What Was in the Market?
The city newspapers ran weekly market reports of what was in the market and at what price. Usually the report included a chart and an analysis. Here is what Clementine Paddleford reported seeing in the market in her column that ran in the Herald Tribune on Good Friday.
Abundant turkey, chicken and duck at or near ceiling prices
Plenty of fish and shellfish
Very little veal
No beef
No hams
Some lamb, but the legs, the cut most widely used for the holiday roast, were under the counter. If you did manage to score a leg of lamb, she suggested serving it with fresh mint and recommended Merola's Market on Third Avenue, which had mint, as well as fresh chervil and tarragon
A plentiful supply of eggs
Declining asparagus prices wholesale as out of state product reached the market. Local New Jersey asparagus was making only sporadic appearance at this early date
Butter and margarine was scarce
Green peas from California and South Carolina were available
Artichokes were in moderate supply but the prices were high for this time of year
Broccoli supplies were lessening and the price was rising as the season neared its end
Celery was a good value
The first green corn from Florida had arrived
Parsnips were in their final weeks, if anybody cared. She felt they should and recommended serving them boiled and buttered, creamed or fried
Iceberg, Boston and Romaine lettuce were abundant and scallions and radishes were also available for salads
Tomatoes were in short supply
Cucumbers were abundant
Retailers were no longer hiding the onions as trainloads from Texas were finally arriving
Because of freak growing season this year, tangerines were still in market
The supply of strawberries was much better than last year but not quite plentiful. It was time for strawberry shortcake.
Pineapples from Cuba and Puerto Rico were back now that shipping was returning to normal
Pears were scarce
Just enough oranges and grapefruit was around to meet demand
Australian apples were in- but relatively scarce- and you could find grapes from Argentina
Much of the produce in the market at this time of the year was shipped in from the south and southwest, and even from the southern hemisphere, rather than locally grown. If the “eat local” movement were around then, its adherents would have had to satisfy themselves that Easter with turnips, parsnips and rutabagas. Besides the fresh food in the market reports, canned goods were appearing more abundantly on the supermarket shelves than during the war. For the first few decades of the Twentieth Century, manufacturers and home economists in their employ had done a stellar job convincing American housewives that packaged food not only made their lives easier but were just as good as fresh. In fact, in many cases packaged goods were better, they said, because manufacturers used the best ingredients at their peak and the products were prepared and tested by experts. But during the war, because of rationing and shortages, people had to rely more on fresh produce, often homegrown, and fresh meat, when they could find it, rather than canned. Some nutritionist hoped that this, along with the rationing of sugar, would lead permanently to better eating habits.
Smart food packagers realized that frozen foods were the future, but that future was still a couple of years away in 1946. Frozen foods were available but most people did not have freezers and most prewar refrigerators had freezer compartments only large enough to hold ice cube trays and maybe a container of ice cream or a few small items. Many neighborhood grocers had not yet invested in expensive freezer chests. In New York City you could buy frozen products in the food departments of major department stores, gourmet shops and specialty shops like Frozen Food Fare on West Eighth Street. You could rent lockers at cold storage facilities to store frozen foods or to freeze your own food.