Rabbits And Potato Peelings

My father resumed his old job as master plumber and for a while life seemed to go on as before, except that the drastic measures of the German administration began to make themselves felt. A curfew was imposed from 10.00 pm to 6.00 am. Our rationing of food was reduced to the bare minimum. Black marketeering became rife, but was severely punished. There was plenty of hoarding. People who had money bought whatever was available. It was revealed when the war was over that some never went short or without anything, while others had to survive as best they could, by resourcefulness or other means. But there was a lot of hardship, malnutrition and starvation.

My father in his job as a plumber was often working in other people’s houses. On one occasion he had to attend to the boiler pipes in a cellar. In a corner was a large area with stacked provisions, covered over with a tarpaulin. He could not resist having a peek and discovered a rich hoard of every imaginable foodstuff. There were sacks of flour, packets of sugar, tins of coffee, cans of cooking oil, preserves of all kinds. It was like a warehouse. My father was an honest man but hard times make people sometimes dishonest and the temptation was too much. He did not want to steal to the extent of being greedy and risk being caught and losing his job. He contented himself with just filling his lunch box with flour, and he did this for about three days. A little bit of flour from each sack was not noticeable, but for us it was a feast of home baked bread. Another time he worked for a butcher, a private job in his spare time. As payment he asked for a piece of salted beef. The butcher was generous and father came home with a huge portion as well as a string of pork sausages thrown in. My father exclaimed that evening: “We are eating better now than we did before the war”.

It is amazing how quickly people can adjust to adversity and become inventive and resourceful when the need arises. Everyone’s mind was concentrating on food, just because it was in such short supply. Gardens were dug and became vegetable and potato patches. Practically everyone started to keep chickens and rabbits, even when space was limited. Where possible even a goat was kept to provide milk. The population of rabbits must have increased five-fold. My poor brothers had the daily task of scouring the fields and meadows for fresh green grass and clover to feed the rabbits. I think most people lost their taste for the succulent “Bunny stew” after a war-long diet of it. The result of this immense rabbit population produced an enormous amount of rabbit skins. They were put to good use. In winter we sported warm fur coats and they made cozy bed covers. Women invented the most ingenious recipes, with the most unlikely ingredients. Nothing was wasted. My mother made potato cakes from potato peelings, washed and minced and flavoured with herbs and seasoning. They made very tasty cakes. She also dried peelings, and then they were diced and put through a sieve. This produced a flour substance, used for thickening soups and sauces. Coffee and tea became non-existent. To brew a hot drink to resemble coffee, barley grains were roasted like coffee beans and ground. At first the taste was bitter but soon we became accustomed to it. Sugar was substituted by saccharin.

There was not much queuing at the shops, the rations were so meagre, and there was hardly anything to queue for. Occasionally though, if a big catch of herring had arrived or there was some skimmed milk available, long queues would form. The fishermen would risk their lives when they went out in their fishing boats into the heavily mined sea and many perished when they hit the mines.