vintage – In the Vintage Kitchen: Where History Comes To Eat

Mark Your Calendars: Our Annual 40% Off Sale is Sunday, November 2nd!

Published on October 21, 2025 by In The Vintage Kitchen2 Comments

Autumn 2025 comes to 1750 House in a blanket of color.

It’s hard to believe that our annual once-a-year shop sale is just two weeks away, especially since our last blog post left off with baking bread in the middle of a summer heatwave. And yet, now here are, firmly swaddled in a blanket of autumn leaves with the woodpeckers performing their yearly tap tap tapping on the shingles of 1750 House reminding us that seasonal celebrations are close at hand. Lots has happened between now and that day in July when the kind bread was rising as high as the humidity and the garden was growing right along with the shop stories.

The lemon balm… one of our star growers in the herb garden this year.

I’m very excited to catch up, especially when it comes to hashing out the happenings of the herb garden and the triumphs and tragedies it endured over our experimental summer. But before we get to all that, I wanted to give everyone a quick calendar reminder in this post about the shop sale since it’s coming up right around the bend.

Two very exciting things are happening this year in regards to the sale. 2025 marks our 5th year of the sale, and it also happens to occur this year on the same day as daylight savings time, so you’ll be able to fall back and enjoy an extra hour of shopping should you so choose.

If you are a regular visitor to the shop, you’ll know that we adore a good floral and that the shop is forever covered in blooms no matter what the time of year. But when it comes to the change of seasons from summer to fall, the shop starts filling with heirlooms that embrace this cozy time of year by reflecting the colors in the landscape that help create autumn vibes in the kitchen and a beautiful feast for the Thanksgiving table. Whether its cookbooks, dishware, or decorative pieces, this year you’ll find some unique heirlooms that not only speak of history but of harvest time too…

If you are new to the All Souls Day sale, every year, November 2nd marks 40% off everything in the Vintage Kitchen shop for one day only. We call it the All Souls Day sale, not for the Catholic holiday that it shares the day with, but for the heirloom history that it encompasses.

All Souls Day is the only communal holiday in the calendar year that celebrates and remembers all deceased ancestors, and to us, that seems like the perfect time to celebrate vintage and antique heirlooms too. None of our shop items would be here today if they had not traveled through time, cherished and cared for in the hands of the people before us.

It’s up to the ITVK team to curate the shop, but the heirlooms do all of the storytelling. Each year, these heirlooms share new insights into the past that help shed light on things in the present. Since no two items in the shop are ever exactly alike, no sale from year to year is ever exactly the same either.

Just like the majority of one-of-a-kind heirlooms that can be found In The Vintage Kitchen, unique stories offer glimpses into culinary history and garden life that occurred decades ago or even centuries earlier. Hidden histories are everywhere and they tend to show up in ways that consistently surprise and delight. Just when you think a napkin is a napkin, a plate is a plate, a book is a book, a detail will jump out from in its history and take us on a marvelous trip through time to understand and explore other places and faces. These are some of the unique heirlooms you’ll find in this year’s sale…

A Rare Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Luncheon Plate c. 1923

With its roots extending all the way back to canal transportation in the 1790s, the C&O Railroad has a long and winding history through the American landscape. Throughout most of its life, C&O trains hauled coal, agriculture, retail products, and travelers between Virginia, the Midwest, the Northeast, and parts of Canada up until the 1980s. In the 1920s, the decade in which this luncheon plate was made, the C & O trains looked like this…

Dining service aboard C&O started in 1899 and was only offered on their luxury lines. Signature menu items included shirred eggs, Saratoga chips, broiled sea fish, baked apples and cream, Spring lamb chops, and French toast with marmalade.

