As food production fell off in war-torn countries, rallying cries for home gardens and produce became synonymous with victory. The more commercially packaged food that could make its way over the troops and those people ravaged by war, the better. To make up the deficit on the home front, people were encouraged to grow gardens and put up the harvest.
In this week’s Throwback Thursday, Mount Vernon resident Francis Bates hoes her tomatoes in her Victory Garden. Bates’s garden represented over 18 million victory gardens planted across the country, rural areas and cities alike in 1943. Even Eleanor Roosevelt planted a victory garden on the White House lawn that same year. While many planted these plots of land for economic reasons, victory gardens boosted morale among citizens, encouraging them to “sow seeds for victory.”
SDAHM Sudlow Collection 10-13-14