1951 – Lemonade, Cole Slaw, and Inflation

I was pleasantly surprised when I found a large bag of beautiful lemons for $1 at my favorite grocery store last week. They were the big juicy kind and it seemed a bit too good to be true. The produce guy saw me eyeing them and explained that the price was no mistake. They were perfectly good but priced to sell due to an unexpected extra large shipment. I bought 2 bags. Gave one to a friend, and kept one for myself.

This simple surprise was the highlight of my week. Everything in my grocery cart was at least a dollar more than I had paid previously and I had just paid over $5.90 a gallon at the gas station (that was last week, this week the price is over $6.50). So yes, finding a one buck bag of juicy citrus was pretty cool. I wasn’t about to let these tart little miracles go to waste. I became an ambitious cook and made lemonade, lemon bars, chicken lemon orzo soup and lemon poppy seed bread.

I had some lemon juice left over, so I made 2 batches of this mid-century salad dressing recipe. The first batch was the “town” method which required a mixer to make the cream stiff. I added it to fresh strawberries for a delicious treat. The second batch was the “country” method which I mixed in with grated cabbage and carrots to make coleslaw. Both recipes were perfect for a summer BBQ.

The ad appeared in the June 1951 edition of Today’s Woman magazine. It included copy to convince the reader to buy lemons and use them for refreshment and health.