve, it had to do two things: reduce consumption of food in the home and increase production on the farm.
Both objectives were achieved. Output from Britain’s farms doubled, and rationing eked out scarce food with the result that nobody starved. The story of how this was achieved is told in this twelve-part series.
A Wartime Winter and A Wartime Summer recreate a year in the life of a wartime farm, growing the crops which were of such vital importance – wheat, sugar beet, potatoes, flax, and hay. Wartime food advisor and cookery writer Marguerite Patten is just one of the many knowledgeable interviewees – including farmers and land girls – who give eyewitness accounts of those extraordinary times.