Picture This column with King’s Lynn’s museum looks at 1940s cooking leaflet from Ministry of Food
In our fortnightly Picture This column, Lynn Museum curator Dayna Woolbright looks back on how families coped during rationing.
Distributed in 1946 by the Ministry of Food, Hedgerow Harvest encouraged the foraging of wild foods from nearby hedgerows, woodlands and fields.
The Ministry shared recipes for mushroom ketchup and elderberry roly poly, offering resourceful ways to supplement rationed ingredients with the seasonal harvests.
The leaflets encouraged people to make the most of nature, at a time when rationing was still a daily reality.
They not only revived older traditions of rural food gathering but also reinforced the wartime spirit of self-sufficiency.
They turned necessity into opportunity, blending folk knowledge with modern public health advice.
These dishes were a symbol of resilience, creativity and a connection to the land.
Foraging became a shared activity that brought neighbours together to gather, preserve and celebrate the fruits of the hedgerow.
In this way, foraging became more than just survival, it was a quiet act of renewal, connecting people to place and to one another.
Today, it’s seen as a way to reconnect with nature, reduce food waste and celebrate seasonal abundance.
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Source: www.lynnnews.co.uk