A few days ago my neighbor D brought home a very old and dilapatated wood burning cook stove. Some parts were missing and it was a way after best before date. She wants it to cook with out in the yard. Here husband is a welder so there's no problem to get it back to where it is reasonably usable. She wants to cook pies and promised she would make me a pie if I was very, very good.
Seeing this old stove brought back many memories. On the farm in the 40' and 50's all we had was a wood cook stove to do all the cooking. We didn't get an electric stove until 1953 and then my mother kept her old wood stove. So my Mom had her electric stove and wood stove in the same kitchen. It took her a long time to get used to the electric stove.We would use the wood stove to keep the kitchen warm.
Women using wood cook stoves really knew what to do to keep a proper temperature when baking. They knew about wood. They could work with dry wood, green wood and wood from any species of tree.
I will never forget the wonderful smells of food cooking and things being baked in the small kitchen. Mom made large meals every day and was an excellent baker. we were spoiled with cakes and always had cookies in the house.
I will never forget the comfortable warmth when sitting around the wood cook stove. If it was cold in the house, we sat around the cook stove. If we'd been playing outside and got cold the old cook stove would warm you up quickly. One chore for little boys was to keep the wood box filled with wood.
For the weekly Saturday night bath the water was heated on the stove, the bathtub was in front of the stove and we sat around the stove to get drier. If we were really good we got hot chocolate.
Toast? I've never forgotten the toast. You would take off one stove lid and make your toast over the open fire!
So D has brought back many memories . I'd almost forgotten about wood cook stoves.
I looked on line for good photo but couldn't find anything that suited me.
Those are all wonderful memories! When I was young we had a wood stove, later fitted out with an oil burner as well. Like you say, you had to know how to burn whatever wood you had to keep the heat even enough for baking. I'm sure I couldn't do it. My mother used to open the oven door when the fire had died down and sit there to get warmed up. She was a tiny thing and it didn't hurt the oven door at all. I think they built things better then :)
ReplyDeleteThey were a rather versetile stove.
DeleteP.S. I hope you get your pie! Have you asked for a certain kind yet or do you take whatever is on offer?
ReplyDeleteD is an excellent neighbor. She's a good baker and we get to benefit from her generosity.
DeleteThere is something very comforting in re-visiting old times.
ReplyDeleteThose old stoves were comforting too.
DeleteA woodburner was the only stove that my grandfather had when we lived with him I was young.
ReplyDeleteThere was one at the family cottage in the 70s but it was only used for heating.
I don't know if you've heard of Findlay stoves, but they used to be made in Carelton Place where i now live.
Yes, I remember seeing Findlay stove.
DeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteGreat memories, I am imagine the cook wood stove would be good for heating the kitchen. My hubby used a propane cook stove for camping. Enjoy your day, wishing you a happy new week!
It was a good heater and comfortable to sit around and keep warm.
DeleteWhen I was a child we had a gas stove that had been converted from wood. We used it much as you are describing and mom was also a wonderful cook and baker. I didn't appreciate how much until I got older and had to eat other people's cooking and baking, including my own, lol.
ReplyDeleteSo true that Mom's cooking was the best.
DeleteGreat memories, Red. I hope that the pie D bakes for you is every bit as good as the ones you remember, perhaps, enhanced by nostalgia, even better. Be sure to let us know.
ReplyDeleteD shares stuff with us and it's great.
DeleteWe had an old wood stove in the house we owned from 1982 - 1990. From my experience (cough, cough), a wood stove is best used ... outside. But then, it could be argued, we didn't know what we were doing.
ReplyDeleteYou're right. Occasionally there was smoke .
DeleteDear Tom, probably downdrafts, even Dan'l Boone would cough while opening both cabin doors in January. i heat with a woodstove, because central heat ...cha-ching. Most the time, no problem. Have learned that if there's a significant draft coming down the pipe, not to bother with kindling a fire (in the evening when i get home from work) - just put on a sweater over normal layers.
DeleteWhat wonderful memories! I've seen a fair number of cook stoves. My hubby had them on the farm, they didn't have electricity or running water. Such a time.
ReplyDeleteJB would remember these old stoves very well.
DeleteWhat a wonderful memory. I've never lived in a house with a wood cook stove, but it sounds like the perfect way to keep a house warm and bake yummy stuff, all the time! Loved reading this.
ReplyDeleteOn a hot summer day with a wood stove the house becomes incredibly hot.
