Glimpses of a Farmhouse Kitchen

Coffee grinders, food scales, canning jars, baskets and all manner of tin signs....I just can't resist the graphics, the logos, and the cheerful pictures on these old signs! I love anything old: enamelware is a favorite, too.

Old farmhouses weren't built with "the wife's" convenience, or storage in mind. You just have to come up with your own ways of keeping necessities! (When we moved in there was one small closet upstairs, and one downstairs, tucked under the stairway!)

Some favorite potholders in a basket.

Chickens are the main characters in this kitchen...for now.

A favorite batter bowl and some old cannisters.



An old pie safe that has become a food pantry and a home for a lot of my nesting bowls. Years ago, we rescued the old wooden telephone as a box, and had the insides restored and of course the outside. If it were hooked into an old system, it is in working order and you could talk into the mouthpiece and hear on the earpiece. But, for now, it's just hanging around, and once in awhile, someone will give it a crank and make the old phone rrrinnggg! (And, I've bumped my head on it a million times, when I've stood up from scrubbing the floor, as it's at the end of the kitchen!)

My husband's little granny used this most of her married life. We brought it home from Alabama one time in the back of the minivan and stuffed our luggage inside so we could bring it, our clothes and the kids home. We were thrilled to get it, a wonderful heirloom. Lem refinished it, and it now holds most of my cookbooks. It's a great piece, and a comforting one, perfectly sized to fit in the odd corner with an outlet that will work with a microwave.


The bottom of the icebox lifts, the drain pan sat underneath, you'd have to lift the bottom panel to take the "melted ice" out and dump it.


Made some curtains and valances over the weekend for the windows in the kitchen. Soon, they will come down as the whole kitchen will (finally!) be demolished to make way for a new and modern farmhouse kitchen! (Modern=dishwasher, icemaker, more than two outlets, more cabinet space and the microwave mounted over the stove, a vent hood, all features I don't have now.)

The old clock shelf with a few of my favorite things...and I do miss Mayberry!


And some favorite dishtowels, hangin' on an old-style rack.


A favorite potholder, bought it at an estate sale for next to nothing, but it makes me happy with all its ripply goodness.


And, let's see what's cookin? More happiness! Outside, there's walleye on the grill along with potato packets, and then on the stove we've got last summer's "peaches and cream" corn-on-the-cob boilin' in the pot....MMMMmmmmm! We vacuum-sealed a bunch of it late last summer and does it ever taste GOOD on a winter day!


Afternoon sunshine brightening up the bananas!

And the other new pair of curtains I made the other night!

This ancient fixture has hung over the kitchen table for probably thousands of meals now.

Perhaps I'll have a metamorphosis to show you one day soon, of our NEW farmhouse kitchen. We're planning to start it in June sometime. This one is vintage 1920's and it just doesn't work for me, there are many days that I just growl and stomp my feet at the annoyances, and believe me, there are MANY. For instance, if you're using something like a crock pot or the electric pancake griddle, you can't use anything else that has to plug in-- like an electric frying pan or a toaster--so many breakfast preparations have been interrupted by me calling out; "Go flip the breaker!"

Old fruit crates

But, I'm thankful for it, a welcoming and homey place to be, a big, eat-in country kitchen with a large table. One where I've fed the little one in the highchair, then worked on cooking and chores as he sat on the floor and played with my tin measuring spoons and metal mixing bowls, danced with my husband while the kids peeked around the corner and giggled, trained puppies, coaxed them from underneath the big table, chased cats away, mopped on my hands and knees, measured out medicine for sick babies and for us, fried pancakes, baked cinnamon rolls, heard bacon sizzle, listened as the wind howled outside the window, sat with my family and visited, folded laundry, read the newspaper, played games, snapped pictures, carved pumpkins, baked with the kids, frosted hundreds of sugar cookies, sang happy birthday, eaten pie, canned lots of vegetables and on some chilly fall nights packaged up venison, cried, laughed, stirred, rolled, and cut, served, cleaned up, listened to my kids in their sweet, childish conversations as they stood at the sink doing the dishes.

There's a certain feeling of sentimentality as we face the approaching remodel, and a certain sense of dread, because when you being demolishing something like this; you never know what's comin'! This room was an addition onto an addition (!!!) and then we added onto IT. We're not sure what we're going to find, and we have to take everything right down to the studs. For one thing, the well sits under the floor somewhere. There's a greatly slanting but very nice-looking maple floor...we hope to keep it but may not be able to! It will be an adventure, and a long one, I'm sure. But, after nearly 100 years of service, it's time to go. But I'll be sure and keep some room to put the old icebox back in, hopefully the old pie safe, and keep it looking like an old farmhouse.