A Signed First Edition of Alice’s Restaurant Cookbook circa 1969

Not every cookbook comes with it’s own theme song, but when Alice May Brock (1941-2024) befriended a young Arlo Guthrie, the whimsical world Alice lived in was all the inspiration Arlo needed to write a hit song called Alice’s Restaurant Massacree, which in turn inspired a cult classic film of the same title. The cookbook came after the song and the movie, but shares the recipes that made Alice a local legend in New England as the proprietor of three restaurants and a catering company. A free-spirit, an artist, and a lover of food and friends, this cookbook features some of the favorites served in her restaurants and at her famous home-hosted dinner parties. It also includes still photos from the movie, Alice’s illustrations, and photos of Arlo and their friends who made a good time out of every meal. Adding an extra layer of the joie-de-vivre she embodied, this particular book is also signed by Alice.

A Collection of Original Floral Feed & Flour Sacks circa 1930s-1940s

You can’t really get any closer to touching real-life history than these floral feed and flour sacks. Stitched into traditional sack shape, similar to a pillowcase, these bound together fabrics were once the commercial packaging that held a variety of pantry staples, including flour, sugar and grain. Made by the manufacturing industry in response to the financial burdens placed upon American families during the Great Depression, this cotton sack packaging was made solely for the purpose of recycling.

Knowing how thrifty and creative the American seamstress was, and knowing how tight household budgets were during the Great Depression and World War II years, grain and food manufacturers packaged their products in these floral cloths specifically so that women could repurpose them by turning the fabric into clothing, household linens, toys, rugs, curtains etc. It was a winning collaboration that not only responded to and eased economic stress, but also showed unwavering care, support and appreciation for customers during one of the most challenging times in American history. This batch in the shop came from a private collector and was so well-cared for across ninety years that each piece of fabric looks practically brand-new. Two of the sacks even retained traces of grain remnants hinting at the original products contained within.

Cotton flour sacks full of flour featured in a 1940s photograph published in LIFE magazine

An Antique Basin Bowl & Wash Pitcher That Changed the American Plumbing Industry

It’s hard to imagine life without modern conveniences like indoor plumbing and bathrooms, but back in the 18th and 19th centuries, this wash basin and pitcher was your gateway to cleanliness, both literally and figurately. Made by Maddock’s Lamberton Works in Trenton, New Jersey, between 1888-1902, the British-born Maddock family were the first immigrants to realize that America needed their own sanitaryware pottery manufacturer. Up until they opened up shop, all basin bowls, wash pitchers, slop jars, chamber pots and grooming sets were imported from England. The Maddocks changed that by producing American chamber sets using local clays, and in doing so, revolutionized the plumbing industry in the process. Recognized as pioneers in the world of sanitary toiletry products, the Maddock family patented several plumbing innovations before they eventually sold the pottery in 1929 to American Radiator & Sanitary Corporation, who would go on to create our country’s indoor heating and plumbing infrastructure including radiators, sinks, bathtubs, and toilets for households across the country.

An Intimate Glimpse into the Life of a Literary Hostess

Guests at the Boston literary salon of Mr. James & Annie Fields were a veritable who’s who of prominent 19th-century writers. Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Sarah Orne Jewett, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Bret Harte, Henry James, Bronson Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Harriet Beecher Stowe, to name a few among were just some of the visitors that spent time in their home along with other notable painters, actors, musicians, and political activists.

In addition to being a writer, activist and philanthropist herself, as well as the wife of distinguished Boston publisher James Fields, Annie Adams Fields (1834-1915) was also a charming, kind-hearted hostess and keen observer of conversation amongst her literary friends. Never interested in self-promotion, scandal or gossip, she regularly recorded bits and pieces of conversations among her friends in diaries that she kept throughout her life. Sketches of dialogue, character traits, pressing matters of the day, viewpoints on life and literature all freshly detailed the lives of extraordinary figures, painting them as humble, human, fallible beings tackling life, their passions and their creativity as anyone might.

Before Annie passed away in 1915, she granted noted biographer Mark Antony DeWolfe Howe Jr. access to all her diaries in his pursuit to record the friendships enjoyed between the Fields and their artistic community. She had one caveat, though, in sharing her books. That Mark’s book not be about her but about the extraordinary friends whom she knew and loved so well. What resulted is this book, Memories of A Hostess: A Chronicle of Eminent Friendships, published in 1922.

