Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1917-10-16
For Two Years, Marie Bonini Brown
Says, Berlin Has Been Hungry;
Food Shortage Wrecks
City's Happiness
DON'T SATISFY
BY MARIE BONINI BROWN.
Exclusive publication rights
icopyrisht, 1872, BY the Pittsburgh Press.)

During the last two years lived
in Berlin, there was but one topic
of interest among friends who met
1t was not the war, nor its duration
nor who would get into 1t next, nor
even who had been killed. 1t was
"eats."
Did you hear that such and sucn
| is 'verboten' now" we would say.
81 have learned to cook spinach
new way" another would contribute
81 got can Of fruit this week ana
we had it for my birthday dinner, q
third would tell. to the envy OF the
rest.
Americans may think this is exag'
gerated. but until you have been on
4 slow starvation diet for months, you
cannot realize what intense interest,"
the subject of food has for you.
Even since l have come home, II
seems to me food is one paramount
object of importance.
The first thing did when got to
where I could get it was to buy a
| pound Of candy and sit down to eat
it. But couldn't. My stomach simply
would not recognize an article it had
not know for 80 long. I sat down be.
fore white bread and plenty Of
butter, for which ! had lonsed during
weary months, and could not eat It..
had to learn to eat real food gradually
and even now my system has not re.
covered from the indi9nities It had to
suffer in Germany.
We had substitutes there for every
thing. Substitutes were used for tea,
coffee. sugar, milk, eggs, honey, pud.
dings. The substitutes for milk was
powder which you stirred in water.
It looked as though chalk had been
stirred in.
SUBSTITUTE. FOR EGGS.
For eggs the substitute was little
yellow disk, about onefourth Of an
inch in diameter and One-fourth OF
an inch thick. When put into food, It
gave a yellow color and thickened 1t
a little as egg would do.
The artificial honey was good, al
though I have no idea of what it was
made. The substitute, for pudding was
a substance which looked like glue.
You stirred It into water and 1t be-
came pink. and thick and pastry.
1t didn't taste bad, but you had to
be hungry to eat it. There was no
gelatine to be had.
We did have lots of barley, but bar.
ley without meat and with no salt
soon gets tiresome. We had lots OF
onions, too. Every night, almost l
would eat a boiled onion on q piece
of bread 1t was nourishmg, but 1t,
too grew tiresome.
Since have come home, barley, on
ions, spinach and lettuce are or my
menus. I had enough of them on the
other side.
OF course we never got any cakes
The macaroons Of which the Germans
are so fond and which usually are so
plentiful have become very scarce.
You can buy them, but they cost $3.50
a pound.
They have substitute for pepper
there, but it is as good as nothing. I
don't know what it is made of, but 1t
doesn't flavor at all.
MAKING DuMPLIkGS.
One thing we did make that / liked.
Our bread cards entitled us to so much
bread or flour, whichever we wanted
we could not have both. Sometimes we
got flour-black flour of course, that
is all there was. We would get an egg.
and make a dough from the flour,
water and egg Then We would put a
bit of meat and an onion in water and
boil it, When it was boiling hot, we
would drop the dough in it by spoonfuls
and make dumplings This dish was
great luxury though, for it took our al
lowance of meat. flour end egg all at
once, but il certainly was good.
Cheese was a rarity. Once In = long
time, we would be told that we could
have a portion Of cheese. have stood
five hours IN line waiting for mine. II
would be less than one-fifth Of pound
when got it, and often hard and stale,
but did value It for it was little BIT
different from the eternal sameness OF
the things we usually had.
When we got vegetables, we rarely
got them fresh-or fresh fruits. They
always were evaporated, and very
hard. We would soak them in water
all night and cook them for over an
hour, sometimes for two or three
hours the next day. They never tasted
like fresh vegetables or fruit. They
were rather insipid and tough.
II we could have secured good quail
ity of the things we did have to eat,
it would not have been so bad. But
they were things that, ordinarily, at
home, we would have thrown out
How the very, very poor lived,
don't know. ! heard that the govern
ment kept them.
GOVERNMENT KITCHENS.
For the middle clasS, the people who
were not beggars and yet who could
not afford to pay the regular prices
for food, the government established
great kitchen in different parts OF
the city. suppose the same was done
all over Germany. am familiar only
with what was done in Berlin.
In this Kitchen were big kettles and
into these kettles were collection OF
the poorer qualities Of vegetables tie
tops Of garden truck, and all sorts OF
scraps All this was made into q stew