During the Great Depression, many families turned to backyard food production to keep their families fed. My paternal grandparents were teenagers through the 1930’s and each labored on their family farms. Here I’ll share family stories told about Great Depression home gardening:
Great Depression Home Gardening
When the stock market crashed in 1929, few understood the economic hardship the United States would find itself plunged into over the next decade. Most cities and towns continued to thrive through 1930 and would not feel the full effects of the Great Depression for another year. In 1931 when banks began to fail one after another, citizens recognized they were in the midst of a depression and began taking steps to spare their families as much economic pain as possible.
Digging Up the Yard as soon as Trouble Began
Older generations who remembered the Panic of 1873 knew to get their cash out of the banks. In 1873 banks failed, which caused businesses and factories to go under, laying off workers who suddenly had no source of income. Without work and pay, people quickly became destitute and hungry. If a 1930’s family did not already have a garden, digging up the yard as soon as trouble began would have been a wise move.
Gardens & Orchards Became Vital
When the stock market crashed in 1929, my Great-Grandmother Arva was 30 years old and my Great-Grandfarther Ira was 31. They were raising my 9 year-old Grandmother Evelyn on their 10 acre farm in rural Dicey Community, Texas. They were a small farming family with a 5,000 square foot garden and orchard with 7 fruit trees and 6 pecan trees. As the economic hardships of the Great Depression set in, her family relied on the garden and chickens to keep everyone fed.
Public Assistance Programs Did Not Yet Exist
Some of the government assistance programs that provide a safety net today did not exist in the late 1920’s when the trouble began. It was because of the Great Depression that many of today’s programs got their start. Independent charity organizations and churches were the front line when it came to caring for the poor or unemployed. But they were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of needy people in the early 1930’s. Many people were on their own…with what they could produce from their own backyard.
The Family Farm in 1929 Texas
My grandmother’s family farm was next door to the community’s only school house. My Great-Grandmother Arva used 3 spare rooms in the farmhouse to board female teachers who taught the school’s 30 pupils. Little did my Great-Grandmother know that her garden, orchard, and flock of laying hens would be relied upon to keep everyone fed through the upcoming hard times.
What Was Growing in the Garden?
In Texas my Great-Grandmother grew corn, beets, peas, tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe, carrots, onions, yellow squash, cucumbers, green beans, okra, lettuce, spinach and herbs in their 50×100 foot fenced garden. She was adept at coaxing life from the soil and providing nutritious meals. Excess produce would be carefully canned in glass jars and put away for the winter. Nothing was wasted; kitchen scraps like veggie tops or bottoms were tossed to the chickens and turned into eggs.
Gardening Increased as Prices Deflated
The Great Depression was a deflationary recession, which meant that there was not enough cash in circulation to maintain normal demand. As a result, prices fell. As prices fell and businesses went under, they no longer produced goods. The drop in production did not matter because people had very little cash. (Most of it had been lost in bank failures.) What income a family could bring in went to paying mortgages and property taxes first. People turned to home gardening to grow their own food in order to stretch their budgets as far as they possibly could.
The 1930’s Exodus from Cities to Farms
When unemployment began to increase in the year 1930, some families understood that remaining in the city to compete with so many unemployed workers did not make financial sense. Some heavily mortgaged farms, where the equity had been gambled in the stock market and lost in the crash, were available for purchase. These were bought up, using what remained of a family’s life savings if necessary. In the long run it proved to be a wise move, often saving the lives of everyone in the family – including extended family members who were fed by proximity to the farm or taken in when there was no place left to go.
“The movement back to the farm has grown stronger during the past two years [1930-1932] until today [August 1932] it is almost an exodus from the city to the farm… This is made easier due to the large number of foreclosed farms now on the market at low prices. In most cases the people moving to the farm feel they will at least be sure of plenty of food for their families.” – Benjamin Roth, The Great Depression: A Diary page 67. Mr. Roth was a lawyer in Youngstown, Ohio who kept a journal of his personal experience through the Great Depression and the start of World War II.
Gardening: Always a Good Idea
The “bottom” of the depression was reached in the summer of 1932. Stock prices tumbled to their final lows and many people were destitute. Although the stock market began to slowly recover after that point, US citizens did not feel the subtle recovery effects. The most painful years of the depression were considered to be 1933 and 1934. During these years cash was scarce and many payments to local doctors, neighbors, and businesses were made in garden produce and bottled preserves.
