(above) Examples of Original WW2 Posters

While much of the credit for the campaign went to Lord Woolton, the Minister of Food from 1940 to 1943,  Mr Raeburn ran it until the end of the war and was responsible for its continuing success. At one point there was a glut of carrots, and the Government let it be known that carotene, which can actually to help night vision, was largely responsible for the RAF’s increasing success in shooting down enemy bombers.

The Ministry issued many cooking leaflets, often dedicated to specific topics such as the magic of carrots. The language used was practical, and realistic for the time -- in listing ingredients for suggested recipes, the government leaflets would often say beside an ingredient such as butter: "if possible." Cooking demonstrations by women such as Marguerite Patten were held in many stores, including Harrods. Educational short movies on cooking were made for showing at cinemas; BBC Radio ran a morning radio programme called "Kitchen Front", broadcast from studios in Oxford Street, London.

They even came up with a recipe using carrot tops (the leaves) - Carrot Top and Potato soup. See extract here.

"Carrots Help you See in the Dark" was a popular saying at the time and people eagerly tucked in to carrots, believing this would help them to see more clearly in the blackout. This ruse not only helped reduce the surplus vegetables but also helped to mask the chief reason for the RAF’s success in night time air battles - the increasing power of radar and the secret introduction of an airborne version of the system.

The Ministry of Agriculture promoted carrots heavily as a substitute for other less readily available vegetables, fruit and other commodities. To improve its image of blandness, people were encouraged to enjoy the healthy carrot in different ways by promoting various recipes never tried before, such as curried carrot and carrot jam. They even promoted the use of carrot tops (the leaves) in a recipe called Champ (a meal for six for a shilling) and Carrot Top and Potato Soup.  (These can be found in the  World War Two page here (see the transcript on the carrot Tops page here)  .

This secret report on the Food Situation in 1941 clearly found that the campaign was working -

Every morning at 8.15 on the Home Service (UK radio 4) there was a Kitchen Front broadcast giving useful tips or using food in different ways, substitute ingredients and recipes. 

Carrots and potatoes featured regularly, so much so, that on 18 December 1941 they announced a Carrot Competition where the public were to enter to show off their ingenuity and submit ideas,  not only for use as a vegetable but also in jelly, cakes and confectionary. The concept was to give the Ministry of Food's experimental kitchen some new ideas for inclusion in  its leaflets, for free, and to make people feel part of the effort.

The winner was a Mrs Casey from Palmers Green with "Carrot Savoury Pudding." Sadly we have unable to locate the broadcast of the recipe! but coincidentally this recipe appeared in a subsequent Ministry leaflet and is believed to be it. There was no prize - it was war time!

The slogan "Carrots keep you healthy and help you see in the blackout" was used extensively. Advert (below left) from the UK Times, 6 February,1942.
 

Some war time recipes promoted by the Ministry of Food are also detailed below - click here. There was even a homemade drink called Carrolade, made up from the juices of carrots and Swede (Rutabaga) grated and squeezed through a piece of muslin, clearly no one thought of just plain carrot juice!.  Modern recipe here. Other culinary uses included carrot jam,  marmalade and toffee carrots. The humble carrot, previously thought to be only good for animal feed had been elevated to a new high and set in motion started its rightful return to one of the countries favourite vegetables. Read more about jam here Also during the war many thousands of tons of carrots were dehydrated and shipped overseas in sealed metal containers in an atmosphere of carbon dioxide or nitrogen to prevent loss of carotene.     The Ministry of Food campaign to encourage people to eat more vegetables resulted in the promotion of Woolton Pie, composed entirely of vegetables. Potato, Carrot and Swede (rutabaga) provided the basic ingredients, with onion and cauliflower added when available. Lord Woolton was the Minister of Food from April 1940. The recipe was the creation of the chef of the Savoy hotel and named after Lord Woolton.  Many people had their own interpretation of this recipe, but they always used carrots! Basically it is mixed vegetables, a sauce and a topping , which could be pastry or potatoes mashed or sliced.

The Official Woolton Pie Recipe as reported in The Times 26 April 1941:

INGREDIENTS

Take 1Ib each of diced potatoes, cauliflower, swedes (rutabaga) and carrots;
Three or Four spring onions;
One teaspoonful of vegetable extract and
One teaspoonful of oatmeal.

