Reality #5 The pantry (No fridge)
Reality #5 The Pantry
We did not have a fridge so the cold places in our house were the basement root celler and the pantry in winter. Flour and sugar, lard, spices, yeast, baking powder, baking soda and other baking ingredients were kept in the pantry. There was a cupboard on which dough was rolled out and ingredients mixed. Baked good were also placed into the pantry for a cooler temperature. The kitchen table was the other work area in the kitchen. There were no cupboards in the kitchen except the small cupboard that held the water bucket, the sink and the slop pail. This made the pantry a very important area of the house. There were nuts and rasins and dates to make cakes and cookies especially at Christmas time. The Watkins man came by a couple times a year to sell spices and baking powder. We also had a Fuller brush man that sold brooms and brushes for vegetables and hair. He usually had a give away gimmick like a nail brush or something to get in the door. These sales people usually were the same from year to year. A different face probably would not have gotten in the door. Because flour and sugar were purchased in 100 pound bags and most everything else was sold to us on the farm or was taken from the farm, there was not a lot of going into town. Pantries then became the center of our food world. Bread and butter, cookies and cakes, tarts and pies all from this little room, the pantry.
We did not have a fridge so the cold places in our house were the basement root celler and the pantry in winter. Flour and sugar, lard, spices, yeast, baking powder, baking soda and other baking ingredients were kept in the pantry. There was a cupboard on which dough was rolled out and ingredients mixed. Baked good were also placed into the pantry for a cooler temperature. The kitchen table was the other work area in the kitchen. There were no cupboards in the kitchen except the small cupboard that held the water bucket, the sink and the slop pail. This made the pantry a very important area of the house. There were nuts and rasins and dates to make cakes and cookies especially at Christmas time. The Watkins man came by a couple times a year to sell spices and baking powder. We also had a Fuller brush man that sold brooms and brushes for vegetables and hair. He usually had a give away gimmick like a nail brush or something to get in the door. These sales people usually were the same from year to year. A different face probably would not have gotten in the door. Because flour and sugar were purchased in 100 pound bags and most everything else was sold to us on the farm or was taken from the farm, there was not a lot of going into town. Pantries then became the center of our food world. Bread and butter, cookies and cakes, tarts and pies all from this little room, the pantry.
posted by Bev at 5:01 PM
