Book Review: The Pantry, by Catherine Seiberling Pond
Plus A Giveaway: Get a Signed Copy of The Pantry
It is no secret, Chaya and I are smitten with a great kitchen. You can have a great and functional kitchen without the entire catalog of fancy plug in gadgetry with French sounding names, but you cannot get by without a functional pantry—call it the unsung hero of a homestead. Yet, I had never put a lot of thought into where the term “pantry” came from or what the history might be behind it.
Let me say this upfront, I loved this book. It chronicles the history and history-shaping role of the modest pantry. From complete rooms with thoughtfully engineered construction to regulate temperature, or economized movement to simple utilitarian converted closets, the pantry is indeed a noteworthy fixture on a homestead.
At Pantry Paratus, we love all things having to do with the pantry. Recently our last surviving grandparent passed away, and it is largely to her credit that I associate my sense of thrift and propriety when it comes to the value of the pantry. Whereas today people who keep shelves of Cool Whip and Ricotta cheese containers cleaned, stacked and sorted by size might find themselves on some reality TV show, to my Italian Nonnie preserving everything was just part of how her large family made it through the Great Depression. Two generations ago, putting food away was about as hip as shoveling snow or cutting the grass—you just did it. And it is that no nonsense approach that Catherine Seiberling Pond captures so well in this book that helped ground me today with the wisdom of my blue collar immigrant roots.
The Amish farmwife, in her almost total self-sufficiency, is a fine modern example of how American women used to exist on farms. Farmwives of the past began to embrace the conveniences afforded to them in grocery stores and with modern utilities and appliances. Mormons, too, have long advocated having a storeroom with a year’s supply of saved foodstuffs and provisions. People in communes and those in the back-to-the-land movement were also avid food preservers. Where canning was once a necessity on the farm, especially before freezers were available, it now continues as a pleasant pastime for some (p. 34)
I found myself turning page after page to find out how the humble pantry went through medieval times, to colonial era of America with its trademark Yankee ingenuity, through the Industrial revolution, wartime rationing and even the suffrage movement did not leave the pantry unchanged. Yet with all of these changes we still feel the effects of the pantry on our families, politics and even literature. Fun fact: Emily Dickenson used to write poetry in her pantry (p. 43).
The Victorian period ended with the struggle for the right to vote, while at the same time there was a crescendo in the home economics movement. It presented a domestic struggle that continues today—can women have it all and have it at the same time? As long as our kitchens are in order—and sinks scoured everyday (as the Beecher sisters preached)—and pantries well stocked, the answer is probably yes (p. 47).
We do not have war rations today or anything like it—heck, you can go right down to your big box store and load up on all of the CAFO meat you want. So it begs the question, how did our ancestors make it? Answer: they leveraged the ebb and flow of the seasons and saw the pantry as the store. When Chaya posted her late grandmother’s chocolate syrup recipe, it helped me to put into perspective how recently it was in this country where people had to live with a prominent civil defense mindset under the threat of the atomic age. In America not too long ago, it was then as it is now in dozens of other countries around the world, the pantry is the first line of defense; and that reality was not lost on me as I read this book page by page, cover to cover.
You have heard Chaya say it many times, “Your Grandma knew how and you can too.” Think of this book as an anthology of many centuries worth of Grandma innovations beautifully rendered in beautiful pictures and well written text. If you love the pantry as much as we do, then I would highly recommend picking up a copy of The Pantry directly from Catherine Seiberling Pond for $14.95 (shipping included). These are beautiful books and would really make a nice gift for anyone who loves kitchen self-sufficiency. Be sure to sign up below to win a signed copy of the book from the author!
I leave you with this poem from page 71:
A Bride’s Pantry
There’s a dear little pantry that pampers a bride,
Its walls are of yellow, its window is wide,
And airy blue curtains coquette in their pride
With crisp, crinkled things in the garden outside.
There are quaint little jars with blue labels displayed,
For red currant jelly and plum marmalade;
There are vegetable soldiers in tin coat parade,
Plump jugs of sweet cider and muscadine-ade.
Oh, the goodies galore that a bride can devise—
Fat gingerbread bunnies with black raisin eyes,
Spice cake and pear salad and cinnamon pies,
To foster the pride in a certain man’s eyes.
So when you are planning a little house, new,
Be sure there’s a pantry with curtains of blue,
And a wee kitchen garden spread out to your view,
To grow with your singing and smile back at you.
—Hazel Harper Harris, American Cookery, 1925
Wilson
Pro Deo et Patria
Works Cited:
Pond Seiberling, C. (2007). The pantry. (p. 45). Layton: Gibbs Smith.
Photo Credits:
Catherine as a little girl used with permission from Catherine Seiberling Pond
The Pantry, book cover used with permission from Catherine Seiberling Pond
Grandma’s Pantry taken from the public domain (found on p. 75 in book)
For Further Reading, check out Catherine’s other websites:
http://www.farmwifeatmidlife.blogspot.com
http://www.growcaseycounty.blogspot.com
http://www.inthepantry.blogspot.com
Proviso:
Nothing in this blog constitutes medical advice. You should consult your own physician before making any dietary changes. Statements in this blog may or may not be congruent with current USDA or FDA guidance.
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