3/31/2015

Time for Tea

This week, I read Time for Tea; Tea and Conversation with Thirteen English Women by Michele Rivers, published in 1994.


This is another tea book I bought, sight unseen, and haven't gotten around to reading until now.  I was intrigued by the premise of the book.  It is neither a book about the tea table nor a recipe book, though it does include some recipes.  Rather is is simply a series of conversations with actual people to try and capture why the tea time ritual is important in their lives, if it is at all.  The idea is that tea in England is only rarely the lace cloth and best china kind of event.  Tea as an event, or simply a beverage come in all forms.  This book is a glimpse of some of them.

The women interviewed for the book vary:  a farmer, an artist, bed and breakfast owner, grocery store check-out person, a Lady, a Marchioness, a six-year old, etc.  None live in London; most seem to have children.

Each chapter begins with a description of the interviewee - a bit about her life, history, job, etc.  The heart of each chapter is the interview, which is presented as an essay by the subject.  Each story is different, but you can almost hear the author begin each interview in the same way: "tell me about tea time - what it is, and what it means to you."  The essay begins with tea, or touches on it in some way, but each chapter takes off from that point.  We learn about the features and the challenges of daily life, raising children, dealing with divorce, hectic schedules, animals and guests that need to be fed.  Many of the women have had big transitions in their lives - new careers, second husbands, etc.  For each woman though, it seems that tea plays a similar role in their lives, even if they don't perceive it in that way.  Tea time is a pause in the routine, whether it comes daily, weekly, or only occasionally.  It's not a grab-and-go beverage like coffee, but a moment to stop and reflect or stop and chat for a second, or simply take a brief break from the race.

The final interview with two teenagers sums things up well.  Even if the subjects don't think that tea is a part of their lives, it somehow is.  They all drink more tea than they think they do.

So what role does tea and tea time play in your life?

3/20/2015

The Pantry

This week I finally finished re-reading The Pantry:  Its History and Modern Uses, written by Catherine Seiberling Pond in 2007.



The Pantry covers the history of the room in American homes, and is meant to be an inspiration for modern pantries, which are one of most asked for spaces among house hunters.  The book is divided into chapters, each covering pantries of a different era.  The Early American chapter points out that pantries were a necessity because food storage was crucial as people bought (made, grew, etc.) food in quantity to last for long periods of time, especially those who lived outside of urban areas.  By the Victorian era, kitchens were more industrial with cast iron stoves and linoleum floors.  This was the era of home economics where the kitchen was meant to be hygenic and efficient.  Kitchens were work spaces, no longer the center of the home, but moved to the back, or even to the basement in urban homes.  In this era, especially in upper class homes, the butler's pantry became the buffer zone between the kitchen and the dining room.

When I think of a pantry, I have the image of a butler's pantry:  banks of cabinets with glass doors above and long counters, that combination of display and storage away from the grease and dust of the kitchen.  Something like this would do just fine:

I would love a built in butler's pantry taking up the whole wall! think of what you could hide within!!! could also do drawers instead of cabinets below

By the middle of the 20th century, food shortages during the wars and the birth of convenience foods and neighborhood grocery stores meant that there were fewer foods to store.  The space pantries took up was re-purposed for broom closets, breakfast nooks, etc.  The function of the pantry was subsumed into the kitchen.

But now (at least in 2007), the pantry is back.  With the DIY and maker movements, and people into growing and preserving food, they need a place to keep it all.  If you want to create a pantry reminiscent of any era, this book offers design hints at the end of each chapter to demonstrate what made pantries of that era unique. 

Do you have a pantry in your house?  I don't, and I desperately need one - for food and china storage.  To me the very word pantry conjures up the idea of order:  things displayed on shelves where they are easily located and accessed, beautiful things arrayed in the open where you can see them and remember you have them (and use them!) not hidden away and forgotten in a cabinet.  A pantry will definitely be something I look for in my next house!