METHOD

Cook all together for ten minutes with just enough water to cover.
Stir occasionally to prevent the mixture from sticking.
Allow to cool; put into a pie dish, sprinkle with chopped parsley and cover with a crust of potatoes or wholemeal pastry.
Bake in a moderate oven until the pastry is nicely brown and serve hot with brown gravy.

There were of course many variations on this basic recipe, depending on which ingredients were available and accounting for personal taste.

The Kitchen Front Broadcast in 1941 by the Ministry of Food gave this, more detailed version:
(transcribed by the World Carrot Museum from script of actual broadcast)

 Read more about the famous Woolton Pie - click here.

In late 1941, Walt Disney offered to help the British Government promote carrots as a nutritious food source. England had already been at war with the Germans for two years and severe rationing measures were in effect. The January 11, 1942 issue of The New York Times Magazine announced: "England has a goodly store of carrots. But carrots are not the staple items of the average English diet. The problem...is to sell the carrots to the English public."

Hank Porter, a leading Disney cartoonist  designed a family of carrot characters on behalf of England's Food Minister (Lord Woolton).

The Disney Corporation created a carrot family including Carroty George, Clara Carrot, and Dr. Carrot, for the British media to promote the eating of carrots. The vegetable characters were reproduced on a poster, recipe booklet, flyers and the images were used extensively in a newspaper campaign. Carroty George's motto was "I'll tell you what to do with me"!

As the British Ministry of Food had already used their own Dr Carrot character in their promotions,  this particular Disney character was never used, and appears to have been "converted" into Pop Carrot.

These images are reproduced from the originals. They are VERY rare!. Please do not copy them.

The cartoons shown below appeared in "The Times" in 1941/2. The associated flyers which were distributed to the public featuring six carrot-based recipes and also had illustrations of Carroty George, Clara Carrot and Pop Carrot. They also featured other frugal recipes.

The full list of recipes as they appeared in the press is shown here together with more information and rare photos about the Disney characters.

These copies are taken from "The Times" archives.  They are VERY rare!.

This is how the New York times reported it on 11 January 1942:

An article also appeared in the March 1942 "Boy's Life" Magazine (UK). This read:

England has wakened to the fact that  “a carrot a day keeps the blackout at bay”, according to Lord Woolton, the Food Minister, English people, however, are not great carrot eaters, so Lord Woolton had to educate his country, where upon he cabled Walt Disney in Hollywood, and asked if Disney would create a set of carrot cartoons for him. Within a few hours he received a reply, “Have immediately created Carrot Family, Dr. Carrot, George, and Clara.” The British Press Service wire-photoed the drawings via RCA, and now the Carrot Family is all over the British Isles. If you get a call this spring from Governor McNutt, to plant and raise a big crop of carrot or sweet potatoes. don’t be surprised, “Be Prepared”, for America is going in for Vitamin A in a very big way.

From Time Magazine (USA)  29 December 1941 - "Three new characters made of carrots (Dr. Carrot, Carroty George, Clara Carrot) have been photo-wired to London, they are advising the British that if they want to see better during blackouts, they had better munch carrots."  In fact there were four characters, Pop Carrot was not mentioned.  As the British Ministry of Food had already used their own Dr Carrot in their promotions, this Disney character was never used, and is lost for posterity. Perhaps Pop Carrot came later as a replacement for Dr Carrot?

Any one with further information about the Disney Carrot Characters or the whereabouts of the posters please contact the Museum.

(The World Carrot Museum respectfully acknowledges the outstanding work undertaken by David Lesjak at the Toons at War Blog which has assisted in the research of some of the above information about the Disney Characters. It also provides an excellent resource about the role Toons played in Wartime)

The full list of recipes is shown here together with more information about the Disney characters.

Here is one of Carroty George's recipes, as part of a series of carrot based recipes designed to encourage healthy eating during rationing.

Carrot Fudge (Recipe from Colleen Moulding's "Frugal Recipes from Wartime Britain").

