To Orwell Today,
re: FOOD TO CRY OVER

Hi Jackie,

Interesting subject brought up via James. In the era when ORWELL wrote 1984 Britain was still being rationed, hence his references to the rarity of sugar or coffee for the common man.

I was fortunate as a child living on a smallholding with access to vegetables, fruit (all naturally grown), free range eggs and meat. A great many folks kept pigs, chickens and rabbits then. Wild rabbits were a common source of food for most families until the government "controlled" this by introduction of the horrible miximustoses and folks were too scared to eat any rabbit. One of my relatives worked on one of the large farms where modern fertilisation methods were introduced. I recall heated disscussions between my granfer (who used natural organic methods and cow and pig manure, before organic was "cool") and my uncle's cost saving artificial fertiliser. My granfer was convinced that use of modern methods would poison the soil and food chain. It's interesting these days to see the imported fruit and veg displayed in local town centre stalls, obviously fast fed and grown under intensive lights systems. Even the new hyper supermarkets are built well out of town, but ominously just yards away from the general hospital.

Regards,
Raymond Wills

Hi Raymond,

Yes, when Orwell wrote 1984 it was in the five years after WWII (he died in January 1950). England was still experiencing rationing. One of the reasons he liked living on Jura in Scotland was because there was more food and more fuel than in London. He could walk two miles north of Barnhill to his nearest (and only) neighbour and get fresh milk and eggs. And there was peat to use as fuel.

VISITING ORWELL'S BARNHILL

He always hated processed foods, but wasn't at all a health food quack. Just basic, nutritious, natural food was what he enjoyed. And tea, of course, lots of cups of tea, INDIAN tea.

A NICE CUP OF TEA

I like the adage I read somewhere a few years ago, author unknown, which I've tacked on my wall: "I choose to eat from Nature's table, not the table of the genetic engineers."

All the best,
Jackie Jura