Producer or Consumer? The House, the Garden and the Sourcing of Vegetables in Britain, 1930–1970

This article will ask why, given the discovery of vitamin C, Britain did not become a nation of domestic vegetable producers. It will explore how health concerns were central to domestic decision-making regarding the sourcing of vegetables in mid-twentieth-century Britain and will trace the ways in which the representation of women, as discerning consumers and guardians of the hygienic home, mitigated against the use of the domestic space of the garden for vegetable production. By the 1960s, the cleanliness of the home had extended into the garden, which was filled with labour-saving features to enhance al-fresco family life.