You will need:
4 tablespoons of finely grated carrot
1 gelatine leaf
orange essence or orange squash
a saucepan and a flat dish

Put the carrots in a pan and cook them gently in just enough water to keep them covered, for ten minutes. Add a little orange essence, or orange squash to flavour the carrot. Melt a leaf of gelatine and add it to the mixture. Cook the mixture again for a few minutes, stirring all the time. Spoon it into a flat dish and leave it to set in a cool place for several hours. When the "fudge" feels firm, cut it into chunks and get eating!

Let us hope that the country never faces such extremes again. However, it is now realised that the home population never ate so well as during and after the war. This was thanks to the strict rationing of shop-bought goods and the amount of fresh vegetables that people ate.

There is a simple message for the 21st Century's increasingly obese and under-exercised populations. Take up carrot growing and give up the car while you're at it!

Dig For Victory

The Ministry of Food launched its 'Dig for Victory' campaign in October 1939, one month after war broke out. The campaign was led by an agricultural economist, Professor John Raeburn, who was recruited to the Ministry of Food in 1939, and who would run the campaign until the end of the war.

The campaign encouraged people to transform their front and back gardens into vegetable plots. The goal was to replace imported food, thus freeing up shipping space for more valuable war materials, and to make up for food that was sunk in transit. By the end of 1940, 728,000 tons of food making its way to Britain had been lost, sunk by German submarine activity.

The government realised that the population would go hungry if the war was to last longer than a few months. The result was that formal gardens, lawns and even sports pitches were transformed into allotments, large and small, and everybody on the home front was encouraged to become a vegetable gardener.

Whilst the term “Victory Garden” has become synonymous with World War Two, its origin can be traced back to the 1600’s in England where Richard Gardner in his book entitled Victory Gardens wrote: 

"If any citie or towne should be besieged with the enemy  what better provision for the greatest number of people  can be than every garden be sufficiently planted with carrots”

Prior to World War II, Britain imported over 55 million tons of food a year - much of it from Canada and the USA. After the outbreak of war, merchant vessels carrying provisions into Britain, especially those coming across the Atlantic, became targets of the German navy and food imports were under threat. At the same time the British government recognised that the merchant ships were required for the transport of troops, munitions and even aeroplanes to the theatres of war.

In October 1939 Rob Hudson, Minister for Agriculture, announced "We want not only the big man with the plough but the little man with the spade to get busy this autumn... Let 'Dig for Victory' be the motto of everyone with a garden". It was a desperate request because farmers could only produce 30% of the country's food. But if gardens could be turned over to growing food rather than flowers, up to 25% of the necessary vegetables could be provided.

The whole of Britain's home front was encouraged to transform private gardens into mini-allotments. Not only this, but parks, formal public gardens and various areas of unused land were dug up for planting fruit and vegetables. Kensington Gardens dug up its flowers and planted rows of cabbages and carrots. All over the country, lawns were dug and potatoes, cabbages, carrots and beans planted. Windsor Great Park was given over to wheat, and public parks, road verges, railway embankments, golf clubs, tennis courts, roofs and even window boxes were put to work.

The Ministry of Agriculture got in on the act producing several informative leaflets on how to grow more. Leaflet number one "Grow for Winter as well as Summer" which showed how to get fresh, home grown vegetables throughout the year.  Copies can be seen here.  Front page and inside page. .

The plan worked though -- by 1945, around 75% of food was produced in Britain.

A song was introduced to promote the Dig for Victory slogan.

Dig! Dig! Dig! And your muscles will grow big
Keep on pushing the spade
Don’t mind the worms
Just ignore their squirms
And when your back aches laugh with glee
And keep on diggin’
Till we give our foes a Wiggin’
Dig! Dig! Dig! to Victory"

Dig for Victory was very successful. From a total of 815,000 allotments in 1939 the number rose to 1,400,000 by 1943.

It was reported in the UK Times on 15 May 1941 that " Evidence of American determination to help Britain in every possible way is provided by the offer of vegetable seeds".  These were accepted by Mr. R. S. Hudson, Minister of Agriculture. The first instalment of nine tons arrived through the agency of the British War Relief Society.  Among the vegetables which have been specially asked for are onions, carrots, beans. cauliflower, broccoli, leeks, parsnips, and tomatoes.

