Feeding the Bank Account: Florida Women, Home Demonstration Programming, and Using Florida for Disposable Income, 1914-1929

Authors

• Kathryn L. Beasley

Abstract

In 1930, Eva Keck Blasy, who lived in Escambia County, gave a well-received demonstration during one Farmer's Week in Florida. She made strudel-"a delicious German pastry"-with raw, grated sweet potato. This was meant to encourage those watching the demonstration to participate in the "Baking for Market" program. Money-making and income-seeking ventures were not a surprising undertaking by the women and girls who participated in Florida home demonstration programming. While the state of Florida was feeling the effects of the economic depression, this encouragement to make extra money was not a new idea and not created in a vacuum. Beginning in 1914 after the passage of the Smith-Lever Act and establishment of the Cooperative Extension Service, but especially in the 1920s, Florida's women and girls used the natural agricultural and horticultural variety and attributes of Florida to enhance their disposable income. Using Florida's resources became part of the home demonstration agent's early agendas and programming. However, Floridian women figured ways to combine their efforts of making Florida products and finding spaces in which to sell them. These women capitalized on the development ofa tourist economy in the 1920s, even creating their own businesses, as marketing "Florida" boosted sales for unique products in-state and out-of-state, especially those products they could make from their own backyard.

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Recommended Citation

Beasley, Kathryn L. (2021) "Feeding the Bank Account: Florida Women, Home Demonstration Programming, and Using Florida for Disposable Income, 1914-1929," Florida Historical Quarterly: Vol. 100: No. 2, Article 4.
Available at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol100/iss2/4