Food Will Win the War: Minnesota Crops, Cook, and Conservation during World War I

Chapter 4: Homegrown Vegetables Year-round

67 4 Homegrown Vegetables Year-round Diary, 1917— May 1 After dinner we went up town to see patriotic parade. May 2 Went out and had ice cream. May 3 Spaded up part of the garden. May 4 Worked in the garden. May 5 Outdoors nearly all day. May 7 Worked in garden. May 8 Worked outdoors all day. Helped Clarence plant potatoes. May 9 Mother and I at Clarence’s. Finished planting. Maybelle Jacobson1 Inthespringof1917,MaybelleJacobsonhadjustfinis edteaching in Beltrami and moved back to Crookston to live with her mother and be near her new fiancé, Clarence. A lifelong diarist, 23-year-old Maybelle wrote short notes about her days and what interested her. In 1916 she did not mention gardening, but in 1917 she wrote about it frequently. Her experiences were echoed across the state, where parades and patriotic events popped up like mushrooms. Many Minnesotans had long planted backyard gardens, but during World War I gardening became an important civic act. Governor J. A. A. Burnquist declared, “Every acre, every yard under cultivation will count in Minnesota’s patriotic undertaking to make and save food for the nation.” The chair of the Minnesota Commission of Public Safety’s crops committee urged, “Let the Minnesota slogan be ‘A Garden for Every Home.’ Special attention should be given to crops that may be canned, preserved, or dried.”2 Food Will W in t he War 68 Even before Congress voted to enter the war with Germany in early April 1917, home gardens had been seen as an important weapon against the “H. C. L.,” or high cost of living. Food prices had increased relentlessly the previous summer and fall, and vegetable gardening had been a topic in many newspapers including the Crookston Weekly Times throughout the late winter and early spring. An advertisement from Minneapolis’s Northrup King seed company clearly stated the problem and opportunity: “Beans and many other food products are worth more than at any time in the last quarter century. Yet you can raise a large proportion of your family’s food in your own garden and keep your table bountifully supplied with all kinds of delicious fresh vegetables at very slight cost.”3 But garden seeds were expensive, too. In February the Times announced “Gardeners to Suffer Here” because “Crookstonites who go in strong for gardening will hardly be pleased with the new recruits that ‘General H. C. L.’ has attached to his army.” Noting increased prices for radish and spinach seed, among others, it blamed the wartime embargo on seeds from Holland, Germany, France, and England.4 Expensive seed or not, the desire to plant vegetables blasted ahead when gardens became war gardens not just against the H. C. L. but also against the Kaiser. Not only was gardening something everyone could do; it needed to be done right now. In many parts of the country early April is prime gardening season. In the Upper Midwest conditions may be good only for soil preparation and sowing of coldtolerant crops. Still, the sooner the planning, seed purchasing, and staking out of new garden spaces happened, the sooner kitchen tables throughout the state could be fil ed with vegetable dishes taking the place of foods that must be conserved for soldiers and allies. By May 1, patriotic parades began to set the tone across the state. In Crookston, more than 1,000 members of civic groups, churches, the Juvenile and Citizens Bands, and police and fi e departments joined the tour of city streets. Ladies of the Red Cross marched “manfully” in a group of 100, with the Spirit of France represented by Miss Lucia Stone, dressed in a coat of mail, carrying a battle sword, and riding a white horse. The Citizens Auxiliary raised an “Awake America” banner, and parochial-school students, led by children In the spring of 1917 Minnesotans, like other Americans, had already started home vegetable gardens in the battle against the high cost of living. Th ir efforts increased dramatically when homegrown food became a weapon of choice against the forces of Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm. 69 Food Will W in t he War 70 dressed as Red Cross nurses flanking Uncle Sam, received “salvos of applause.” Veterans from the “North and South Now United” marched behind impersonators of General Grant and General Lee riding horses side by side. Northwest School of Agriculture students carried garden tools and signs...