Jean at her house has a two burner Coleman Stove and a bar-b-Que that she uses during a power outage. I am so glad to see wood-burning stoves coming back. Am trying to talk Jean and David into putting one in their new house.
Aside from the stove, a few things I think someone should get with a wood-burning stove are cast iron cookware, an oven thermometer and, of course, wood. I firmly believe in cast iron cookware, I got a set when my husband and I were married over 60 years ago. I still have them and use them.When we had the power outage, I used them in the wood-burning stove. Once you get a set they have to be seasoned, which would be another post, if you are interested. You can buy cast iron new or maybe pick up a set at a garage sale or rummage sale, etc. The thermometer is because I don't trust the ones that come with stoves: wood-burning, gas or electric. When you are baking especially in a wood-burning you need something you can count on. Wood should be near your house where you can get it. You should have logs, but also smaller pieces to start the fire with. I always kept a wood box near the stove to put logs and smaller pieces in by the stove and the rest was in a small building by our house, when we had our farm.The best wood to use is the oldest wood-cottonwood, oak or ash are the best. Now, I guess, you can buy wood for wood-burning stoves in some stores like Country Max. I always have used wood from trees on our property. When the hurricane was over, the men got wood at a house down the road. wood was For Sale out front of their house.
Showing someone how to use a wood-burning stove is easier than telling, but I will see what I can do. Most of the wood-burning stoves come with a oven thermostat,and a overhead warming oven. If you receive an owners manual with the stove-read it. Make sure the stove, masonry and flues are clean. I would get a professional to do it.
Open the stove door to make sure the airflow in the flue is going through the flue and not coming back down through the stove. If there is draft, there is an airflow coming in through the flue instead of flowing out like it should. To correct this, should it be happening, crumple up some newspaper and put it up as high as you can get it in your wood stove toward the flute. After lighting the paper, the air should start sucking the ball through the flue, which will reverse the airflow.
In the bottom of your stove, put some pieces of crumpled newspaper. Place some thin sticks of dry kindling wood on top of the newspaper. On top of them, place larger pieces of wood and continue until your wood stove is 3/4 full. Then open the vents. After that carefully light the wood and paper. DO NOT USE gas, propane, lighter fluid or other items. Add more wood every time the previous wood has turned to coals. Also adjust the vents and flue to regulate the airflow.
I am going to end here and continue next week, February 1st. In the next post, I will tell of cooking and baking on a wood-burning stove.
Follow God,
Olive
OLIVE WILL BE BACK ON FEBRUARY 1ST ON COOKING AND BAKING ON THE WOOD STOVE.
FEBRUARY 15TH OLIVE WILL BE BACK TO TELL US ABOUT PRESEASONING CAST IRON POTS AND PANS.
71 comments:
When I went back to Germany as a child we had a wood/peat moss stove and I can still smell the great aroma.
How very, very interesting. I am glad you had a picture of it also.
Good Morning ga447,
You have a great memory. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Marilyn
Good Morning Vickie,
The stove I have in the picture is a propane stove. I didn't have a picture of a wood stove, so I used that one.
Marilyn
Hello Olive!! How nice of you to share such information with us. May I also say how wonderful to see you have been married over 60 years. We grew up using a gas stove which sometimes the pilot light would go out and we would have to light it but that is as close to a woodburning stove I will ever get I am sure. It is very interesting to read about this subject and I look forward to next Friday. Thank you for sharing on the blog and may God continue to bless your life. Hello Marilyn I hope you are having a good week and are keeping well. So proud of you for all your hard work on the blog and blessing my life by doing so. Have a great weekend everyone!! Veronica
Thank you I enjoyed reading this-my Grandmother had a range I think it was called in her farm kitchen -as well as producing wonderful meals it gave off lovely heat -and was also
Fuelled on peat ga447 which was plentiful at the time
My Father has talked of wood burning stoves in his working adventures when he was a young man-
I am glad that people still use these types of stoves - not practical for everyone I know
Fionalina
Good Morning Veronica,
I will pass your message on to Olive. There aren't many people that remain married for 60 years anymore-it's sad.
Thank you for your compliments.
Hope you have a great weekend, too,
Marilyn
When I grew up in Germany most people had a wood stove,even in a 5th floor walk up.I remember getting wood and coal from the basement,which was scary as a child.We switched to oil when I was about 10 and I disliked that very much.Thanks for sharing,and yes,I would be interested in reading how to cook on a wood stove.
God bless
Good Morning Fionalina,
Thank you for sharing with us. I had an aunt that use to cook on a wood stove. She has long passed now.
Not everyone could use one, but I think they are coming back for times when the electric goes off.
Marilyn
Hi Anonymous,
Thank you for sharing with us. Olive will talk about cooking on the wood stove next week. So please come back next Friday.
God Bless to you and yours,
Marilyn
What a wonderful post walking down memory lane.
I was very young, but I remember the wood stove my grandmother had. And I have all of my family's 100+ year old Lodge and Wagner cast iron I use almost everyday. I have a natural gas stove, but I love the way cast iron cooks and a few years ago, bought myself a pair of Lodge bread pans that I adore.
Thank you, thank you for Olive's sharing. What a wonderful post.
Blessings
Hello Denimflyz,
I will pass your compliment and memories on to Olive. Glad you enjoyed the post.
Blessings to you and yours,
Marilyn
Please tell Olive hello and thank her for the post today. Thanks for sharing with us Marilyn.
Chasity
Hello Chasity,
I will certainly tell Oive. Thank you for coming.
Marilyn
Hello Marilyn, and hello to Olive also! I had a wood/ coal cook stove for several years. I wish I still had it, we sold it when we went to a heat pump. Now with electricity prices, I wish I still had my stove. I always used to cook soup beans, on the top, slow simmered all day, and stew. I baked in the oven but Olive is right you need to maintain a correct temperature to do good baking on one. We used it to heat the house also at the time. I really enjoyed reading this post. Thanks so much for the sharing.