Highlighting correspondence, diary entries, cultural events, and touchpoints from history for context, Mark Antony DeWolfe Howe pieced together an intimate glimpse into the lives of the 20th century’s greatest thinkers and artistic minds, courtesy of Annie and James’ record-keeping collection.

Uncovering a portrait to attach to each heirloom’s story is one of our ultimate joys. In this year’s sale, you’ll also meet many new faces. This year, we shared stories of Attia, Alfredo, Pamela, Freddie, Doris, John, Judy, Miroslav, and Marjorie along with her daughters, Kate and Susan…

Clockwise from top left: Attia Hosain, Alfredo Viazzi, Pamela Lyndon Travers, Freddie Bailey, Doris Muscatine, John Ramsbottom, Judy Gethers, Miroslavo Sasek, Marjorie Winslow and daughters.

Each brought many new perspectives of history to life. Attia Hosain (1913-1998) was a writer, actor, cook, broadcast journalist and intellectual focusing on stories of India and British post-colonialism. Freddie Bailey (1904-1992) was famous in Mississippi for her hot pepper jelly along with other regional favorites that made her kitchen the epicenter of Southern food, flavor and hospitality. In the 1930s, Pamela Lyndon Travers (1899-1996) introduced the world to Mary Poppins, who still remains 90 years later, the globe’s most well-known and most beloved nanny. Alfredo Viazzi (1921-1987) was the proud owner of a popular Greenwich Village restaurant known for its convivial atmosphere, great food and reasonable prices. Judy, Doris, Marjorie and Miroslav shared their artistic talents via saucepan and sketchbook. British mycologist John Ramsbottom (1885-1974) taught gardening enthusiasts all about the fascinating world of fungi.

This year also introduced personal stories shared by readers and their families. One of our favorites is that of Beverly, whose collection of handwritten recipes is not just a set of random cards in a box. They are the story of her. Of one woman’s culinary journey as she grew from a young, inexperienced midwestern bride, who barely knew how to boil an egg, into a confident, seasoned California cook and recipe collector over the course of her entire adult life.

Familiar favorites can be spotted in the shop sale too, bringing with them their marvelous heritage stories that are worth retelling again and again. This stemware is the story of champagne, of “drinking the stars,” of a husband and wife couple, Pierre Perrier and Rose Jouet, who created the first true champagne made from the Chardonnay grapes in the Champagne region of France in the early 1800s. Together, with Rose in the vineyard and Pierre in the sales office, they launched Perrier-Jouet Champagne in 1814, a brand that still continues to enchant wine enthusiasts around the world today.

Every year we also like to spotlight the oldest antique in the sale. In this year’s case, it’s this French pottery water pitcher that dates to the 1850s…

More history floats. More stories emerge. In the shop, a cookbook is never just a cookbook. It’s a tactile understanding of what WWII cooking really looked like for women in the 1940s. Its a story of how they had to portray strength, creativity, courage, ingenuity and optimism at every meal, every day while creating delicious, nutritious and interesting meals on limited war rations, tight budgets, and victory garden harvests.

Cookbooks in the shop tell intimate stories not only of their authors but also their owners too. This 1931 edition of the Boston Cooking School Cook Book showcases the enduring legacy of Fannie Farmer (1857-1915), who not only raised generations of home cooks but shared recipes that still inform regional New England cuisine today. It also highlights, through a myriad of cooking splatters and stains, the adventures of a previous cook (or cooks) who cherished the recipes so much their culinary endeavors have turned into an artful aesthetic.

Also every year, there’s one stand out cook, who warrants days or sometimes even weeks of research thanks to a fascinating life lived. This year, it was Lois Burpee (1912-1984)…

who married into the Burpee Seed Company family in the 1930s and managed to carve out an incredible cooking, gardening, and philanthropic career that lasted her entire lifetime.

Other equally interesting cookbooks in the shop sale this year include two rare compendiums of culinary curiosity that offer suggestions on what to make and what to bake every day for a year…

Decorative pieces in this year’s sale highlight the handmade arts. An antique tole tray, a vintage hand-carved wooden swan, a vintage print of a tulip painting dating all the way back to 1827, a hand-embroidered linen…

These are just a few examples of the people, places, and stories that have found their way into the Vintage Kitchen shop in 2025. I hope at this year’s sale you discover an heirloom that captivates your attention, that steals your heart away to another time or another country, and that inspires new creativity from history’s forgotten muses.

