Episodes
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Two of the busiest workers on the homefront were honeybees and beekeepers! In this episode, Sarah talks about the insect/human dynamic duo and their important contribution to the war effort along with challenges they faced and solutions for those problems. Sarah tackles a couple honey recipes and a boy in 4-H discovers the joys of beekeeping.
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Christmas in 1940s America conjures up a healthy dose of nostalgia for a lot of people even today. For this special holiday episode, Sarah peeks into traditions celebrated and wartime shortages folks experienced on the homefront from Christmas trees to chocolate. Hanukkah is given a special highlight and adorable children's letters to Santa bring plenty of cheer!
Join me on Substack for supplemental posts featuring images, research, and recipes!
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Missing episodes?
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Canning wasn't the only way to preserve food in the 1940s! In this final episode of Season 4, Sarah highlights the old community staple of freezer locker plants, how they served their community and why freezing was maybe more patriotic than canning. She tries out a meatloaf recipe enshrined in bacon and shares an amusing freezer story back when frozen food was still a novelty!
This podcast needs YOUR support! Become a Patron! Your generosity not only gives Sarah warm fuzzies of joy, it also helps her source the very best research materials to make each episode the best it can be. To share your love for her work and to sustain future episodes, go HERE.
Supplemental photos, recipes, and resources can be found on the Victory Kitchen Podcast Substack.
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Hospitals in wartime not only provided vital medical treatments and short- and long-term care for their patients, they fed them as well – but where did they get their food, especially in a time of war? In this episode, Sarah delves into the vague and completely unexplored aspect of American wartime food rationing: hospital farms. She looks at what they were, how they served the hospitals they were attached to and how World War II impacted them. Finally, she tries two unhealthy, but delicious recipes from a "healthy" ration cookbook written by a doctor.
This podcast needs YOUR support! Become a Patron! Your generosity not only gives Sarah warm fuzzies of joy, it also helps her source the very best research materials to make each episode the best it can be. To share your love for her work and to sustain future episodes, go HERE.
Supplemental photos, recipes, and resources can be found on the Victory Kitchen Podcast Substack.
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War goods weren't the only thing that "rolled off the production line" during WWII. Babies swelled the U.S. population creating bottle necks for all sorts of goods from baby bottles to safety pins. In this episode, Sarah discusses not just baby product shortages, but how the little tykes were featured in propaganda, hospital vs. home births, and which baby foods were rationed and why. (Spoiler Alert: there are some despicable characters in this story!) Finally, Sarah tries out an interesting prenatal recipe for expecting mothers and highlights the incredible career of Black midwife George Anna Saunders.
This podcast needs YOUR support! Become a Patron! Your generosity not only gives Sarah warm fuzzies of joy, it also helps her source the very best research materials to make each episode the best it can be. To share your love for her work and to sustain future episodes, go HERE.
Supplemental photos, recipes, and resources can be found on Sarah's blog www.victorykitchenpodcast.blog
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**It's a special Thanksgiving episode!** With the world at war, America's typical Thanksgiving feast was a lot more subdued, if not more patriotic. In this episode, Sarah explores Thanksgiving attitudes from WWII, the heartfelt and the guilt-trippy. She gets the details behind turkeys, rationing and their price tags, and delights over the birth of our iconic cranberry jelly "log".
This podcast needs YOUR support! Become a Patron! Your generosity not only gives Sarah warm fuzzies of joy, it also helps her source the very best research materials to make each episode the best it can be. To share your love for her work and to sustain future episodes, go HERE.
Supplemental photos, recipes, and resources can be found on Sarah's blog www.victorykitchenpodcast.blog.
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Soda Fountains were at the core of American identity in wartime, representing so much of what we were trying to protect in our way of life: a sense of home, community, a place to relax & unwind, not to mention they were the dispensaries of our country's favorite sweet food: ice cream. In this episode Sarah digs into why Americans were obsessed with ice cream despite what the rest of the world thought of us and what unique challenges soda fountains faced in a time of war. She features some wartime-inspired soda fountain creations and highlights a couple soda jerks of Hollywood fame!
This podcast needs YOUR support! Become a Patron! Your generosity not only gives Sarah warm fuzzies of joy, it also helps her source the very best research materials to make each episode the best it can be. To share your love for her work and to sustain future episodes, go HERE.
