SOCIETY is re-learning the lessons of many years ago, due to the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown around the world.

That’s the view of Annette Gibbons, who was awarded the OBE and made Cumbria Woman of the Year for her services to the food industry in Cumbria, and who has written books championing Cumbrian food.

Since the lockdown began, reports have emerged nationally of suppliers selling out of vegetable seeds as people turn to growing their own produce, free-range chickens being in high demand by people wanting their own regular supply of eggs, and more people turning to home cooking, as they have more time at home and takeaways have become more difficult to obtain.

Annette has always been a passionate advocate of home-cooked food and living sustainably, and she says that the way our parents and grandparents had to live during WWII are now being replicated, with a renewed focus on not wasting anything.

She grew up near Harrow before moving to West Cumbria, and teaching at Carlisle College, but her attitudes in life were shaped during her younger years.

Annette remembers her parents’ garden being used to grow vegetables and fruit, and she recalls being told by her mother – who served in the Women’s RAF during World War II – how she had to order supplies for hundreds of people on an airbase.

Calculations had to be made to ensure that despite the rationing, everyone was supplied with enough vitamins and minerals as part of their meals.

“People were properly fed but it was only after the war that people wanted to make sure that children had sugar. I don’t think they had too much sugar, but they were trying to make sure that the young generation got things they had missed out on,” said Annette.

“My training was in Home Economics. It was one of those courses that doesn’t exist any more sadly,” said Annette.

“It taught you much more about how to cook, about nutrition – it used to be the old Domestic Science.

"We did physics, biology, chemistry, and various elements with that, including home management.”

But Annette said that society started to change in the 1980s with changing views of food and the kitchen.

Processed food began to become the norm, including many products coming from America made using genetically modified corn.

“Processed food starting to become the norm in the 80s. And then in the 90s Margaret Thatcher went around stopping Home Economics and cooking, so a whole generation grew up without learning how to cook. She wanted people to learn how to manufacture food rather than cook it,” said Annette.

“That is why so many people eat processed food. I lost my job as a Home Economics teacher at Carlisle College at that time because she decided that people didn’t need to learn to cook.

“Processed food, as far as I am concerned, is not good.”

The lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic resulted in panic buying at supermarkets, but since then, reports nationally suggest that many people are now spending more time in the kitchen making meals, and living more sustainably. Suppliers have revealed that sales of composting equipment have surged.

And Annette is hoping that such attitudes to food and sustainability remain after the end of the lockdown.

“Looking after the environment, I think what Greta Thunberg has done has been wonderful, for connecting with young people in particular,” she said.

“Especially in the situation we are in with the virus, we need to think the way we used to. I don’t waste anything. It is perfectly normal to have a compost heap.

“There is nothing like getting your hands in soil, horticultural therapy, which is like cooking therapy. And it is not only vegetables, you can grow flowers as well.”

Annette is pleased that some high profile celebrity chefs such as Jack Monroe and Jamie Oliver provide recipes for people to eat cheaply and sensibly.

In her own garden, Annette grows a variety of herbs and vegetables. She says that radishes grow quickest: “I just put some in last week and already the leaves are up.”

She is also impressed by cauliflower, which takes a year to grow. She planted some last year which will be ready this year despite the best efforts of some horrendous weather including Storm Dennis during the winter.

She recommends especially spinach, rocket and herbs: “It doesn’t take a lot of green herbs to give colour to a dish,” said Annette.

And in Cumbria we are quite lucky, she said, with the amount of produce available, and many people have gardens to grow food, although herbs can even be grown in pots on window ledges.