At this year’s sale, just like last year’s, you’ll notice that some heirlooms sport a festive yellow banner in their listing photos. Those banners signify a donation program that we launched in 2024. Any heirloom that you see in the shop that says This Heirloom Gives Back qualifies for a 20% donation to Feeding America, a nationwide non-profit network of food banks, food pantries and local meal programs dedicated to providing nutritious meals to food-insecure communities around the United States. Not all heirlooms in the shop qualify for this program, so be sure to look for the yellow banners if you would like to participate.

The sale begins at 12:00am (EST) on Sunday, November 2nd, 2025 and runs through 11:59pm that same night. Discounts are automatically tallied upon checkout, so there is no need to enter any coupon codes or discount phrases to receive 40% off.

New heirlooms continue to be added to the shop daily, so stop by for fresh vintage and antique finds leading all the way up to the sale. And, as always, if you are looking for something that we no longer have in stock, please send us a message. We’ll be happy to add your name and needs to our waitlist.

Whether you are interested in experimenting with a new cuisine, looking for a new favorite vintage dish pattern, or starting a collection that recalls memories of a happy time from your past, I hope you find something in the shop that calls to your heart and adds extra delight to your kitchen.

Cheers to all the old souls that inspire the shop each and every day. Cheers to all the heirlooms that they have been passed on to us to love and cherish just as much. And cheers to the kitchen for being the one spot in the house where everyone is always welcome.

Explore The Shop: Our 40% Off Sale is Today!

Published on November 2, 2024November 2, 2024 by In The Vintage Kitchen2 Comments

It only happens once a year and today it’s here! Our annual 40% off sale runs now through midnight (EST). Some highlights from the shop this year include these faces and features…

Feminist, cookbook author, and magazine editor, Sarah Field Splint (1883-1959) published The Art of Cooking and Serving in 1931.

The oldest bowl in the shop is this one that dates to the 1830s.

Over one hundred years ago, this is how you dried your wet laundry linens and clothing.

The design of this 1940s vase was inspired by museum relics from the Chinese Imperial dynasty.

These first-generation Greek immigrant women turned a collection of recipes for a humble church fundraiser into a bestselling cookbook in the 1950s.

This is a very rare set of midcentury restaurant ware dessert plates.

Henri Toulose-Lautrec was not only a talented French artist but a talented cook and a true gourmand in the kitchen too. This is a collection of his recipes and the colorful art that adorned his hand-drawn menus, which were given to all guests who came to dine at his table.

A trip to North Carolina in the 1930s introduced Katharine Beecher to her first homemade butter mint. She fell so in love with them that she started making them herself. Less than a decade later she was the proud owner of a multi-million dollar candy company.

This is a very rare 1920s children’s coloring and painting book by American artist Florence Notter (1884-1960). She was quiet and unassuming in personality but her art was bright, full of character and color and immensely beloved by children around the country.

These are just a few examples of the unique stories behind some of our heirlooms in the shop. Find many more as you explore our vintage and antique cookbooks, dishes, linens, decorative pieces and kitchenware.

Hope this year’s sale sparks something new and inspirational for you. Cheers, and happy shopping!

Mark Your Calendars: Our Annual 40% Off Shop Sale is November 2nd!

Published on October 15, 2024December 30, 2024 by In The Vintage KitchenLeave a comment

Outside the kitchen window, fall is here. It’s blown into New England this year slowly, on warm breezes scented with cider doughnuts and sunshine. Our prettiest one yet, milder-than-usual temperatures have prolonged the season, rolling it out like a colorful ribbon one yard at a time.