Supplemental photos, recipes, and resources can be found on Sarah's blog www.victorykitchenpodcast.blog.
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Eating away from home was a fact of life for busy people in WWII, and that was especially true for people traveling by rail. Dining cars were an essential part of feeding these people, but railroads were affected by wartime restrictions just like everyone else. In this episode, Sarah digs into this little researched topic to find out how railroads struggled with rationing, how civilians and the military ate aboard trains, and who made all that food while getting it done in the tiniest of kitchen spaces. She discovers a revelatory military chocolate ice cream recipe and honors the legacy of Charles Johnson - Southern Pacific Railroad's first African-American dining car steward.
This podcast needs YOUR support! Become a Patron! Your generosity not only gives Sarah warm fuzzies of joy, it also helps her source the very best research materials to make each episode the best it can be. To share your love for her work and to sustain future episodes, go HERE.
Supplemental photos, recipes, and resources can be found on Sarah's blog www.victorykitchenpodcast.blog.
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Wartime housing shortages led Americans resorting to live wherever and however they could while following lucrative defense factory jobs. Many of these places were not ideal. In this episode, Sarah discusses what the government did to address the housing crisis and focuses on two specific living conditions: trailers and apartments - plus the small space appliances that made cooking in them possible. She also interviews Jesse Williams, Tennessee native and museum professional, to discuss the extreme living conditions of the 75,000 residents of the top secret city Oak Ridge, TN. And finally, she discovers an easy ration recipe for using up leftover cake that's worth hoarding for yourself. Or maybe sharing. It's up to you.
This podcast needs YOUR support! Become a Patron! Your generosity not only gives Sarah warm fuzzies of joy, it also helps her source the very best research materials to make each episode the best it can be. To share your love for her work and to sustain future episodes, go HERE.
Supplemental photos, recipes, and resources can be found on Sarah's blog www.victorykitchenpodcast.blog.
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Season 4 is kicking off its first episode in honor of this year's National Wildlife Week (April 5th - 9th) talking about hunting, fishing, and trapping in wartime! Sarah answers some pressing questions about ammunition rationing, goes over saltwater fishing rules, and discusses some hot wildlife conservation topics of the day fresh from WWII. She also highlights the hilarious, but very irresponsible, wartime cookbook by Lawrence A. Keating where ration-mindedness is thrown out the window.
This podcast needs YOUR support! Become a Patron! Your generosity not only gives Sarah warm fuzzies of joy, it also helps her source the very best research materials to make each episode the best it can be. To share your love for her work and to sustain future episodes, go HERE.
Supplemental photos, recipes, and resources can be found on Sarah's blog www.victorykitchenpodcast.blog.
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Much like the wartime conscientious objectors, not a lot is commonly known about the vital work that German and Italian POWs and the Japanese American Internees participated in to save our nation's crops during WWII. In this episode, Sarah highlights the Japanese agricultural heritage in our country, contemplates the conflicted relationship our communities had with enemy prisoners of war, and examines just how complicated the intersection where society and agriculture meet during wartime can be. Sarah tries a delicious Raspberry Turnover recipe and interviews Roger Roop, the grandson of a local Maryland farmer who had POWs on their dairy farm during WWII.
This podcast needs YOUR support! Become a Patron! Your generosity not only gives Sarah warm fuzzies of joy, it also helps her source the very best research materials to make each episode the best it can be. To share your love for her work and to sustain future episodes, go to https://www.patreon.com/victorykitchenpodcast .
For supplementary photos, resources and recipes visit the blog HERE.
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Not much is commonly known about the important role conscientious objectors played in World War II except for maybe one Hollywood movie. In this episode, Sarah brings to light not only how conscientious objectors helped bring in the crops, but also the myriad of other vital ways they helped America during a crucial time of war despite the hardships they faced for their beliefs. Some cozy, winter-time recipes are discovered, and Sarah shares the personal story about her grandfather, who was a conscientious objector during World War II.
For supplemental photos, resources, and recipes visit the blog HERE.
This podcast needs YOUR support! Become a Patron! Your generosity not only gives Sarah warm fuzzies of joy, it also helps her source the very best research materials to make each episode the best it can be. To share your love for her work and to sustain future episodes, go to https://www.patreon.com/victorykitchenpodcast .