Very soon allotment holders, members of the Army and Royal Air Force, and others were sowing American seeds on their plots.

In the USA - Victory Gardens

The programme was mirrored in the USA with the formation of Victory Gardens. Left the Official US leaflet issued February 1942.

Victory gardens were vegetable gardens planted to ensure an adequate food supply for civilians and troops. Government agencies, private foundations, businesses, schools, and seed companies all worked together to provide land, instruction, and seeds for individuals and communities to grow food.

From California to Florida, Americans ploughed backyards, vacant lots, parks, baseball fields, and schoolyards to set out gardens. Children and adults fertilized, planted, weeded, and watered in order to harvest an abundance of vegetables. (read more at the Smithsonian website here)

At the beginning of World War II, Secretary of Agriculture Wickard suggested that, since the farmers of America would be busy feeding the army, civilians should plant Victory Gardens to provide fresh vegetables for their own tables. Americans were quick to respond. By 1943, victory gardens were flourishing in many backyards, empty lots, parks, baseball fields, schoolyards - even parking lots, since not many cars were being driven due to the shortage of gasoline. These gardens came in every size and shape. Governments and corporations promoted the victory garden effort as a call for self-reliance.

People in both rural and urban areas tilled the soil to raise food for their families, friends and neighbours. Households used what they needed and preserved and canned for future use. Eventually more than 40 percent of the country's vegetables were grown in the nation's backyards. Victory gardening enabled more processed foods to be shipped to our troops around the world. Emphasis was placed on making gardening a family or community effort - not drudgery, but a pastime, and a national duty.

By 1944, 20 million Americans planted Victory Gardens, producing one million tons a year of vegetables -- about half the amount consumed in America. Of course carrots figured highly in the campaigns, as evidenced by the various propaganda posters. Click here to see more posters.

Brightly coloured posters produced for the government by artists from the Work Progress Administration (WPA) encouraged Americans to "Fight with Food." Vegetables grown in home gardens, the government reasoned, would not only lighten the burden of food rationing, but would free up supplies needed for troops fighting in Europe. The appealing combination of self-sufficiency and patriotism made the Victory Garden effort arguably the most successful civilian wartime program.

A Ministry of Agriculture food production poster using the slogan ‘Dig for Plenty'. Illustrated with a colourful box of winter vegetables, it is aimed at the amateur gardener, rather than industrial agriculturalists. ‘Dig for Victory' was a campaign that ran throughout much of the war. The famous ‘foot on the spade' illustration, , took on a life of its own early in the war.

Pictured right, "Dig for Plenty" by Le Bon, 1944, Gouache on board. A Ministry of Agriculture food production poster using the slogan ‘Dig for Plenty'. Illustrated with a colourful box of winter vegetables, it is aimed at the amateur gardener, rather than industrial agriculturalists. ‘Dig for Victory' was a campaign that ran throughout much of the war. The famous ‘foot on the spade' illustration, visible in the bottom left-hand corner, took on a life of its own early in the war. The benefits of growing one's own food were stressed. Such over-heightened colour visions of abundant vegetables, rarely fruit or salad, but good nutritious food in a time of shortages, would have appealed to the public. ‘Dig for Plenty' indicates a recognition that victory was already assured and now a healthier future was possible. Previous campaigns had seen many gardens turned into allotments. Those who dug up half their lawn for vegetables had done it partly in response to the government campaign and partly because they feared rises in food prices. It was also a leisure interest. In 1944, the campaign no longer called for extra allotments and was directed almost entirely to greater efficiency in vegetable production.

The most common carrot varieties used by US citizens were Amsterdam Minicor and Autumn King.

Also an extract of carrots was used in America to colour Oleos (margarine) during the fats rationing that took place during the second world war. (They were really reviving an early American folk custom in colouring foods.)

Carrots helped win World War Two in the air!

The carrot myth  - World War Two pilots were fed excessive amounts of high carotene carrots to help them see in the dark and therefore spot Nazi airplanes quicker. Famously, the Government responded to a temporary wartime oversupply of carrots by suggesting that the RAF's exceptional night-flying was due to eating carotene. The ruse worked: consumption of carrots increased sharply because people thought carrots might help them see in the blackout, thus taking the pressure off other food supplies.

