In The Organic Garden This Week
Spring has Sprung
Hi everyone and welcome to spring in Perth Western Australia. IT is still raining and we are enjoying that plus the sunny days in between!
I have been very busy working so not much time in the garden this week – but I can still pick food to eat and here is the lovely organic vegetables we are munching through!
The carrots are coming along nicely now and we are enjoying the sweetness they bring to the dinner table!
This lot is fresh and yummy and will be part of the roast dinner we plan at my daughter’s this week!
The cauliflower is the second last one in the garden and is still quite sweet and growing well. The onions are strong and helping keep the sniffles away.
How Onions Saved a POW
Margit’s grandfather ended up in a Russian prisoner-of-war camp during WW2 and survived in large part due to the onions he ate. He swapped his Red Cross cigarettes etc for the onions of his fellow prisoners. He ate them raw and stayed healthy the whole time he was in prison.
Here is an extract of the happy reunion after the family had been refugees:
Very early in the morning, mother, who took only Udo with her, went to the “Junkersiedlung”, where Tante Lotte had found shelter with her sister Alice. When Lotte came to the door and saw Mother, the first thing she said was: “Your husband is searching for you. He was here 2 weeks ago!” Mother nearly stopped breathing when she heard the good news and Alice had to repeat it a few times. Father had left an address with them, where we would find him. Aunt Alice came to the guesthouse to fetch the rest of us children. We heard from them that our Father had been a P.O.W. but not for very long. He was lucky enough to fall into the hands of American soldiers, who released him after a few months. He had been able to find work through a friend in a small town called Bosdorf near the city of Leipzig. We only stayed one night with our two aunties, as we could not wait to see our Dad again. So, the next morning we got on the train to Leipzig. It was late afternoon when we found Dad, who looked at us with disbelief and then he took all of us into his arms.
We had lost much: our home as well as our homeland, friends and material possessions, but our family was once again complete. Having one another was all that mattered and we counted ourselves very lucky. So, our wanderings in the “wilderness” had come to an end. The date of this extremely happy day for our family was the 1st of August 1945. The times, which followed, were very hard. Germany was in ruins and everything had collapsed. There was a severe food shortage all over the country and no heating fuel or coal for the severe winter, which followed.
The whole story is a heart wrenching account of how the family wandered and survived attacks from Russian soldiers. Members of the family did not survive and hunger was a constant companion!
My mother-in-law never wastes food and loves to receive my organic vegetables!
Until next time
Stay Well
John
