“In the past century, technology has accelerated at a dizzy-ing rate.
Scores of machines have replaced the working and thinking of people —
and do them better.
These advances have freed us from countless, laboursome tasks,
creating time for more satisfying jobs.
But some tasks, though they take more effort,
offer greater rewards when done the old fashioned way.
That’s how an increasing number of cooks view the cookstove.”
– Woodstove Cookery, 1946
Outside my kitchen windows, the snow is swirling gently around and the cold wind is whisking through the barren tree branches. A sparking of snow is flitting down from the heavens and dusting the grounds around the home. The kitchen is warm and toasty … there is a big pot of soup simmering for dinner and biscuit dough waiting to be cut out.
The winter winds are still strong here in Ontario, Canada. We are north, no doubt, to many of my readers. We still we have a month of winter yet – and while I am excited to embrace the change and newness of spring, I am quite content to spend a few more months cooking at my favorite spot: my cookstove.
While many accuse me of living like the past [I suppose it is true] and tell me to get with modern times, there is something so lovely and wonderful about a hearty meal, all cooked with wood on the family cookstove.
Our stove, which we bought used a few years ago, keeps our kitchen warm and toasty. Without it, our kitchen feels so chilly and un-inviting. I am so grateful to have a warm fire in this room for the cooler months. In our province, it’s cold for quite a while and it makes using the wood cookstove so much more worthwhile.
Tonight’s meal is a pot of Poor Man’s Soup, or Stone Soup, as we call it. The recipe can be found in my wood cookstove book, however, it is very simple.
Truly … it is a big pot of beautiful scalloped or chopped potato soup. What hearty joy in a soup pot! We all love this soup – and it is so easy and simple to prepare. Peel and cube potatoes – any kind. Add broth and water to the pot. Stir in your potatoes, add some chopped onions for flavour … drop in lots of butter, cheese, sour cream if you want, parsley and any seasonings you wish. Lots of cheese loaded on top when it is time to serve make sit all the more heartier. Doesn’t it sound like a delicious soup to serve to a large or small family?
I call it Stone Soup – or Poor Man’s Soup – because you really do not need much to make this soup. It stretches so very far. We make sure to make enough for lunch the following day.
{My mother gave me this gorgeous cast iron pot –
it’s huge and very heavy. I absolutely love it. }
The girls and I are reading through some of Edgar A. Guests poems for school. I absolutely love his poetry – we came across this lovely poem and it was very fitting to share.
I do not quarrel with the gas,
Our modern range is fine,
The ancient stove was doomed to pass
From Time’s grim firing line,
Yet now and then there comes to me
The thought of dinners good
And pies and cake that used to be
When mother cooked with wood.
The axe has vanished from the yard,
The chopping block is gone,
There is no pile of corkwood hard
For boys to work upon;
There is no box that must be filled
Each morning to the hood;
Time in its ruthlessness has willed
The passing of the wood.
And yet those days were fragrant days
And spicy days and rare;
The kitchen knew a cheerful blaze
And friendliness was there.
And every appetite was keen
For breakfasts that were good
When I had scarcely turned thirteen
And mother cooked with wood.
I used to dread my daily chore,
I used to think it tough
When mother at the kitchen door
Said I’d not chopped enough.
And on her baking days, I know,
I shirked whene’er I could
In that now happy long ago
When mother cooked with wood.
I never thought I’d wish to see
That pile of wood again;
Back then it only seemed to me
A source of care and pain.
But now I’d gladly give my all
To stand where once I stood,
If those rare days I could recall
When mother cooked with wood.
-Edgar A. Guest
by Gigi
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