While the days may have lacked that traditional chill that signals a sincere change in seasons, there is something definitely delightful about a warm weather fall. Our string of 70-degree days and 50-degree nights means that much of the summer garden at 1750 House is still hanging on. There are clusters of tomatoes ripening on the vine, summer corn continuing to grow tall in the raised bed, and green beans still putting out at least a dozen pods a day. It may be mid-October, and leaves may be blanketing the garden beds, but the nasturtiums, zinnias, and geraniums are still flowering like it’s July. The novelist David James Duncan once called this Indian summer time of year “a state of serene confusion.” I can see why.

Since so many pollinators are still coming to the flowers, we’ve decided to leave all the summer vegetables up for as long as we can so that they can get all the nourishment they need.

Around the neighborhood though, tradition is not indulging this unusual weather that’s been caught between the beauty of two seasons. Despite the fact that many a summer flowerpot is still wholeheartedly blooming, pumpkins are on porches, dried corn stalks decorate lamp posts, twig wreaths hang on front doors, and the leaves… the magical leaves of a New England autumn… are floating and fluttering in shades of cinnamon, olive, mustard, and mahogany. There is color and flowers and fall foliage everywhere.

Autumn has come to the shop too…

And that means that our annual shop sale is right around the corner. If you are new to the blog, every year, November 2nd marks 40% off everything in the Vintage Kitchen shop for one day only. We call it the All Souls Day sale, not for the Catholic holiday that it shares the day with, but for the heirloom history that it encompasses.

The Art of Chinese Cooking by the Benedictine Sisters of Peking – 1977 Edition 41st Printing

It’s up to us to curate the shop, but the heirlooms do all of the storytelling. Each year, they share new insights into the past that help shed light on things in the present. Since no two items in the shop are ever exactly alike, no sale from year to year is ever exactly the same either.

Stories float in and out of the shop every day offering glimpses into kitchen and garden life that occurred a few decades ago or a few centuries ago. Just like stories posted to the blog, every heirloom in the shop comes with its own unique tale marking its place in time. Hidden histories are everywhere. Here are some of the unique stories you’ll find in this year’s sale…

The 1940s Oxnard Lemon Crate

Highlighting Mexican-American history in California’s Port Of Hueneme, this 1940s-era lemon crate tells the story of how Sunkist lemons were brought in from local farms and sorted at an Oxnard packing house before being transported to retail storefronts around the world. Most of this packing was done by women who were skilled experts in sorting, grading and packaging the lemons for distribution. At the height of production, over four million crates were packed per year totaling half a billion lemons. Fruit and vegetable crates were never meant to withstand time and travel for longer than a few months, so it’s always exciting to discover one that has survived much longer than intended. The only part that is left of this original eighty-year-old packing crate is the front panel, now mounted like a piece of art to showcase its original label.

Beyond New England Thresholds

Focusing solely on the importance of the fireplace hearth in early American homes, this 1937 photography book by Samuel Chamberlain explores the country’s first “kitchens” in over two dozen New England homes that date back to the 17th and 18th centuries. The photos progress as the hearth progresses from primitive cook space to home heating source to decorative fixture, illustrating not only how far cooking has come since the early days, but how home interiors and design have evolved as well.

Perdita

Voted one of the best restaurants in the country by Holiday Magazine in the 1950s, Perdita’s of Charleston, SC and Macon, GA was known for its elegant French-inspired fare highlighting local seafood and steak. The restaurant was named after actress Mary Robinson (1758-1800) whose most famous role was playing Perdita in Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale.

*The real-life Mary Robinson (1758-1800) in a portrait painted by Thomas Gainsborough circa 1781*

Mary had a reputation for being very enchanting and seductive, especially when it came to the amorous attention of men. On a trip to Charleston in the late 1700s, she was caught up in a local romantic scandal that forever made a mark on Charleston’s colorful history, and subsequently inspired the vibe and aesthetic of one of the city’s most famous restaurants.

The Neo-Classical Candleholders

Made for the Metropolitan Museum of Art gift shop, the design of these four petite candleholders is based on antique furniture mounts from a French secretary in the Museum’s collection. The secretary dates to 1787 and is believed to have belonged in the apartments of Marie Antoinette during her time at Versailles. This is the furniture that inspired the candlesticks including a detail shot of the mounts themselves…

Notice how the candlesticks are almost an exact replication of the mounts, fruit included.

