Hoosier Cabinets and Bin Tables

 
There has been so much happening here at the farm.  I want to tell you more and have photos, but need to download some pictures before I do that.  Little hints are:  I finished the magazine article for Edible Shasta-Butte magazine to be printed in October; we had a huge flower order for local event at Gridley Fair; Frank has been painting 2 cars for the Destruction Derby on Saturday and Sunday.

But early today, my mind was wondering, re-arranging the furniture and thinking of antique cabinets and tables.  If anyone knows me well, they know I have this fetish for old cupboards, cabinets and tables.  I used to have it for chairs too, but have moved on to upholstery chairs.  There is nothing that can get my creative juices going more than to find a fabulous old table or cabinet to fit into my house, somehow!!!

I love Hoosier cabinets.  If you do not know what these cabinets are, they are the perfect, utilitarian, self contained, kitchen of their time.  The typical Hoosier cabinet consists of three parts. The base section usually has one large compartment with a slide out shelf, and several drawers to one side. Generally it sat on small casters. The top portion is shallower and has several smaller compartments with doors, with one of the larger lower compartments having a roll-top or tambour. The top and the bottom are joined by a pair of metal channels which serve as the guide for a sliding counter top, which usually has a pair of shallow drawers affixed to its underside. The whole assembly, with the counter retracted, is fairly shallow. The very early counter tops were made from zinc; then they started making them out of granite.  There are thousands of variations with lots of different accessories, the flour bin and sifter; great glass storage containers; wire racks. Some cheaper ones came painted; some finer ones were made from oak. 

When we remodeled a Victorian house in Grass Valley, I used the top of one over my washer/dryer and the bottom of it as a kitchen island.  I always think about the many pies, breads and family meals that were made with this simple yet well designed piece of antique furniture.

I probably had at least 20 bin tables throughout my life.  I love them, get rid of them; fall in love with them again; then they are out the door. This one is in my office, it came from a 1920s Spanish fabulous house in Colfax area originally owned by Mr. Weimar who started the Weimar Sanatorium; and was in the maid's pantry.  It has the original gray paint on it which I sanded a bit, refinished the top and then put clear coat over it many years ago.  It has the two metal bins below; 2 drawers which I believe were used for silverware and cooking utensils and it is missing its' cutting board.  We had it up at our little cabin for years and was our only kitchen storage unit for a long time.  When we sold the cabin, it came home to my office.  My understanding is that they are basically a baking table.  Flour and sugar were stored in the bins; they would use the top to make their items, roll out the doughs or use the cutting board.  I have had a few that had a drop leaf on the side to use as a table to sit at along with baking.  Here are some other photos of various bin tables:

Some had the most beautiful pulls on the drawers.  The older the table, the more intricate the pulls, one table I once owned had dog heads embossed on the cast iron pulls.

If you look carefully, every bin table is different; just look at the turnings of the table legs on these few photos.  All different.  Some had 2 pull out cutting boards; some only had one drawer in the middle. This last photo is really ingenious.  The table top will pull out and drop down to make one big top. They also made single bin tables.  I am embarrassed to say I owned a few of them too.  They made their way from the kitchen to a side table by a chair in family room; to a side table in a bedroom.  They are so useful anyplace.

I suppose both these old kitchen units, if found today, would be painted with chalk paint.  I think they could have a renewed life in a craft room; in a kids room; or even as a bar in a family room.  Those big metal bins could sure store a bunch of toys instead of flour!!!

From our farm today-have a great weekend and if you are fairly local, come see our fun Gridley Fair.

Visitors to Our Farm; Canning/Drying Peachs and Apples

I wish I could say I have been sitting here in the garden.

 But we have been trying to keep up with the dropping fruit and vegetables that are getting too large.  We sliced peaches, sulfured them in the same manner we do our apricots; and then laid them out in the sun for 4 days to dry.  This week our CSA members received a small baggie to try them out.

We also sliced some apples we had and dipped them in lemon juice, water and a bit of cinnamon.  Then we put them in the screened tray that Frank made last year to dry out in the sun.  Because it has been hot, it only took 1 1/2 days to be perfect.  The screened tray is really handy.  Frank put hinges on it to the top and bottom have screen.  Once I fill up the trays, the top closes down and it keeps all the gnats and flys off the fruit while drying.  I normally use my electric dehydrator, but this year our batches have been bigger and to save money on electricity, it is much quicker and cheaper to use the sun!

We had our family come to stay with us for a few days.  Carli and Collin love to take care of the chickens.  They had brought me the 15+ chicks several months ago and they always are excited to see how they are growing.  One treat that the chickens love is bread.  So they go out and give the chickens pieces of bread which brings them close to to them and to their feet.  Carli got a little scared once when they all got really excited about the bread and Carli started to scream.  I told her to throw the bread away from her so they would move away.

Then our relatives from Los Altos, who love to get involved in anything we do on the farm, visited us for several days. We picked peaches, we canned peaches and we baked many, many mini peach pies.  The idea was to experiment using different types of ingredients for the crust.  The idea is to give a pie to each of my CSA members so they can try them out and later if interested, can purchase pies from our farm.  We were very busy.  I am afraid we may have worked our guests a little too hard!!

 

PS- Happy Birthday to My Wonderful and Loving Frank.  Today is his Birthday.