Potatoes

By Laura Bray

Following on from an earlier post, which discussed the scarcity of fish in 1943 (https://www.merthyr-history.com/?p=7863), the Merthyr Express of the same month (February 1943) printed a “potato plan”.

Potatoes were not rationed, as from 1939 farmers had been encouraged to increase potato production, and potatoes had also been a key message in the Dig for Victory campaign, with the caveat that they should be planted as part of the official cropping plan and not at the expense of other vegetables.

It is not surprising then that there was a lot of information available about innovative and interesting ways to cook potatoes.

The Express’s “Potato Plan” came up with five ways of using them:

• Serving potatoes for breakfast on three days a week
• Making your main dish a potato dish once a week
• Refusing second helpings of other foods, rather filling up on potatoes
• Serving potatoes in other ways than plain boiled
• Using potatoes to save flour by using one third potato, two thirds flour, a combination which could be used when making pastries, puddings and cakes.  Potatoes were boiled or baked then mashed with a fork till they looked like flour and you were encouraged to cook them the day before or throw in a few extra when you were using the oven.

It seems that this advice was used by the Express from that provided by the Ministry of Food as the same photo and plan crops up in other papers from elsewhere in the country.

The message was clear: “Bread costs ships. Eat home grown potatoes instead” and it would appear that the Merthyr public did just that.