OLD TIME KITCHEN STOVES
10 July 2008
"Double Down"
Well, as I always say, writing these blogs is an adventure, because I really never know what I’m going to discover next. One of the items we talked about a couple of weeks ago was an Aga stove, which is a British-made stove which is on all the time. One of the things I found myself being a bit dubious about, beyond the price tag and extreme weight of the stove, was the fact that it is always on. As I pointed out at the time that’s a feature that those in a relatively cold climate like Great Britain surely find useful, but living in San Diego, I just found it a bit toasty for my needs.
However, some of those with second kitchens in this part of the world have those second kitchens in second homes! And if you live in sunny San Diego year round, a second home any place but the mountains near here makes no sense at all. Some years back my wife and I celebrated a wedding anniversary at the mountain cabin of some friends, and even though it was August in Southern California, we found the fireplace rather useful when the sun went down, the altitude being some 7000 feet.
All of which brings me to the Broseley cookers, which is a line of traditional room heater and cooker combinations. Again, I honestly cannot imagine what I would do with such a thing in San Diego, but up in the mountains or in anyplace that has weather more severe then we do (that’s pretty much everyone, isn’t it?), I have to believe that such a concept might well be welcome.
The Suprema Grande Range Cooker which we featured at the top of this blog has large viewing windows and is actually a wood burning stove, so it would have fit right in with the kitchen my mother had in the house Dad built in Missoula, Montana. It’s a childhood memory, but I seem to remember that stove heating the entire home in the winter months.
They also have stoves that run on gas or oil, for those who may not find the thought of constantly feeding a wood fire particularly romantic. They also have a line that will heat domestic hot water and home central heating systems.
Mostly, though, I think of this stove as being just the thing for those living in smaller homes in colder climates because they both heat and cook. And if you’re looking to furnish a mountain cabin, I cannot think of anything better suited for the woods. Actually, the outdoors is not a bad subject to pursue in our next blog.
Joseph
NEXT: "ROUGHING IT… San Diego Style!"
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