Large quantities of flour came in cloth bags which were used for
pillowcases, stitched together for sheets or used to line children's
trousers to prevent chafing by the coarse worsted fabric.
In her book, "Speaking a Silence", Christine Hunt recorded the memories of
people living in Golden Bay. Madge recalled her life at Kahurangi
Lighthouse and the economies they made.
They made a lot of things out of flour bags: petticoats, nighties,
teatowels and tablecloths. They'd sew a few together and think nothing of
it. Everyone did it. She described them as good quality material that
would last for years. She even remembered making shirts out of flour
bags. taking the brand mark out with washing soda and soap, or kerosene
and soap, then boiling them up. The colour would come out and they'd be
really white .
Shopping for food
On shopping Anne said, "Kincaids, a city grocer, employed a man who visited
regular customers by bicycle weekly to take orders and to tell them about
new lines of goods. The orders were delivered later in the week by
electric van."
There were no supermarkets, and shopping was done in Christchurch at four
city grocers - Wardells, Kincaids, Frank A Cook, and The Farmers - or the
corner grocer. Many families had no car and needed a delivery service.
Often the corner grocer provided this, sending a boy with a huge basket on
the front of his bicycle.
Adele recalls, "Telephones were rare and our Four Square grocer called by
bicycle on Tuesdays to collect Mother's grocery order and delivered the
goods by cycle on Thursday. I think that Mother paid the bill when next
she walked to the shop.
"The greengrocer called on a regular day in his van with his scales at the
back of the van. The housewives gathered to purchase from the van. The
greengrocers were frequently Chinese in the South Island or Indian in the
North Island.
"Market gardens, usually run by Chinese, were close to cities and towns and
sold their produce direct.
"We frequently cycled out to Belfast - several miles - to buy meat from the
shop at the works."
Helen remembers deliveries being done by horse and cart in Wellington.
Flour, sugar, rice and other dry goods and plain biscuits were weighed out
into brown paper bags. Pre-packaging of goods was not a regular feature and
advertising was limited. Cheese was cut with a wire on a wooden handle
from a large round cheese. The customer indicated the desired size and the
piece was weighed and wrapped.
Joan, whose father was a teacher who taught in small towns and in the
country, recalls that in the small towns the butcher or the grocer
delivered the order when customers phoned in. In the country the bread was
delivered with the milk. Other salesmen called to sell door to door, like
the linen man, who brought a van full of household linen.
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Series of milk containers
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The milkman delivered the milk and in our younger years we remember putting
out a billy (a metal container like a saucepan with a lid and a handle over
the top). The milkman filled the billy with a measure from his large can
of fresh, untreated milk. Tom recalls his mother 'scalding' the milk in
hot weather - heating it to near boiling point to prevent souring.
Anne recalls the fishmonger coming to the street with a delivery van
containing a huge slab of ice on which the fish were carried, then gutted
and scaled for the buyer. Whitebait was offered in season, was reasonably
priced and was usually eaten in delicious fritters made with egg, milk,
flour, salt and baking powder and fried in butter. This meant that quite a
small quantity would feed a whole family.
Bread
Most people bought bread from the grocer or had it delivered fresh by the
baker. There was little variety in the breads available - just white or
brown. Anne remembers, "The bread came in full and half size loaves, the
latter being equivalent to today's normal loaf. The brown bread was not
wholemeal, but coloured with molasses or treacle. In our home this was a
treat for our lunch."
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Kissing Crust
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Dorothy remembers double loaves which could be broken apart leaving an
uneven slice at the end of each loaf. We called these the kissing crusts
and loved the taste of them when the bread was new. There was keen
competition to get that slice. We could tear off a piece of it which
tasted especially good as it often felt like a forbidden treat if taken
when no one was looking. Her father believed that new bread was difficult
to digest, so the family always had to eat bread which was at least a day
old.
There was no sliced bread, but the bread came in many shapes - French,
sandwich, Raised Pan, Vienna, Barracouta - all white. Brown bread came in
smaller loaves, either light or dark brown.
Most women supplied their families with cut lunches to take to school or to
work and each slice for the sandwiches had to be cut by hand. The ability
to cut very thin bread was greatly prized and dainty bread and butter was
often served for afternoon tea. Except in summer the butter had to be
softened for easy spreading. It was possible to buy a butter softener, a
round frame which could be filled with hot water and placed over the
butter. This meant that the lunches could be cut more quickly.
Tea - and coffee of a sort!
Tea was the regular adult drink, usually with milk. Coffee was available
only as coffee essence, a mixture of coffee and chicory, or in Nestles tins
of coffee and milk, a very sweet mixture best enjoyed according to Peter on
a mountain tramp where thirst and energy had both to be satisfied.
Meals
Anne summed up the attitude to food of most New Zealanders of the time.
"Food science was in its infancy. Current belief lay in the nutritional
value of our primary products - beef, mutton, fat lamb, milk, butter,
cheese and refined wheat."
Some familes ate meat three times a day - bacon and eggs for breakfast,
cold meat for lunch, perhaps with salad, and hot meat - stews, chops,
sausages or mince at the main meal. Vegetables were served with the hot
meat and children were urged to eat their spinach and become as strong as
Popeye, the sailor of cartoon fame. Spinach was also served with a poached
egg.
The range of foods was much more limited. A roast dinner midday on Sunday
was mandatory, usually either lamb or a sirloin roast of beef, often with
roast potatoes and gravy made in the meat dish with the browning and
therefore rather greasy. This was followed on Monday by a shepherd's pie
made with the cold meat, or cold meat and salad in summer. The easy meal
was welcomed by our mothers on a Monday as that was wash day.
A starchy diet
A lot of bread was eaten, most housewives made scones regularly with white
flour, and sometimes dates, raisins, sultanas or cheese, pies and dumplings
were served frequently and many puddings were based on cereals. The good
housewife always had homemade cake or biscuits in the tins.
Puddings
The main meal was not considered complete without a pudding. Milk
puddings were served most days in the week - rice, tapioca, sago and
semolina puddings, junket made with Rennet, and yellow coloured custard
made with Edmonds custard powder.
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Bread Pudding
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Egg custards were baked slowly in the
oven in a dish of hot water to prevent curdling, and a variant was bread
and butter custard, with jam or even sliced banana added as a special
treat. These puddings were usually served with stewed fruit, frequently
apple, but also stewed dried apricots, prunes and figs. Thrifty
housewives preserved surplus fruit in jars in late summer. Steam puddings
with dried fruit or jam for flavouring were boiled in basins with cloths
tied over the top.
Pies, pastry tarts, and cream sponges were specialties for Sundays. Cream
was served with the puddings on Sundays.
Cooking
Coal ranges were widely used for cooking and heating the water, and the
kettle was kept boiling on the stove ready for the frequent cups of tea.
Often the range was installed in the living room, as distinct from the
kitchen, and it would keep the house warm in winter.
In most cities there was a gas works and many households had gas heaters,
stoves and lights. Electric stoves became increasingly popular. Some
families ate a lot of fried food, but there were no electric frypans. Of
course there were no crockpots or microwave ovens.
'Eating out' happened very rarely unless people were away from their home
town. Food rationing during the war also made this difficult. Takeaways,
were still in the future - except for the ever popular fish and chips,
wrapped first in a piece of greaseproof paper and then a thick wrapping of
newspaper to keep them hot. They tasted best eaten straight from the
paper.
Read the next article in the series.