The Peruvian Pottery Bowl

Handmade in the Amazonian jungle of Peru, this style of clay bowl has been made for centuries by local Indigenous women of the Shipibo-Conibo tribe using skills and techniques passed down from generation to generation. Highly personal and reflective of each specific woman who makes them, the bowls are entirely formed by hand and then painted with brushes fashioned from twigs and their own human hair. The markings, like the bowls themselves, are one-of-a-kind… trails of paint inspired by each woman’s dreams and visions combined with traditional cultural symbols celebrated by generations of women that came before her.

*Photograph of four generations of Shipibo-Konibo women by David Diaz Gonzales*

Every year, new faces from history emerge too. This year, we met Juliette, Margaret, Farida, Eleanor, Kate, John, Marie, Raffles, Zetta, Carveth and Claude…

Clockwise from top left: Julia Gordon Low, Margaret Rudkin, Farida Wiley, Eleanor Early, Kate Greenaway, John & Marie Roberson, Raffles, Zetta & Carveth Wells, Claude Monet

Each of them had interesting stories to tell. Juliette Gordon Low started the Girl Scouts in Savannah, GA in 1912. Kate Greenaway forever changed the way we felt about blooms and blossoms in her bestseller, The Language of Flowers. Farida Wiley taught nature classes at NYC’s Museum of Natural History for 60 years. And we all know Claude Monet from his famous impressionist paintings, but did you know that he was also a devout foodie too? There’s a cookbook full of his recipes to prove it. All of those faces above created all these pieces of history below…

Clockwise from top left: The Girl Scout Handbook (1948), The Margaret Rudkin Pepperidge Farm Cookbook (1965), Ferns of the Northeastern United States by Farida Wiley (1948), She Knows Best By Eleanor Early (1946), Kate Greenaway’s Language of Flowers (1978), The Complete Barbecue Book by John and Marie Roberson (1951), Raff: The Jungle Bird by Zetta and Carveth Wells (1941), Monet’s Table (1989)

In the shop, a plate is never just a plate. It’s a rare glimpse into dining hall life at a 1930s fraternity house…

Rare Vintage 1930s Zeta Psi & Theta Delta Chi Fraternity Restaurant Ware Plates By Syracuse O.P.Co circa 1937

In the shop, a teapot is not just a teapot. It’s the oldest antique of the year. This one dates to 1838…

Antique Royal Vienna Tea Service Set – Gold and White Porcelain – circa 1838

In the shop, a cookbook is never just a collection of recipes. It’s stories about life and heritage and inspiration in a myriad of ways. It’s Canadian Leslie Forbes (1953-2016), who was not only a charismatic travel journalist, a fiction writer, and a cookbook author but an illustrator too…

A Taste of Provence by Leslie Forbes – 1987 First American Edition

It’s the talented way-ahead-of-her-time Paula Peck (1927-1972), who died at the age of 45, but not before leaving a handful of books that turned professional cooking and baking on its side in the mid-20th century, by bucking traditional techniques and inventing creative, approachable food…

The Art of Fine Baking by Paula Peck – 1961 Book Club Edition

The Art of Good Cooking by Paula Peck – 1966 Edition

It’s British ex-pat Vernon Jarratt who married an Italian countess and went on to live a La Dolce Vita life in Italy as an intrepid gourmand and restauranteur…

Eat Italian Once A Week by Vernon Jarratt – 1967 Edition

In the shop, a vintage coffee tin is not just a nostalgic vessel to store modern-day items. It’s the lifeblood of immigrant brothers from Scotland who sought fortune and flavor in America’s coffee trade in the late 1800s.

Vintage Yuban & Bliss Coffee Tins circa 1920s-1940s

And in the shop, coasters aren’t just little mats to set your drinks on. They are mini works of art by revered French botanical painters of the early 1800s…

Vintage French Botanical Coasters with Cork Backing – Set of Four

These are just a few examples of the people, places, and stories that find their way into the Vintage Kitchen shop on a daily basis. I hope at this year’s sale you discover an heirloom that captivates your attention, that steals your heart away to another time or another country, and that inspires new creativity from history’s forgotten muses.

