Monday, March 15, 2010

Easier Said Than Done!

Betsy and George are RIGHT, they guessed it right away.
Are you ready for this??? The answer to why they did not build closets in the 19th century IS:  Each home owner was taxed On Every Room In the House. A closet would be considered a ROOM and more taxes would be owed. I had no idea!

the kitchen of the mansion was my favorite room. This is what we saw when we stepped through the door. the fireplace covered almost the whole wall. the smell of baking bread and bacon and coffee were tantalizing. I imediately hoped they were selling what they were cooking.
enlarge the photo to see the bacon sizzling, the coffee perking (boiling)


Before you go further can you guess what the pot is in the lower corner?

Now you can see it is a dutch oven. Can you guess what is in it? My favorite aroma was wafting out of it.
Did you guess biscuits? This is their oven and used to bake bread then, you raked hot coals out and sat the oven on the coals, put the biscuits inside (not the kind in a can at the store) put the lid on and piled hot coals on top of the lid. Be careful your long skirt does not catch on fire.
They did not run down to Starbucks or Barnies for coffee, they opened these containers, the dark is roasted, the light is raw coffee beans. Yes, you guessed it.
they had to ROAST it themselves in this next contraption.


this is a coffee bean roaster, it sits on hot coals and you have to manually turn the handle to make it roast evenly. NEXT....

Grind it yourself! Yum. then you have to put it in a pot and carefully hang in the open fireplace. And I thought my coffee maker was HARD.
For tomorrows post, do you know what this is?

8 comments:

Sunny said...

It looks like a grindstone or a millstone.
Great post!
Sunny :)

George said...

I also thought it was a grinder of some sort.
You really had to want a cup of coffee back then -- it was hard work. We used to buy whole coffee beans and grind them ourselves (in an electric grinder). The aroma was delicious.

Betsy Banks Adams said...

Then "I" got lazy--and decided that I didn't want to grind my beans anymore... SO---we buy our coffee already ground up!!!!! ha ha ha (Continuation of G's comment)....

I agree---some kind of grinder.. But--I really don't know the specifics... Can't wait til tomorrow's blog to find out more.

We shouldn't complain about our lifestyles, should we???? We have it 'made' compared to the pioneers...... BUT--I guess in 100 yrs. WE will be the PIONEERS... ha ha

Hugs
Betsy

Peggy said...

I'm really enjoying your posts about this place--fantastic photos, I feel like I am there with you! I'll add my vote for grinder....

Ginny Hartzler said...

Yes, I finally know one! It's a millstone! I would not have known, but we went to Silver Lake Mill last week, and I took pictures of us with one. Now that I've spoiled more guesses, I will leave it to YOU to tell everyone the details, and how much it weighs!! Sorry for ruining the guessing, but I just couldn't help myself! I ADORE the coffee making stories! The roaster is a contraption that I'd never had guessed. I'm thinking they didn't drink much coffee at all back then, too hard and time consuming to make. It's good to click to see the bacon.

Anonymous said...

I'm learning so much from your blog! Before I read the other comments, I thought it was some kind of grinder but I don't know for what! Guess it could be used for anything.

Catherine

MedaM said...

I haven't been around for awhile. I have missed many wonderful posts that you have posted so far. This one is another wonderful, so interesting and informative. Your photos are great. Sandra, thank you very much for worried about me. :-)

SquirrelQueen said...

The dutch oven were an easy guess, I have done a lot of camp baking/cooking with those. The best Chicken Cacciatore I have ever had was done in a dutch oven.

I have seen those old coffee grinders, it was hard work getting a cup of coffee back then.

A millstone sounds good to me too. When I first looked at it I thought it was a cap for a well.