Using the Antique Garden Basket Properly For the Late Fall Harvests.

Using the Antique Garden Basket Properly For the Late Fall Harvests.

Properly using the (your)

Antique antebellum (pre 1860) handmade

Old New England ash splint wood

Garden basket

For the (your)

Late fall vegetable garden harvests.

This is a pleasant undertaking.

Take the old basket(s) from the 

(Old) (garden) shed(s).

Harvest a prescribed crop or

Engage in gleaning

On a mid November morning when one is

Attending to other putterings about the (your) garden

Plots.

The sun need not be out.

A flake of snow may be in the air.

An example of a seasonal Fall crop harvest is,

Of course,

The Brussel Sprouts; a last ‘row’ at waiting.

The fall frosts have cleaned up the Sprout’s neighborhood

At their garden plot.

“They aren’t any good until AFTER the FROST.”

Is their time honored harvest instruction.

We pick ours and head straight to the cast iron skillet with them

(The tiny ones especially)

They are ‘fried’ with three diced strips of the local bacon.

A ‘very simple’ of the mid fall season.

And only a short outing for the

Antique splint wood old New England garden basket.

By far more fun

For the old basket

Is when I take it gleaning

When I have ‘work along’ in a

Garden plot here and there.

Come with me my senior friend and have some

Bright crisp fall air

Upon your wooden weave.

Today I turn over (by hand with shovel) a tomato plot

In effort to expose the Tomato Caterpillar’s (Hornworm) winter roust

(Buried Cocoon)

So they may freeze to death.

Along the plot’s edge I turn up with my shovel lost onions that we grow

As a border edge.  The onion border was long ago harvested.  These are the hidden few escaping notice during harvest;

A gleaning.

My antique garden basket creeps along the plot’s edge with my shovel.

I toss the find into it’s

Demanding trove keep.

A little dirt.  A little dry

A crinkled skin.

A sprouting top.

Each brushes time aside for it;

(The old New England splint wood garden basket).

The basket lives its life again as it follows the shovel

Along the plot.

Is not that a pleasant

Way to be;

To properly use the (your) old New England splint wood

Garden basket?

Candle Nubs

Candle Nubs

After the wind blew and the trees fell down...

The “Power” was “Out”.

Electrical power was no longer available

Unless

“You” “Have a generator”;

A gasoline powered engine that “makes electricity”

Many have them

About us;

They started them promptly and continue to be “running” them as I...

This for you.

It is not cold.

It is not wet

It is seasonally (fall) damp

It is Halloween

But that was cancelled

“Because the power is out”.

“Some of them still don’t have power yet but ours came on

Last night” .

This is a coveted interlude that, this time...

Considering the scale of the “outage”, has failed to “recover”.

Buying more gas for the generator is.... very fashionable in certain circles

I notice.

The wiz bang lawn mower engine “purr” dominates the ‘new housing’ suburban lots of subdivisions to the Maine forest... with its sound and reasonable judgment that if one keeps the gas tank full, the throttle on full and the optimum usage... managed... one may...

“Make it through this”.

“Really”.

Quite brave of it I say.  It... is the their generator.

I’ve come away feeling better about my collection of candle nubs.  I have six now... since the ‘outage’ began.  I put them; the candle and then its nub, into “pierced tin lanterns” and... use them light when I need light... in the dark... which I don’t need very much anyway for I am adept at using “daylight”.

They were often... a long time ago... titled ‘Paul Revere Pierced Tin Lantern’.  I remember that... fifty years ago.  One was shown one of them and told that about the funny cylinder cone topped stab punch decorated tin candle lantern with its little tin socket at the center bottom inside its door that not only opened and closed but, too, “latched”.  Yes... I remember when these lanterns were shown by grandmothers to little boys who “wondered” what that is and then became obsessive about “light it” to “make it work”.

Soon I found out they were ‘antiques’ and that one may ‘buy and sell them’ as that and... That was it.  I began a long relation of that; buy and sell them.  I always had them around; a ‘buy and sell them’.  I did.  Sometime I’d have two.  Sometimes four.  Sometimes six.  The last group I had, a ‘two years ago’, was four.  I sold them to an antiques dealer who “Likes them” he said.  I haven’t had one since but... one or two will come along.  That doesn’t explain how I get the lantern candle nubs... if I do not have any old Paul Revere Pierced Tin Lanterns.

