What’s this book? (Food & History)

Amberone

Would have been very close M0nica, the study was on working class people in Lambeth. Not the very poor, but people bringing home a regular wage and bringing up a family.

That's what made it such an eye opener. The fact that this was a 'regular' wage and it was such a struggle to keep the family fed, clothed and housed. What must it have been like to be actually 'poor'?

I read round About a Pound A Week when at school. We thought we were very lucky, living in the countryside, and in villages where gardens were not large, there was the 'garden field' (which were called 'allotments' elsewhere). Many folk still kept chickens, and a few still had a pig - I used to love scratching their ears and scrubbing them with a brush.
My grandparents almost never used sugar - they had bees, so honey was the usual sweetener. They did buy expensive sugar for making blackberry and apple jam (never any other kind!) which was spread on bread, and spooned over porridge & rice pudding. There was some discussion about the use of sugar, as their grandparents had boycotted it because of slavery.

MaizieD My great grandparents were Irish immigrants, who lived in real poverty near London Bridge. Mayhew classified the area just above areas occupied by prostitute and criminals.

My GGM was widowed at 35 with 4 children and a fifth on the way. She worked as a sack maker and her eldest daughter worked as a shirt ironer. the eldest son was an errand boy.

They wroked their way up, rather the children did. But the poverty they faced in London was probably less than the poverty and famine they faced in Ireland.

Nannarose that sounds lovely. Especially the pigs!
In fact it’s just reminded me about Alison Utley’s book (obviously earlier than that).
I think that I’ve got it somewhere… ? ? ?

MaizieD My great grandparents were Irish immigrants, who lived in real poverty near London Bridge. Mayhew classified the area just above areas occupied by prostitute and criminal

The 'thing' about Round About a Pound a Week was that these workers weren't officially considered to be in poverty.
Has much changed as far as 'officialdom' is concerned?

My maternal gmother in the 1930s was left with 3 children and a husband unable to work. She went out charring to earn some money. They did live in the country so were able to grow some of their own food. It was hard for her, though, she'd had servants in Jamaica... (not rich & posh, just lower middling class)

Yes, The Country Child by Alison Uttley, published in 1931. I loved Little Grey Rabbit as a child - it all seemed very familiar. I didn't read this book until I was an adult, but recognised a lot of it.
I was born post-war when a lot of things were changing very quickly.

Nannarose the illustrations in Grey Rabbit are so beautiful.

There were quite a few similar female illustrators at that time, including Margaret Tempest.

About time and change; DH and I watched Ruth Goodman’s The Edwardian Farm yesterday.
The changes that have happened in such a relatively short period of time are phenomenal. It can’t be good for us. I have a feeling that we are now reaping what we have sown.