At one point in the early 40's there was a glut of carrots, and the Government let it be known that carotene, which is believed to help night vision, was largely responsible for the RAF’s increasing success in shooting down enemy bombers. People eagerly tucked in to carrots, believing this would help them to see more clearly in the blackout. The ruse not only reduced the surplus vegetables but also helped to mask the chief reason for the RAF’s success - the increasing power of radar and the secret introduction of an airborne version of the system.

Facts:
• The First radar system was produced in 1935 by Sir Robert Watson-Watt

• By 1939, UK had radar stations all round the south coast of the UK

• In 1940, John Cunningham was the first pilot to down an enemy using radar

• To cover-up the use of  radar from the Germans, pilots were praised for being able to see in the dark through a "secret" diet

• The government said it was because they ate carrots, rich in Vitamin A.

Read more:

In 1940 experiments with high carotene varieties were conducted to reduce night blindness in World War II pilots. These high carotene roots were very dry. With the advent of synthetically manufactured carotene, cultivation of these varieties ceased in 1947. In World War II, Britain's Air Ministry spread the word that a diet of carrots helped pilots see Nazi bombers attacking at night. That was a lie intended to cover the real matter of what was underpinning the Royal Air Force's successes: the latest, highly efficient on board,  Airborne Interception Radar, also known as AI. The secret new system pinpointed some enemy bombers before they reached the English Channel.

When the Luftwaffe's bombing assault switched to night raids after the unsuccessful daylight campaign, British Intelligence didn't want the Germans to find out about the superior new technology helping protect the nation, so they created a rumour to afford a somewhat plausible-sounding explanation for the sudden increase in bombers being shot down. British Intelligence instigated news in the British press about extraordinary personnel manning the defences, including Flight Lieutenant John Cunningham, an RAF fighter pilot dubbed "Cats Eyes" on the basis of his exceptional night vision that allowed him to spot his prey in the dark. In fact, in WW II, he was the RAF's top-scoring night fighter pilot, with a total of 20 kills. Cunningham's abilities were chalked up to his love of carrots.  The Royal Air Force bragged that the great accuracy of British fighter pilots at night was a result of them being fed enormous quantities of carrots and the Germans bought it because their folk wisdom included the same myth.

But this story was only a myth invented by the RAF to hide their use of radar, which was what really located the Luftwaffe bombers at night - not human carrot-assisted super-vision.

The disinformation was so persuasive that the English public to the extent that they started growing and eating more carrots, so that they could find they way around easier at night during the blackouts that were compulsory during WW II.

See the full story of "Cats Eyes" Cunningham here.

World War Two also produced a genuine Carrot plane! - read more here.

View the World War Two film clip about the creative use of food - here

RECIPES

Recipes which included carrots, "invented" during war time

Recipes either created by ordinary housewives using their ingenuity, or taken from the "official" recipes promoted by the Ministry of Food. Every morning there was a radio broadcast giving hints and tips on food use, also including some interesting recipes. Samples of every type are shown below.

Carrots were one vegetable in plentiful supply and as a result widely utilised as a substitute for the scarce commodities. To improve its blandness, people were encouraged to 'enjoy' the healthy carrot in different ways by the introduction of such characters as 'Doctor Carrot'. Culinary delights in the form of curried carrot, carrot jam and a homemade drink called Carrolade were suggested by the Ministry of Food. (See the official leaflet here)

The homemade drink called Carrolade was made up from the juices of carrots and Swede grated and squeezed through a piece of muslin, clearly no one thought of just plain carrot juice!.

Other culinary uses included carrot marmalade and toffee carrots. The humble carrot, previously thought to be only good for animal feed had been elevated to a new high and kick started its rightful return to one of the nations favourite vegetables.

Also during the war many thousands of tons of carrots were dehydrated and shipped overseas in sealed metal containers in an atmosphere of carbon dioxide or nitrogen to prevent loss of carotene.

Carrots for Breakfast

(suggested by a radio listener)

Slice up two carrots and cook the rounds with bacon. The bacon fat makes them tender in no time.