How do I?  Well... an odd thing has happened for me.  In the 1970’s New England historical organization... in their gift shops... offered for sale absolutely splendid hand made Pierced Tin (Candle) Lanterns.  Perfectly made of superior materials... including sheet copper... in various sizes and for various ...but always expensive... prices... these were not ‘give aways’ and... not bargains and not, well... sought by gift store browsers but fortunately for I... enough were purchased and homeward bound that today; ‘these days’, they have burped to a ‘resurface’ as abandoned property in ‘house clean-outs’.  And  these lanterns here found are, too, promptly stated to be “NOT OLD” (so not ‘antique’) too.  They are “not valuable”.

Again?

“They are not valuable”.

Really.  I find them at tag sales for two bucks.  Six dollars is gouging.  These, I state again, are brand new (never used) handmade Paul Revere Pierced Tin Lanterns.  They are identical and ‘if not’ superior to the classic ‘antique’ (1760 – and later) lanterns. That’s right and I use them.  I am using three of them right now “with the power off”.  That’s cute isn’t it.

Okay so if I go outside right now with the generator purr going in the dawn’s edge darkness do I

You

Tending your generator

To keep off the goblins of “Power Out”.

Yes... that’s it... right there:

No power is a goblin... in the dark.

One of the fascinations of the design form of the Paul Revere Pierced Tin Lantern is its beatific function.  The stab piercing are not decoration.  They are function, as is the whole form, including the cone top and the candle holder.  They were intentionally created to make that candle lantern function very... very well; to make it... purr.

I am not going to expostulate on the lantern’s farm home function for... once one does ‘use one’ on and about the old Maine farm... that for two hundred and fifty years, at least, did ‘not have (electrical) power’, one will discern the lantern’s superior functions

In its

Natural habitat.

Mud Season Meals - Number One - Chicken Cottage ("Pot") Pie - or Over Biscuit

Mud  Season Meals

Number One

Chicken Cottage ("Pot") Pie

Or Over Biscuit

            It’s not that hot

            It’s not that cold

            It’s not very dry

            But it’s not that wet.

            “DON’T TRACK IT INTO THE HOUSE!”

            Track what?

            Mud season.

            If I don’t track it into the house then

            I don’t live here.

            The path is muddy

            The road is muddy

            My boots are muddy.

            Some boots are wet.

            Some boots are drying

            Beside the fire

            That I run hotter than needed

            Because it feels good

            Today

            “What’s there to eat?”

            “(Chicken) Cottage Pie

            De-ah”.

            Crust on the top

            Crust on the bottom

            A must

            A ‘neighbor’s rooster gone missing’ grade

            Chicken in a pot

            With broth from its bones

            Carrots, celery, potatos and onions

            Salt and pepper

            Keep it simple

            Concentrate on the (bottom) crust.

            That bottom crust is the heart.

            A spoon must find it there.

            Alternative self servings:

            Chicken in a pot ladled

            Over warm ‘from the oven’ biscuit

            No:  Actually it is biscuits.

            I take two.

January Pot Roast Fidget

January Pot Roast Fidget

            “NOW JUST a damn WHAT:  Your talking about my DINNER.”

            Of course it don’t

            Matter

            To THEM.

            They’s FIXATED... ON IT.

            Seems... it started as a kitchen murmur; “Recipe”.  Murmur.  Yep:  From that New York Times.  They have this POT ROAST recipe that’s been THE recipe

            “ON THERE SIGHT”

            For a year.  Or whatever.  And it got itself into kitchen murmur in my house.

            In Maine.

            “THE HELL WITH THAT” I say:  This New York Times Mississippi Roast

            Cooked in Ranch salad dressing and Peperoncini.

            You read right.

            So that (the dressing et al) comes from the old suburban USA defense cookery crock pot roast of ...dumping a package of dried onion soup mix “ON TO” a pot roast in a crock pot to ...ah...

            “NOT IN MY HOUSE” and “GO BACK TO WHERE YOU COME FROM:

            LEAVE the state of Maine”.

            That didn’t stop this kitchen murmur this time;  they make it:  The Mississippi Roast.

            So we get a five pound chuck roast and had no problem keeping standards up doing that for the meat man “KNOW” “THAT” part.  And we got the jar of Peperoncini.  And we didn’t get a bottle of ranch dressing; we never even went DOWN the salad dressing isle.  We usually don’t go down that isle anyway.  So no one MISSED anything. 