“In 1932 most people were hard put to buy food and had no money to invest. Those who had a few dollars were hoarding it in fear.” – Benjamin Roth, The Great Depression: A Diary pg. 173. Mr. Roth was aware that people were going hungry or starving in some parts of the country and made mention of it (page 24, 129, 148).
The Money-Saving, Life-Preserving Garden
“Even in my earliest recollections of things, times were really hard. I very well remember basically what we raised on the farm and in the gardens and we had our farm animals. That was it. We raised food to feed the family rather than as a cash crop.”
“Folks bartered a lot. for example, Daddy would gladly work for any neighbor within walking distance who could afford to hire a worker for even half a day in exchange for produce from the neighbor’s farm which we could use.” (both quotes: Stories of Survival, page 77)
No Choice But to Produce Their Own Food
“We raised our own gardens and orchards and canned a lot of food and raised our own chickens and hogs. Everything we sold didn’t bring much, but we learned to get by. …We ate what we raised.” (Stories of Survival, page 280)
“Most of our backyard was planted in a garden in the 1930’s. The garden wasn’t plowed with machinery either; it was dug with a spading fork and tended with hands and a hoe.” (We Had Everything But Money, page 12)
“Almost everything we ate was produced right there on that farm. The only things we bought were flour, sugar, salt, coffee, [baking] soda, and baking powder. If we could grow it in our garden or field or if it grew wild in the surrounding woodlands, we could have all of it we wanted when it was in season, but we knew we had to work for it.” (Stories of Survival, page 74)
Children Helped with the Gardens that Fed Them
Children of all ages had farm chores they were expected to help with. When everyone worked together, the tasks of managing large gardens and caring for livestock were completed in a timely manner. Even toddlers would be given small chores to do beside their mothers.
“Unlike many families in the city, we never knew what it was to be hungry or cold. We had little or no money, but neither did any of our neighbors on the surrounding farms, so we never felt we were suffering. Like all farm children, my sister and I were expected to do whatever we could to help out around the farm. In the early years, we weeded the garden… Children who had enough to eat and clothes to keep them warm felt lucky; most of us knew families in towns and cities who had much less.” (We Had Everything But Money, page 16)
What Was Done with the Excess Produce?
When multiple plants all have fruit (veggies) ripening at the same time, you can have a large amount of produce to handle all at once. After the family had canned or bottled all they wanted to save, the prettiest and best-looking fruits, vegetables, meats and eggs would be sold. Farmer’s Markets drew city residents to purchase produce direct from farmers. Roadside stands set up along the road in rural communities sprang up and became a popular way for farmers to bring in much-needed cash and coins. Townspeople were grateful that their currency went a little further at the farmer’s market.
The Great Depression Lingered
While the hardest years of the Great Depression were 1932-1934, the Depression did not end until 1939. By then many families had become masterful backyard gardeners. This was incredibly important because the United States was about to be thrust into war in 1941, when rationing would be a new challenge the American public had to face.
The Victory Garden is Born
As the United States climbed its way out of the Great Depression, World War II was brewing. If people had refused to grow their own food before, they were certainly going to be encouraged to do so now. Victory Gardening was heavily promoted in the early 1940’s so citizens could feed themselves and surplus harvests could be used to feed soldiers or sold at large profits to other countries who had already been at war for years.
“Plan your victory garden now. Get your garden plot lined up. Get the advice of a garden expert if you need it. And be prepared to grow your own for victory.” (Dig for Victory Newsreel, 1943)
Great Depression Home Gardening: Then & Now
Many of the Great Depression era family farms thrived well into the 1960’s as the children and teens who worked them fell in love with the agrarian way of life. Large numbers of town-dwelling youth who helped their parents with Victory Gardens enjoyed growing their own fresh food so much, they kept it as a treasured life-long hobby until their deaths decades later. If the United States was to face a decade of hard times again, what would you choose? Would you be an early adopter of backyard gardening? What about small scale chicken or quail keeping? If the allure of home food production has attracted your interest, keep learning the beautiful, healthy ways you can provide some of your own foods!
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