Victory Gardens

A forum post got me to thinking about Victory Gardens and the roll they once played when First Lady Elenore Roosevelt planted hers at the White House. The Victory Garden was utilized in the US, Canada and the UK as a way to not only boost food production in those countries but it was a way to help keep the home fires burning brightly. The Victory Garden accounted for an astonishing 40% of the total fresh food production during the war years from about 20 million Americans.

Families were encouraged to plant their own, harvest and preserve their home grown foods through such major periodicals as Saturday Evening Post, Good Housekeeping and Life. This helped to ease the burden on the labor and transportation shortages that were abound throughout the country and it also helped to save the commerically canned items for the troops. The government urged everyone to make Victory Gardens a family and community effort. And it made a tremendous difference, more than 20 million gardens were planted putting out about 10 tons of food.

Unfortunately, when the war ended so did the push for Urban American to be more self sufficient. The gardens that were grown during the war years declined significantly, but the concept never died. With our current economic status in the US and worldwide, the Victory Garden is making a come back, however small.