            We put the roast in the (crock) pot.  Tossed a ‘quite a few’ of them Peperoncini on top and the... ah... SPOT... the top... of the roast set in the crock pot with the ranch dressing ‘mixture’ as directed.  It IS a “spot” on the top of the roast... YOU KNOW how much “one teaspoon of butter milk” is?  It is a.... “SPOT”.

            Anyway... this is at four-forty-five in the morning.  And (this assemblage) goes fast.  Then that roast, with the peppers and the spot, “COOKS” for twelve hours.

            Then it’s double spoon lifted out of the crock pot.  And placed on a platter.  And ‘seen if’ “IT” “PULLS APART”.  That’s the real good job to get with this ‘making this’.  Especially when no one happens to be looking.  SOMEONE’S got ta TEST IT (the meat).  Right?  AND:  Decant (de-grease) the ‘juice’ into a side bowl to ‘ladle’.  Them whole peppers (in the juice)  is cooked now and I can’t says as I’ve ever had (eaten) one of ‘em COOKED before so I eat a few of them and they are just about what you’d “THINK” being sort of ...hot mushed out.... bleached out.  But I liked ‘em okay.  And ate ‘em all over the course of the roast’s consumption (two full meals and two middling fair lunches) with noodles and (frozen) peas.  The Mississippi Roast was good but I was careful to not ‘gush’ and be sure to simply... “snake” the ‘it pulls apart’ roast... along steady... as a Maine man know how to do... around the Maine farm kitchen.

            RIGHT?

            IT (the Mississippi Roast) ain’t BAD.  Ain’t SPECIAL GOOD.  OR special WHAT EVER.  The chuck... and the juices it lets go... dominates.  I could ‘taste’ them peppers.  I don’t know what happened to the ‘spot’ of ranch dressing.  Didn’t seem to me that spot part would hold up under the cooking anyway and...

            SO...

            I was, I suppose, VERY PLEASED that this ranch dressing spot

            DID NOT

            RUIN

            The roast...

            Which is all gone now.

Fireplace Cooking - Part Two - Reflector (Oven) Chicken

Fireplace Cooking

Part Two

Reflector (Oven) Chicken

            When I mentioned in Part One that we were at ‘having to get’ a chicken I sort of left off with that and, too, never mentioned to look under the Christmas tree to find out a “Why?”.  That THAT; under the Christmas tree, is only because that is where the... ‘old beater’ condition... ‘18^th century sheet iron tin fireplace reflector oven’... “got sat” when it was brought in from a shed.  We actually have TWO old beater ovens and... restating again that these ovens are NOT in perfect (or even ‘good’) antiques collector grade condition and that too we... sell all of those perfect ones we find... all the time... to collectors who... “HAVE” a “Colonial Fireplace Kitchen”... collection.  JUST SIT that perfect one out at the old hearth with the old cast iron pots and teapots, et al, and...

            Don’t bring our beater in until your actually gonna “COOK SOMETHING”.

            What did I just say... too?  That’s right; if your gonna ‘do this’; either or both of these collect or cook... you’s gonna WANT (not need) TWO of ‘em old tin reflector ovens.  So look under the Christmas tree for those?  Might as well these days.

            Once we clear the antiques collector colonial trappings away from the hearth and move the beater oven to ‘in front of the fire’... I can go back to the ‘having to get’ a chicken.

            The ‘a whole chickens’, these days, can be got.  Just go in to the local box store grocery store... located about five miles apart “UP” the whole coast of Maine and... fetch off the SMALLEST... cutest... of a whole chicken you’s can ‘find’... for one will have to poke through quite a pile of “WHOLE” in order to find a “SMALL” that is too... “CUTE”.  Warning:  The box store may not ‘have one’; a ‘cute’ and ‘small’.

            Seek alternative supply.

            So when Wiggins’ Meat Market chickens (Part One) hadn’t ‘come in’ we... “PLAN B”.  We’s driving on the coast of Maine in the ...internationally recognized desirable location of ‘The Camden – Rockland Region’ where... I remind... “PEOPLE” from “away” all want to come to and, well... BUY a whole chicken that is both small and cute... as an

            Attractive ‘get hands on’ activity that ‘brings ‘em in close’ with a Maine local... like me... endeavoring to do the same thing.  Yep.  So side stepping the ‘don’t have one anyway’ box style grocery store we... parked easily (it is ‘off season’ in December) in downtown and charming ‘walk to all the cute little stores and peek in the windows’...Christmas shopping destination of Camden, Maine and:

            We... went in the front door of French and Brawn; Camden’s downtown local corner grocery store... walked to the ‘MEAT’ in the back, plucked two “SMALL” and “CUTE” whole chickens from the self service counter, paid the $10.44 in cash for the two at the check-out up front and were... outside at the car (with the cooler – Part One)... in about the four minute the “it took to do this”.  NOW JUST STOP the foolishness and understand that this, IF YOU ARE REALLY DOING THIS IN MAINE; on the Maine coast... is the way to do this; get ‘small’ and ‘cute’ whole chickens.  Otherwise; forget even slightly trying this and STAY in your ‘from away’ place you come from and cook a box store whole chicken in your “electric range” oven AT HOME.  And leave us here in Maine ALONE.

            Okay and again for this:  Small and cute whole chickens.  Take them home and put them on a platter to ‘room temperature’ which runs around fifty degrees on our Old Maine Farm “until” “the fire is up”.  (Then it might get to sixty).  THEN... tie... meaning aggressively and not in a pleasingly refined manor... the two chickens to the 18^th century hand forged wrought iron rotisserie shaft with good quality string (not kite string).  Do not ‘think’ too much about doing this JUST DO IT fast, hard and with a lot of string.  The two cute small chickens don’t care and ...neither should you.

            Once ‘lashed to the mast’ and exercising the option of putting (shoving), casually, some (two) ‘easy in – easy out’ additional drip pans ‘clean up’s a snap’ in the old oven ‘under the birds’... that you now easily –the old ways- slip into place in the oven... that is placed before the fire... and, again, is easily done just like it was in 1780 IN THIS SAME OLD FIREPLACE...:  This is a ‘do’ project... not a ‘think’ project.  This is best shown by what happens next:

            NOTHING... has to be done... until the ...two small and cute chickens

            ARE DONE (cooking).  Sit (lie) on the sofa watching the football game and the snow falling outside and... about every twenty to thirty minutes by ‘feel’... get your lazy  butt up and ‘rotate’ the rotisserie shaft “a quarter’ turn... and do that, before the fire and peeking in the oven’s back door... for about three plus hours (one chicken take a little less time).  Adding wood and poking the fire is “big” (an action done too).  The chickens sit in the oven and get turned and... that’s about it... until they are SLOW cooked so they are the ‘moist’ ‘falls apart’ done.

            Then you take them “out” of the oven, “Off” of the shaft and set them on a platter and have a ‘someone’ “carve them” which is not needed because it is a lot easier to “pull” the serving you want and “eat that with your fingers”.  WHY DO WE COOK TWO CHICKENS?  So we have

            ONE WHOLE fireplace cooked CHICKEN “left over”.  That’s a problem; having a whole fireplace chicken left over.  Yep; a big one (problem).  Just put this second fireplace cooked chicken on a small plate in the... ice box...  and, probably, it’ll “disappear” in a day or so.  “MAKES GREAT (in the car out being antiques dealers) SANDWICHES FOR LUNCH” (reminding we use the bread we make too [Part One]).

            After your all done... put the old oven back in the shed.

            And stop the Maine Colonial home fireplace hearth... madness.

            This (reflector cooked chicken) is not hard to do, not a ‘new’ thing, not a fashion forward thing or not a trending thing.  It is a ‘cook’.... ‘chicken’ thing that goes back to the Revolutionary war... and was domestically active until the Civil War.

            So that means that the ‘supply’ of the reflector ovens in use then... and still around NOW is ‘abundant’ for, like, who throws those old critters on the dump and if they do SOMEONE ELSE ‘hauls ‘em off’...:  I have actually been in hoarder’s barns that have “PILES” of “THEM”.  So really... “THEY” are “OUT THERE”; you will find one; an old beater too. So... in review... a lot of  small cute chicken (the ‘old days’ chickens were all small and cute... “back then”) ‘got cooked’ in these because they

            REALLY

            WORK

            REALLY

            WELL.

            So are, as my own explorations confirm, ‘always found around’ ‘these old places’ because the “OLD WAYS” used them a ...lot.  Once one does this (cooks using the hearth and oven) one will quickly become an expert for it is “so easy”, “smells good” when it is cooking, is ‘not messy’ and is

            “REALLY GOOD TO EAT” too.  AND you get to lie on the sofa and watch TV because... ‘cooking the chickens’ “in the fireplace” IS “doing something”.