Perhaps you’ll travel with engaging journalist and war correspondent, Betty Wason and her daughter, Ellen through the regional cuisines of Spain…

The Art of Spanish Cooking by Betty Wason – 1963 First Edition

or fall in love with the fish-out-of-water escapades of French Clementine as she navigates the ins and outs of cooking in an American kitchen in the 1940s…

Clementine in the Kitchen by Phineas Beck (aka Samuel Chamberlain) – 1943 First Edition with Illustrations

or maybe you’ll wind your way around the exotic Moroccan spice markets with Paula Wolfert as your educational guide.

Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco by Paula Wolfert – 1973 Edition

At this year’s sale, you’ll notice that some cookbooks sport a festive yellow banner in the listing photos. Those banners signify a new donation program that we’ve just recently launched. Any cookbook that you see in the shop that says This Book Gives Back qualifies for a 20% donation to Feeding America, a nationwide non-profit network of food banks, food pantries and local meal programs dedicated to providing nutritious meals to food-insecure communities around the United States. Not all cookbooks qualify for this program, so be sure to look for the yellow banner if you would like to participate.

Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker – 1978 Edition 11th Printing

The sale begins at 12:00am (EST) on Saturday, November 2nd, 2024 and runs through 11:59pm that same night. Discounts are automatically tallied upon checkout, so there is no need to enter any coupon codes or discount phrases to receive 40% off.

New vintage and antique heirlooms continue to be added to the shop daily, so stop by for fresh finds leading all the way up to the sale. And, as always, if you are looking for something that we no longer have in stock, please send us a message. We’ll be happy to add your name and needs to our waitlist.

Vintage 1960s Webster-Wilcox Silverplate Wine Cooler Champagne Bucket

Haute Cuisine for Your Heart’s Delight by Carol Cutler – First Edition 1974 Fifth Printing

Early 20th Century Embroidery Sampler circa 1930s

Happy shopping!

A Monumental Story of Real-Life Serendipity Told Over Many Parts: Chapter 4 – One Last Journey

Published on January 23, 2024April 17, 2025 by In The Vintage Kitchen7 Comments

{Spoiler Alert: This is a series of blog posts detailing the real-life story of a 100-year-old item that was lost over a decade ago and how it found its way home in 2024. Follow along from the beginning of this story at Chapter 1: It Arrives.}

This part of the lost item story is about numbers. Not numbers relating to complex math or phones or registry digits, but numbers that have to do with time and distance. So far, with the unfolding of each chapter of this Monumental Story of Real-Life Serendipity Told Over Many Parts, we have learned bits and pieces about the lost item and how it came to wind up in the hands of the Vintage Kitchen. We learned how it arrived, who sent it and what part of history it involves. But we haven’t yet discussed the numbers, and they are quite important to the overall timeline of this intriguing item. So let’s look…

104 – that’s the age, in years, of the lost item
6,544 is the number of miles the item has traveled
7 is the number of states that the item has spent time in
3 is the number of major life-altering world events that could have completely destroyed the item and any link to its history over the past 100 years (those being the Great Depression, World War II and the Covid pandemic)
25 – that’s the number of people that are all connected to the item
29 is the number of months it took for the Vintage Kitchen to arrange to get the item to the place where it belongs

Transportation to its final destination was another set of numbers. That involved 3 cars, 1 plane, 1 bus and 1 boat. In its original cardboard mailer of medium thickness tucked inside a cloth shoulder bag, the item traveled in seat 21A on the plane and Lane 1 on the boat. This last round of Vintage Kitchen transporting from here to there required 5 different types of travel tickets, 1 Airbnb, 3 highway tolls, 2 parking garages, 1 security checkpoint and 1 wild landscape. But the most important set of numbers in this whole post are 2008 when it was lost and 2024 when it finally made its way home.

On 01-02-24, after 29 months spent in the hands of the Vintage Kitchen and 13 years spent in the care of kind-hearted Angela, the item embarked on its final journey via car, plane, bus and boat. Four days later it found the place where it belonged. It finally found its home.