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Early in WWII, with much of the field labor being sucked into the military, defense or factory jobs, the farmers were in a really tough position for getting their crops harvested. In this episode, Sarah looks at the pros and cons of one of the most impactful agricultural programs ever implemented in the United States to help struggling farmers, the Bracero Program, which brought thousands of Mexican laborers to American fields. She tries a unique Aztec style casserole from 1944, and we hear about one Mexican-American woman's memories growing up as a teenager during the war.
For supplementary photos, resources and recipes visit the blog HERE.
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A small, hard-working army of people stood between the American citizens and military troops and the U.S.'s success in the war when it came to food. Who were these people? Veterinarians! In this episode, Sarah and special guest veterinarian Dr. Amy Gulick, talk about the vital role veterinarians and the Army Veterinary Corps played in protecting the nation's food supply during WWII. Both Sarah and Amy try some unique, autumn-friendly meat recipes, and Amy shares a special wartime story about her grandmother.
To see all the extra goodies related to this episode including recipes, head on over to www.victorykitchenpodcast.blog.
This podcast needs YOUR support! Your generosity not only gives Sarah warm fuzzies of joy, it also helps her source the very best research materials to make each episode the best it can be. To share your love for her work and to sustain future episodes, visit Sarah's account of Patreon!
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If there was ever a youth club tailor-made to be "Homefront Commandos", then the 4-H Club was it. In this episode, Sarah takes a look at this popular agricultural youth club - what they stood for, the amazing things they did for the war effort, and why they fit the bill for Uncle Sam's work for the homefront. Sarah modifies a wartime recipe for apple butter that can go straight into your fridge, and we learn about some 4-H canning superstars from Texas.
For supplementary photos, resources, and recipes visit the blog HERE.
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It's time for Rosie the Riveter to share the limelight, because the women of the American Women's Land Army are flexing their muscles in this episode! These millions of women made a huge contribution to agriculture during WWII that has largely gone underappreciated and unknown. Sarah answers some big questions about the AWLA such as who they were, what kind of work they did, and what kind of prejudices they had to overcome. Sarah also tries some unconventional bread rolls and highlights some wartime harvester menus.
To see all the extra goodies related to this episode including recipes, head on over to www.victorykitchenpodcast.blog.
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Happy Canada Day! For this special "Road Trip Edition"* first episode of Season 3, Sarah and her guest, Saskatchewan school teacher Kelsie Lonie, discuss the significant food relationship between the United States and Canada during World War II. They explore Canadian food rationing, propaganda, and the not-so-friendly lobster market in Maine. They dig into some wartime Canadian recipes (Butter Tarts, here we come!) and the Canadian Farmerettes get some well-deserved limelight.
*This episodes is longer than most and perfect for a road trip! It also pays tribute to the great distances Canadians have to travel to visit any WWII sites, memorials, or events in their country.
To see all the extra goodies related to this episode including recipes, head on over to www.victorykitchenpodcast.blog.
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Americans faced scarcities of their favorite spices and flavorings during WWII while shipping was threatened by U-boats and enemy aircraft around the globe. In this last episode of Season 2, Sarah digs into newspapers to piece together a timeline of spices' disappearance from American pantries and discovers how science saved the day. She finds some toast recipes that have changed her breakfasts forever and tells the homefront story of one family dairy in Houston, TX.
Correction: In this episode, I mention I make six toast recipes but then only tell you about 5. You can see all six recipes that I made on my blog www.victorykitchenpodcast.blog!
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The 1920s song "Yes, We Have No Bananas" was a popular anthem of WWII, especially in the United States. Because Americans were obsessed with bananas. But were there actually no bananas available? Anywhere? In this episode, Sarah dives into newspaper headlines to find out what happened to the bananas and what Americans did to keep that magic banana flavor in their diet. She also tries some sweet wartime banana recipes and relays the incredible story of how and why one little girl ate 15,000 pounds of bananas.
Check out the corresponding blog post at victorykitchenpodcast.blog
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1940s Americans were no strangers to the social (and governmental) pressure to be trim and in peak health. In this episode, Sarah uncovers miracle pills, magic weight loss food, and liquid diets along with healthier approaches to losing weight in wartime. Sarah enters a showdown with a chowder recipe and we hear echoes of New Year's Eve past in a California woman's personal diary from 1945.
Check out the corresponding blog post at victorykitchenpodcast.blog
Don't forget to share this podcast with your friends and leave a review!
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