A very interesting post. I have some cast iron cookware that I really like using, and I'm looking forward to next weeks post about cooking on a wood burning stove. I would like to have some recipes for the cast iron cookware too. I LOVE the name Olive! ~Doreen
Enjoyed this post, as I have never been around a wood burning cookstove. I am looking forward to the next post.
Hi Annie,
Thank you for sharing with us. Appreciate your advice. Olive will have more on cooking and baking next Friday, too.
Marilyn
Hi Doreen,
I have made notes to ask Olive about recipes with cast iron cookware. Olive said as a little girl she never liked her name because all she could think of were olives you eat that come out of a jar-when she got older she found she was named after Mount of Olives in the Bible-she has liked it ever since. I will tell her you like, too.
Marilyn
Hi Meliss, I have seen a wood stove, but never used it. One of my aunt's had one she used. Glad you enjoy the post. It continues next week.
Marilyn
I think food taste much better when cooked in cast iron or in a wood stove. We have a lot of cast iron, mostly griswald peices that I use on a regular base.
My only issue is bacon. For the life of me I can't seem to get my bacon right in cast iron, so I let the husband do it, or I use the microwave.
Now days you can buy "preseasoned" cast iron--but the seasoning doesn't last long-I prefer to season my own. Also, a lot of people don't know how to properly wash cast iron either.
Hi April,
Olive was wondering if she should do another post telling people how to season the cast iron. She asked me and as I don't know anything about preseasoning cast iron. I remember my Mom use to hers every so often. Should Olive do a post on preseasoning cast iron?
Marilyn
I spoke with Olive and she would be glad to put a post on "preseasoning" cast iron pots and pans. It was near their bed time when I called so Olive and I will get together on the phone in a day or two to get a post together. I will let you know when it will be on. May move one of the posts I have set to cocme on and put Olive on, so she will have three Fridays in a row.
Marilyn
My Grandmother used a
wood-burning stove
I have always wonder how to use them
I love reading artices like this as it give a very clear idea on what life was then
My Mother used a cast iron frying pan I can remember her cooking a lot of stuff in it
I think a post on preseasoning cast iron would be good
Please tell Olive thank you
for a interesting article
Olive, thank you so much for your interesting post on your wood stove. My grandmother and Aunt Lucy always cooked on a wood stove, and my dad said that his big sister was the best cook ever. In fact, we had one in our kitchen when I was in the early grades, I can still see myself curled up right beside it with a book, soaking up the heat. I was married for 57 years when my husband died last year.
Olive,
I'm so thankful for the memories you brought back for me. My mother always cooked on a wood cook stove (even after she got an electric cook stove) and, oh, the food tasted so good. Fried potatoes in the cast iron skillet, baked beans, pies, cakes, and the wonderful home made bread. One very special pie she made was a vinegar cream pie. I loved it. I occasionally make it now and bake it in the oven of a propane gas stove. It's not as good as my mother's, but my grandson likes it. By the way, I'm 74; my wife is 73, and we've been married for almost 53 years.
Lowell
Hi Wendy,
Thank you for sharing with us. I will tell Olive. She is going to have a post on preseasoning the cast iron. I still have some of the cast iron pots and frying my Mom use to use. From what Olive told me, I guess it's time to preseason them again.
Marilyn
Good Morning Sheila,
You have my deepest sympathy on your husband's passing. So glad that marriages last - few do now days. Glad you enjoyed the post and thank you for your memories.
Marilyn
Good Morning Lowell,
I will see Olive gets your message. Congratulations on almost 53 years of marriage. Of all the married couples I knew in the years after graduation-only one are still married. They happen to be my closest friends and are married 42 years. All the rest have divorved and married someone else-at least once. The funniest part is my friends married 42 years were told my their parents, they would never make it. They are the only ones that did.
Regarding your pie recipe, Lowell, that sounds good. Would you like to share it?? If you do, contact me at: lincolnlady1121@yahoo.com I would be glad to put it on.
Marilyn
Olive thinks that after having her for two Fridays you need a break. I told her no, but she wouldn't listen. Anyway she would like to be on the same week as Jean, her granddaughter, which I can't argue with that. Jean is coming back on February 11th so Olive will be on that Friday, February 15th on preseasoning your cast iron pots and pans.
Marilyn
Hi Marilyn
I read somewhere that if put a cast-iron fryingpan in the fireplace that it cleans it and it comes out like new
Could you ask Olive about that please I would like to know if she has ever done that
Thanks
Blessings
Wendy
Hi Wendy,
I will ask Olive and see what she says. I will ask her to answer on her February 15th post.
Marilyn
Good Morning Olive. I am getting caught you on my reading today at New York State of Mind. I so enjoyed your writing about wood stove cooking and baking. When my husband and I got married in 1969, him mom was still doing all of her cooking/baking with a wood burning stove. She also used the cast iron pans. Her food and bread was always great and my oldest sister always said the food tasted better than from our gas stoves. Mom eventually got a gas stove but I'm know most of her life was with that wood stove. I look forward to your future posts. God bless you.
Hi dynnamae,
I will pass this on to Olive. Thank you for sharing this with us.
God Bless You and yours,
Marilyn
What a wonderful story! Wood burning stoves not only “dish” out better tasting food, but brings back memories of the traditional lifestyle of people in the past. It also shows how much effort people had to exert just to prepare food using the wood fired oven. You need to watch the food closely to avoid burning it. Wood burning stove is love.
Very interesting and informative blog. Gives an idea to those who were too confuse to "what is" things when wood stoves is concerned. Anxiously waiting for some more updates.
Stove Installers
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