Over the last 30 years, Americans have grown accustom to food being (falsely) cheap and abundant – so the recent sticker price hikes have likely come as a shock. But one doesn’t have to look very far into the past to find other times in our country’s history when food was neither cheap, nor abundant.My 85-year old father, for example, grew up during the Great Depression of the 1930s. While he does not recall ever feeling overwhelmingly hungry (his father, a minister, was often paid in eggs and other food, and his mother was known for making a chicken stretch in twenty ways), he does remember the backyard garden his family relied on for a substantial portion of their fruits, vegetables, and other food.

Like my dad, 91-year old Clara (in the video above) was a Depression kid. Unlike my dad, Clara learned how to cook “Depression meals” that made due with what the family had…which meant serving potatoes at almost every meal and in just about every form imaginable. The video above shows Clara making a potatoes and hot dogs dish and, just in time for the harvest holiday of Sukkot, giving her hilarious personal thoughts on “gleaning” (around minute 4:25). Two other videos demonstrate pasta and peas (featuring potatoes!), and egg drop soup. The videos are touching and sweet and who knows? With food prices continuing to skyrocket and the stock market continuing to crash, her advice might turn out to be useful.

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