At this time of year, the fallow fields around Tréguennec are awash with poppies. As beautiful as they are, for me they always conjure up images of the bloodshed, the trenches and the terrible waste of the two World Wars. My experience of the Second World War – I was born in 1942 -and the years just after have left me with much more than images; in so many ways the period influenced my thinking and behaviour and importantly shaped the ways I see excess. 

My early childhood was lived in a period of prudence and self-sufficiency. As was the case for everyone, in the 1940s and early 50s – rationing in the UK did not end until July 1954 – living was dominated by shortage and hardship coupled with constant pressures to economise. Clothes and shoes and the like would be mended and the practice of making changes for change’s sake was unthinkable – it was all a far cry from the ‘consumer society’. This blog is about the manifestation of one habit that lingers from my childhood – the ‘finish-up’ meal, it also touches on some important associations that still persist.

On Wednesday last week it was my turn to cook the evening meal – Rohan and I cook dinner on alternate nights. On the Tuesday, she had baked a whole sea bream in a lemon, thyme and cream sauce. Delicious as it was, some of the fish went uneaten and we decided that, with the other left-overs we had available, next day I would make a traditional ‘finish up’ meal, to be precise home-made fish cakes – one of my favourites!

Making them would be simple – we already had most of the ingredients for making the body of the cakes. On the upper fridge shelf there were two portions of haddock whose ‘eat-by’ dates demanded attention – having two types of fish in a cake helps enormously. On a tray below was a bowl containing several ‘generations’ of boiled potatoes and in the door there was a solitary egg. Finally, in the bottom draw of a neighbouring unit we still had some of last year’s onions. All that we needed were breadcrumbs to coat the cakes and these I got from our baker who, as always, was happy to fill a paper-bag of crusty crumbs that each day collect in the tray under her bread slicer.  

For the meal itself, the fish cakes were served with fresh green beans and some newly boiled potatoes (see first illustration). These were followed by a dessert of blackcurrant fool, and the verdict was unanimous – we both agreed that the food was a real treat. But for me there was a supplement: the preparation, the cooking, and the serving also gave a special pleasure as they drew me down memory lane.  During the war and for some time afterwards, the Ministry of Food’s ‘Dig on for Victory’ (see second illustration) urged that if possible everyone should have a vegetable patch or access to an allotment. It happened that all the ingredients of this meal – bar the fish, the breadcrumbs and the egg – were grown on our plot. Then there was a continuity delight. By chance we ate off a china set that we had been given over fifty years ago and we used red and white squared serviettes and a bowl for the potatoes of the same age – no consumerism here. Finally, our gift of the bread crumbs from the baker capped off a lovely meal born out of memories of hardship.

It is difficult not to believe that the sight of the poppies and the legacy of wartime life were not linked. For me, finish-up meals and self-sufficiency are powerful reminders of the unnecessarily wasteful excesses of consumerism. 

The first illustration is a photo of a meal that would have been the ideal during World War II. The photo was taken just before our dinner last week and shows a serving dish with six home-made fish cakes and serving bowls full of home-grown beans and potatoes. There is also a plate as yet unused. The Furnivals Quail china is part of a set of tableware given to us as a wedding present over fifty years ago – even then they were second hand! The second illustration shows one of the posters made by the Ministry of Food to promote its campaign to ‘Grow your own Good’.

For helping me write this blog, I would like to thank Véronique, Rohan and Vivien.