I have celebration day (Christmas) leave tokens, two of
one-day passes. Only two from my unit got to celebrate at home.
Yes, I have to say it was a very nice holiday.
In the
Ukraine, farms grow sunflowers. Field upon field of beautiful, tall,
bright sunflowers. Traditionally, the seeds are crushed to produce
sunflower oil for cooking. After processing, there is a heavy porridge of
husk left behind. A husk residue is used as winter-feed for farm animals.
We call it cattle cake.
Over
the summer months, much of Latvia's lush farmland has been torn apart by
fighting or else been neglected due to a lack of experienced farmhands.
Any crops that do manage to survive are quickly scooped up by either
German or Russian troops long before any local residents get a chance to
harvest. As a result, food has become so scarce that cattle cake is sold
in Riga for human consumption. Butter can be exchanged for twice its
weight in cattle cake and so those ground husks are now a large part of many
citizens diet. People have to do what they can to feed their family.
It does not taste very nice but at least it is filling. With so
many people reduced to eating animal feed, I do wonder what farmers are giving
to their animals.
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