It was 70 years ago today ...

When there was the nationwide call to "Dig for Victory". Yes would you believe it was 12th February 1940 when The Ministry of Food introduced food rationing and called on the nation to grow food in their gardens or get an allotment.

Dig for Victory posters

The Imperial War Museum in London has an exhibition opening today until 3 Jan 2011 so I'd love to go along sometime this year to see it.

"To mark this event Imperial War Museum London is opening The Ministry of Food,
a major new exhibition to show how the British public adapted to a world of
food shortages by ‘Lending a Hand on the Land’, ‘Digging for Victory’, taking up the
‘War on Waste’, and being both frugal and inventive on the ‘Kitchen Front’.
Visitors will discover that growing your own food, eating seasonal fruit and
vegetables, reducing imports, recycling and healthy nutrition were just as topical
in 1940 as they are today."

(extract taken from here )

more dig for victory posters

This sounds like something Alex and I would enjoy and I'm sure there would be something to interest Imogen. Maybe a trip to London should be in the planning, we could include the National History Museum or something similar too.

I also found this link on the BBC site today - a lovely audio slide show tour of the exhibition -

The Ministry of Food Exhibition

I don't know how you add in videos on a blog post, but here's a little video from the day in 1940 on You Tube.
(edited to add - hey I can add a video, oh there's no stopping me adding video's to posts now)