VISITORS to Droitwich Library this Remembrance weekend will be able to find out more about the kind of food eaten during the First World War by checking out a unique online cookbook.
The WW1 Food Fight ebook has been produced by design students from the University of Worcester and includes recipes for jam, hotpot and pancakes.
The students, who are on the Graphic Design and Multimedia course, were set the task of designing the book in an engaging way by the university’s professor of cultural history, Maggie Andrews, as part of the Voices of War and Peace project, marking the centenary of the First World War.
The recipes in the ebook were all based on genuine home front recipes of the time, gleaned from Maggie’s research.
Among them were a meatless stew, an eggless sponge cake and a baked jam roll.
There are also activity sheets and games for schools and children’s groups to engage with.
Droitwich Library manager Bev Orlowsky said the ebook has proved very popular since being made available.
“With the war at the forefront of a lot of people’s minds, it will make them stop and look at how things were and how much we take for granted today.”
It also ties in well with the First World War Home Front history project that the library received a £10,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant to set up.
That has seen pupils from four schools find out what it was like to be a child during the First World War years a century ago.
There are also currently exhibition boards up at the library detailing what life was like on the home front, how families coped during the war and how Droitwich helped the war effort.
