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Who’s keeping chickens now? Well, they were doing that then.

Hens, the great recyclers

For those who are setting out on keeping bees, there was a useful poster. It appears that Dr T is doing it all wrong. He just needs a sports jacket, braces and a trilby, none of that silly white outfit!

Beekeeping for beginners, 1940s style

This was a family effort, and I know from our own experiences that involving kids in food growing makes them more likely to try the fruits (and veg) of their labours. Look at this lovely example of a cosy night in as a family planning your veg patch!

Happy nights of planting planning

I’d never heard of Gert and Daisy, but they were like the comedic front runners to Two Fat Ladies it seems. I loved the recording of them discussing cooking a murkey for Christmas, which turned out to be mutton.

Gert & Daisy cook a "murkey"

And some things never change it seems, even in wartime. I can imagine the faces of teens of today if the Oslo Meal was served up. Which are probably the same looks parents got in 1943!

Teens today, don't know they're fed

For those of us busy preserving and canning, it’s most definitely nothing new!

The WI to the rescue!

And for the fashionista foodie, I bring you the mushroom housecoat!

The mushroom housecoat

Which you could top off with the seed packet scarf.

Seed label scarf

I love that the Company of Cooks have followed through on the theme and converted the catering over to a version of the 40s as well. My corned beef salad with roasted beetroot was definitely retro but tasty, and even the kids stuff had things like carrots and salad cream, and cheese wrapped in greaseproof paper. The beetroot and cocoa cake was a bit on the dry side, and not packed with flavour, but interesting to try.

1940s style food in 2010

The big gap in my knowledge was that the years of austerity are after the war, and things really got tough then. You can see that you could cope when everyone was pulling against a common enemy, not to mention the Americans were sending food to the UK. That ended nearly as soon as the war did, and things got very lean. I love this picture from a butchers window, sums up the black humour of the day.

And you thought times were bad now!

We had a great day at the museum, and it was worth the ticket price for this exhibition. If you need other distractions, then there is also the Terrible Trenches on from the team behind Horrible Histories, so really something for everyone. If you want to see more, then there’s more photos over on my Flickr page.