Carrot Fudge (Recipe from Colleen Moulding's "Frugal Recipes from Wartime Britain").

You will need:
4 tablespoons of finely grated carrot

1 gelatine leaf
orange essence or squash
a saucepan and a flat dish

Method: Put the carrots in a pan and cook them gently in just enough water to keep them covered, for ten minutes. Add a little orange essence, or orange squash to flavour the carrot. Melt a leaf of gelatine and add it to the mixture. Cook the mixture again for a few minutes, stirring all the time. Spoon it into a flat dish and leave it to set in a cool place for several hours. When the "fudge" feels firm, cut it into chunks and get eating!

Mock Cream

A wartime substitute for cream. All dairy products were rationed in the war and this substitute cream gave people a little bit of luxury during the hard times.

Does it taste like the real thing?

Ingredients

1/2 oz cornflour 1/4 pint milk 1 1/2 oz margarine 3tsp sugar few drops of vanilla essence

Method

Mix the cornflour with a little of the milk to form a smooth paste.  Bring the rest of the milk to the boil.  Pour the hot milk over the cornflour paste.  Return to the heat and bring to the boil.  Cook for 3 minutes.  Cream the sugar and margarine together.  Gradually whisk in the cornflour mixture.  Add the vanilla essence.  Allow to cool.

Carrots with Potato Soup (serves 4)

You will need - 2 carrots, 3 medium potatoes, 2 cups water, 4 tablespoons flour, 2 slices of onion, carrot or parsley greens, 1-1/2 cups of milk, 1-1/2 tablespoons of fat, Salt and pepper, stalk of celery

Wash and pare potatoes. Cook in boiling salted water until they are soft.
Rub through colander. Use water in which potatoes were cooked to make up the two cups of water for the soup. Cook carrots, cut in cubes in boiling water until soft; drain. Scald milk with onion, celery, and parsley. Add milk and water to potatoes. Melt fat in sauce pan, add flour, and cook for three minutes. Slowly add soup, stirring constantly. Boil for one minute, season with salt and pepper. Add cubes of carrots and serve.

Carrot Buns

You will need - 8 oz self-raising flour, 3 oz margarine or cooking fat, 3 oz sugar, 4 tablespoons finely grated raw carrot,2 tablespoons sultanas or chopped dates, 1 reconstituted dried or fresh egg, a little milk or water.

Method - Grease 2 baking trays. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl. Rub in the margarine or cooking fat.  Add the sugar, carrot, sultanas and egg. Mix well, then add sufficient milk or water to make a sticky consistency. Divide mixture into 12 small heaps on baking tray and bake in a hot oven (gas mark7) for 12 to 15 minutes until firm and golden.

Carrot Cookies

You will need -  1 tablespoon margarine, 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 to 2 teaspoons of vanilla essence, 4 tablespoons grated raw carrot 6 tablespoons self- raising flour (or plain flour with 1/2 teaspoon baking powder added), 1 tablespoon of water.

Method - Cream the fat and the sugar together with the vanilla essence. Beat in the grated carrot. Fold in the flour. If mixture very dry then add a little water. Drop spoonfuls onto greased tray and press down just a little.  Sprinkle tops with sugar and cook in an oven at 200 centigrade for about 20 minutes.


Carrot pudding (for 2 persons)

You will need - 1lb scraped carrots, 2 oz margarine, Breadcrumbs as required, 1 beaten egg, 1 tablespoon minced onion, salt and pepper.

Method - Rinse the carrots, then place them in a saucepan of boiling salted water to cover. Bring to a simmer. Cover and cook slowly till soft. Rub through a sieve. Measure and place puree in a basin. Add half as much breadcrumbs as carrot puree, then add onion and the margarine, melted till creamy. Season to taste, then add enough beaten egg to bind the mixture. Place in a greased pudding basin.

Cover with greased paper. Steam for 45 minutes. Turn out onto a hot dish. Serve with cheese or caper sauce or left over gravy.


Carrot  Sandwich Fillings

Add two parts of grated raw carrot to one part of finely shredded white heart cabbage and bind with chutney or sweet pickle. Pepper and salt to taste.

Bind some grated raw carrot with mustard sauce flavoured with a dash of vinegar.