FAMILIES thought up all sorts of ways to ease food shortages during the Second World War.

Gerry Moore, an evacuee at Garsington, writes: “Food and clothing were rationed and furniture was available only for newlyweds or people who had been bombed out.

“People became very resourceful – they grew vegetables and fruit for their own table and to exchange and barter with their neighbours.

“Any surplus fruit was bottled in Kilner jars or made into jam.

“Chickens were kept for their eggs, to be eaten fresh or for cooking, or preserved in buckets of water – they would keep fresh for months.

“Rabbits would be snared, and pigeons netted, skinned, plucked and put into pies – both were delicious.

“Some people kept a pig, fed on kitchen and garden waste.

“The pig had to be sold to the Government, but the owners could obtain a licence from the Ministry of Food for the pig to be killed and eaten by its owner, providing they surrendered their bacon ration (4oz a week).”

According to Mr Moore, who now lives at Weeting, Norfolk, children played their full part.

“The preparation of fruit for jam making was a family affair – the fruit had to be picked, washed and weighed, the jars washed, dried, labelled and dated.

“When the process was complete, the peelings, tops and tails were put in the pig bin.

“In late summer, when hedgerows were heavy with blackberries, children could be seen picking the delicious black fruit and returning home with buckets laden and fingers and mouths red with evidence of over-indulgence.

“We helped with every task in the home, garden or field – we dug, hoed and watered the soil, picked apples, plums and gooseberries, pulled carrots, onions and radishes, and dug potatoes.”

Many helped local farmers with the harvest – as a reward for a full day’s work, they were given a silver sixpence and two rabbits, which were skinned and made into pies.

We will publish more of Mr Moore’s wartime memories soon in Memory Lane.