DeleteI remember the old wood cook stove too. That's all we had in my younger years, and yes, Saturday bath night, with water heated on the stove. I still have the little white enamel bathtub we used to wash in.
ReplyDeleteAt least you had lots of wood. You had to work hard to find wood on the prairie.
DeleteWhen Paul and I were living in Appalachia and teaching in the early 1970s many mountain people were still using wood cookstoves in their homes. The school I taught in had a wood stove and part of the teacher’s duties ( that would be me!) was go light the stove in the morning before the children would arrive. I enjoyed reading your memories.
ReplyDeleteHey , you should find some of my older posts. I started teaching in country school and had the same jobs.
DeleteGreat memories. My grandmother knew the amount and size of the wood needed to bake something. It was an art for sure.
ReplyDeleteOur Mom's put up with some tough conditions.
DeleteI can't imagine cooking with a wood stove. My grandparents owned an old farmhouse in West Virginia (as a weekend retreat) and it had a wood stove. My grandmother used to cook on it, before I was born, but I don't think I ever saw it in use.
ReplyDeleteYes, you're far too young , Steve.
DeleteI know I've been places with wood stoves, because I could picture it in my mind when I read this post. But I never grew up with one in the kitchen. I feel now like I missed ou! :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, you missed it. However, they were a challenge.
DeleteI have one in the garage. My husbands grandmother had one in her kitchen she was such a good cook. My Grandparents had one in the pump house and we used to to boil water when we butchered chickens...I can still smell chicken feathers:)
ReplyDeleteHey , plucking chickens is another experience. I hated it. All the old hens were butchered in the fall and canned.
DeleteWhat great memories, Red.
ReplyDeleteIt was a much different life than today.
DeleteI enjoyed hearing about your wonderful memories Red! Those old kitchen wood stoves are something to see.
ReplyDeletewe have a museum that makes cookies for visitors. You can smell the wood smoke as soon as you enter.
DeleteGreat memories! I've never had or used a wood cook stove. Sounds interesting.
ReplyDeleteYou have the joys of being young.
DeleteLovely memories of your old wood stove. Growing up in the UK our only source of warm was one old fireplace in which we used coal. Nothing like toasting bread on hot coals I used to think. It was a wonderful memory huddling round that old coal fire in the wintertime. Coal was replaced by an electric fire but it just wasn't the same. Thank you for sharing your memories of the old wood stove.
ReplyDeleteIt was a much different technology in England. My wife talks about a fireplace in each room.
DeleteOh, Red. I grew up when you did, and I had so many aunts and uncles who were farmers and farmer's wives, with the old wood stove. Only as an adult did I realize the skill and work required to turn out three meals a day, the middle meal massive, to feed farm hands, too. Then there were the chickens and hogs to look after, and children. Always the water, heating on the side of the stove. What a wonderful thing to remember. Good luck to your neighbor and I wish you the finest pies in Minnesota.
ReplyDeleteThe hang of it is important as well as some of the things that go along with it.
ReplyDeleteHey , you can't be as old as I am! I just turned 80!
ReplyDeleteI'm a city kid and I'd never even seen a wood stove until I was about 30. A friend of mine bought a farm and her farm kitchen had a wood burning Aga style range with an electric stove standing alongside. I think they used the wood stove for heating and cooked on the electric!
ReplyDeleteI think a wood stove is beautiful and definitely the centre of a home
Hopefully that works well.
ReplyDeleteHappy memories of times past. Simple and lovely in the bosom of your family. As "D" says you have got to be very good if you are going to get a pie. Can you manage that Red? The All-Seeing Micro Manager will be shaking her head. She knows you well.
ReplyDeleteStill have and occasionally use my parent's good old wood burning cook stove. I figure it and my mom's upright piano have tenure here.
ReplyDeleteI have no memories of anyone in my family ever using a wood cook stove, so enjoyed reading your special memories, Red. Does your neighbor plan to use it in her home or outside after her husband makes repairs?
ReplyDeleteOh this is lovely sharing dear Red
ReplyDeleteI am still fan of wood stove
Reading this made me feel as I was looking at my own home where I lived with my parents and wood stove was used most of the time except utterly cold weather when mom would cool inside on oil stove
No meal can taste better than one cooked on wood stove so true
I don’t recall ever seeing wood stoves in Hawaii. That must have been tricky to learn how to cook on or in? What fun this will be for you.
ReplyDelete