Uncovering local food-growing efforts during World War II.
Our country under stress. A clear danger. Efforts, on a personal and national level, to deal with the emergency. Do these phrases remind you of the recent Covid-19 pandemic? As a food historian, I go back further, to the 1940s and the crisis of World War II. Under rationing and other wartime hardships, Americans were asked to be more resourceful. Federal government leaders touted victory gardens as the answer.
Food for Freedom
In January 1942, just weeks after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S.’s rationing efforts began. It affected the supply of food and other goods to the American public. The U.S. Department of Agriculture created a program in which it invited Americans to create gardens with vegetables, fruits, and herbs to supplement their rations. Private residences, farms, ranches, vacant lots, and even public parks were enlisted, and the program blossomed. It was called the Food for Freedom program.
The program had another purpose. It helped unite the home front, boosting morale and making the war effort part of routine life. The response was enthusiastic, with every aspect of life involved. Optimist Clubs, area garden clubs, 4-H groups, parent-teacher associations, sororities, and schools signed on. Local festivals and competitions showcased the produce people grew in their gardens, with area businesses providing prizes. Stores advertised sales of garden seeds, garden hoses, and fertilizer. Realtors promoted homes or rentals that featured space to plant victory gardens. Community radio station KOH in Reno broadcast a program called Victory Garden Highlights. Sears, Roebuck and Co. and other retailers promoted clothing and shoes so the consumer could be the “prettiest gardener under the sun.” These efforts completely overshadowed daily life.
Assessing the Impact
A newly created Nevada State Victory Garden Committee determined that there was a 30 to 40 percent increase in gardens during its first year, in 1942. A similar increase was anticipated for 1943. The Nevada plan acknowledged cultivation challenges in our high-desert landscape, and it cautioned novices to consider factors such as the availability of water, soil quality, and personal time needed to tend a garden. Gardening classes began in March 1943 at Reno High School, and 80 people showed up. Numerous free brochures also were on hand to provide help.
Mary Stillwell Buol, from the agricultural extension service at the University of Nevada, said in a March 26, 1943, Reno Evening Gazette column, “A victory garden for winning the war, health, and working efficiency is the home gardener’s planting slogan for 1943.”
Enthusiasm abounded. The victory garden at the Pierson home at 726 Marsh Ave. received a mention in an Aug. 11, 1944, Reno Evening Gazette article as “one of the better plots that had provided plenty of produce for family uses … String beans and potatoes are the prime crops of the garden, but the garden also boasts of almost every other variety in common use.” The article continued by describing a community garden on Wells Avenue. Standard Oil Co. plowed a large tract of land as a community service, which was then cultivated by members of the Latter Day Saints Church of Reno. In another case, E. Robertson of 630 Alameda Ave. grew tomatoes, some of which he said were as big as soup bowls.
Hometown Heroes
The term “hometown heroes” certainly applied to the gardeners during World War II. These civilians fought with hoes and hand sprayers. The war officially ended on Sept. 2, 1945, and the USDA estimated that nearly 20 million plots of ground had been planted as victory gardens during the conflict years. The agency projected that a majority of those who planted their first gardens as a wartime service would continue during peacetime. On the Nov. 12, 1945, Opinion page of the Reno Evening Gazette, this comment appeared: “There is a lure in gardening that proves irresistible even to those who are the most vociferous in condemning it.”
In a footnote to this story, take a walk on the east side of Virginia Lake Park in Reno. You’ll find a unique (if deteriorating) garden of large tufa rocks and a towering fountain. John Henry Reeve, then the county gardener, brought the raw materials from Pyramid Lake in 1942. During the combat years, Reeve enhanced the rock garden and added patriotic red, white, and blue petunias to the installation, doing his part to evoke a victory garden. The flowers are long gone, but a little bit of wartime history remains.
