Sucking Eggs: What Your Wartime Granny Could Teach You About Diet, Thrift and Going Green

Patricia Nicol

In our age of globalisation, climate change, unprecedented consumption and limited resources, the good news is that we do not have to look far back in our own history for a handy lesson in making seismic lifestyle changes. Our grannies can show us the way. They wasted almost nothing; they recycled; they bought locally; and, they 'dug for victory' and grew their own veg. Theirs was not a disposable culture: they made do and mended; they salvaged; and, they were early anti-consumerists dressed in Utility clothing. They did thrift years before it became a fashion model's fad: the second-hand shop and the recycling bin were their invention. Their heroic self-sacrifices and the austerity measures that were put into place made a huge difference to this country's survival - perhaps we should think about this as we face the different, but arguably just as urgent, challenges of this century.