Woman's Day, 1952

I was going through a box of my grandad's things at my parents' house on the weekend and found a copy of a Woman's Day magazine from 1952. We'd kept it all these years because in it are the plans for the wooden farm that my grandad built for my dad and my aunt when they were little. This farm is amazing and includes a barn, a water tower, animals and more. I'll be posting the full instructions soon, but in the meantime below are some of the canning recipes that were also in the magazine.

I find old canning recipes really interesting from a historical point of view. I'm fascinated with what people used to eat and especially what they used to can.

Generally it's not a great idea to use old canning recipes because what was considered safe in the 50s is not what is considered safe now.

But I might try some of these. The fruit ones look like they would be fine but I will make sure to compare any recipe I try with some similar recipes written recently (for example Food in Jars recently posted a similar recipe for watermelon jelly). And I will definitely, absolutely water bath can anything I make. If you are thinking of trying any of the recipes I'd encourage you to do the same. Using old canning recipes is definitely something that falls into the 'at your own risk' category.

I was going to crop out the advertisements on the pages but they were just too good. I love the 'waste not, want not' message in the Kerr ad above right. We don't see that much anymore huh? And I thought the refrigerator ad was a great example of the 'resist anything old fashioned' propaganda that was so ubiquitous at the time.

But my absolute favourite is the lipton tea comic strip ad. Is it me or is there some subliminal messaging right around panel 4? I call d.i.r.t.y.