I had a garden inside the wire

TCD MS 10823 folio 24 recto

TCD MS 10823 folio 24 recto

[April-Sept 1918] was the same with chocolate and cocoa, articles quite unprocurable in Germany, for which there were no substitutes.
As a nation they were wonderfully clever in inventing substitutes. Instead of coffee they used ground acorns and if plenty of milk and sugar were added, it formed a very passable imitation. For tea again they had to make use of various leaves; beech leaves formed the chief component of their tobacco; clothes shirts and tablecloths were made of paper; this outwardly looked quite good, but wore out very quickly besides being dreadfully expensive. When they got short of one substitute they would invent a substitute for that substitute. In the bread besides rye and potatoes there was sawdust and straw, a combination which was apt to cause troubles of the stomach.
For a couple of English cigarettes the sentries that accompanied us on walks would allow us to go wherever we liked and sometimes on a Saturday we would go nearly 20 miles to get properly fit.
The people were very short of fats and butter; butter would sell in Berlin at thirty marks a pound; <&> when the beech mast was ripe, this was collected everywhere, as it is very rich in oil.
The Summer days used to pass very quickly: I had a garden inside the wire which throve exceedingly and supplied us with fresh vegetables every day. Tomatoes even ripened out of doors, and at the period when there were no potatoes in our rations, our Mess was kept supplied with them every day; besides these we had