My friend, for whom I'm making this 'Keeping track of: Supplies' book, and who hereafter wishes to be known as 'Stormy Waters', remembers the war.
She remembers the rationing which began soon after the start of war, and which continued for fourteen years. She remembers the ration book and the coupons. She remembers hunger. She remembers spam hash, dried eggs and making 'mock fried egg'. She remembers the queues around the block for potatoes and then making 'floddies' (recipe below). She remembers clothes rationing starting in 1941, the 'make do and mend' classes, Utility clothes, and bartering.
Stormy no longer keeps old curtains; she no longer wears her clothes until they fall off her - but she still keeps a stock of food.
She keeps a 'full larder'. As her family has expanded - grandchildren, great-grandchildren - and their partners - her stores have, too - just in case they're ever needed - because need can arise from all kinds of things - loss of job, extreme weather, illness, accident, broken bones etc etc.
Sometimes she just doesn't want the hassle of shopping, and then she can simply use some of her supplies. (She always remembers to replace them, though.)
Although she occasionally dabbles with Twitter, Stormy doesn't like to keep her records in the digital world. Instead of the multitudinous pieces of paper she kept in a folder, she wanted a notebook. This is my attempt to fulfil that request, taking careful note of the specifics that she wants.
Stormy keeps her supplies in different places in her house, so the first lot of pages are headed up by 'location' so she can enter eg freezer, kitchen cupboard, top of wardrobe, etc (and 'loc' on the other pages); then she wanted more pages for the same information, only headed up with the expiry month/year instead. On those pages she wanted to be able to record where she'd bought the item, too. She also wanted a column so she could mark off weeks' worth of supplies so that, at a glance, she knows how long her supplies would last.
After those pages, which form the bulk of the notebook, there is her basic shopping list with plenty of spaces for additions - this is a reminder list when 'doing a shop' so that nothing essential gets forgotten. There are a few extra pages for more lists, and then extra pages for notes.
This Welsh corgi dog is dead chuffed with his larder. It makes him feel secure.
This same larder log book is available with a husky on the cover - and another one with a silver tabby cat on the cover - both of whom are keen pantry profilers.