Which city was the item headed to? For all you armchair detectives out there, our final destination is included in the Departure board.

Time is a weird and wonky master. It controls, records, rewards everything in our lives. Whether it’s minute with the tick, tick, ticking of seconds slowly passing by or an expansive stretch of milestones that cast long shadows over the course of a lifetime, time is always there to mark the moment. In this case of the lost item, timing, like the cliche suggests, is everything. It’s numbers on a clock, numbers on a calendar and numbers in a family. Without time, this story wouldn’t have been as meaningful. Without a significant sets of numbers all related to time and to fate, this situation from history wouldn’t have been remarkable. It’s the numbers, the time, the distance traveled that make this story of the item lost and finally found, notable.

This is your last chance to guess what the mystery item might be. Feel free to speculate in the comments section below or send us a private message with your ideas. Join us next time for Chapter 5, where we reveal the mystery item and connect all the dots that complete this story from start to finish. We cannot wait to share the ending with you. Stay tuned.

Update!

Chapter 5 is now available. Continue reading here.

First glimpse of the final destination leading towards home.

It’s Finally Here! Our Annual Shop Sale is Today

Published on November 2, 2023 by In The Vintage KitchenLeave a comment

Happy All Souls Day! Just wanted to pop in with a quick reminder for all our intrepid culinary adventurers and history-fueled home decorators… our annual one-day-only 40% off shop sale is today!

There are a bevy of new (old) heirlooms that have arrived in the shop recently, so if it’s been a bit of time since you last visited hop on over to the shop to see our latest collections. Some of our favorites include these charmers…

A collection of Poland’s authentic heritage recipes compiled by the Polanie Club of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Rare antique J.W. Pankhurst English ironstone dinner plates circa 1850.

A porcelain enamelware floral bowl set by Kobe circa 1980s

A 1930s-era packet of French postcards featuring the beautiful city of Marseilles

An antique crocheted tablecloth handmade at Ellis Island circa 1916. You might remember this one from our in-depth blog post about one woman’s Italian immigration story here.

A vintage Dutch cookie tin featuring maritime art.

A 1930s edition of a classic kitchen cookbook courtesy of Fannie Farmer, the woman responsible for creating our modern cooking measurement system.

A vintage botanical art book featuring gorgeous illustrations of fruits, vegetables, and flowers.

An antique handmade gathering basket from the early 1900s

A vintage pair of cheerful yellow dinner napkins with embroidered dots fit for every season.

Interested in meeting some of the makers and collectors behind our shop’s beautiful heirlooms? Poke around each section and you’ll encounter these faces and the stories they tell about history and their place in it.

Hope you find a treasure that calls to your heart and adds an extra bit of joy to your home.

As always, the sale runs through midnight tonight and discounts are automatically applied at checkout. Thank you so much for traveling with us down these adventurous pathways of culinary history. Cheers to new inspiration and a day of happy shopping!

Cheers to All Souls: Our Annual 40% off Sale Is Next Wednesday

Published on October 27, 2022 by In The Vintage KitchenLeave a comment

The last bouquet of summer included the final flourish of zinnias, dill, okra, daisies, cosmos and nasturiums.

The leaves are falling, the pumpkins are picked, the last of the summer tomatoes have been plucked. The zinnias were clipped for a final garden bouquet. The okra stalks were added to the compost pile. The herbs moved from the garden to the greenhouse and the rockery raised beds are full of autumn leaves. October is waving goodbye. And that means something exciting is just around the corner… our annual one-day-only 40% off sale.

If you are new to the blog or the shop, you might not know that we always host this sale on All Souls Day, which falls on November 2nd every year. Technically a Catholic holiday, we selected All Souls Day not for its religious connection, nor its aura of spookiness (being so close to Halloween), but for the sheer fact that it is one of the few holidays in the calendar year that pays tribute to deceased ancestors. We wouldn’t have a shop full of wonderful heirlooms had they not traveled through other people’s lives, other people’s hands for generations, collecting stories and memories along the way. To us, all Souls Day seems like the perfect day to celebrate vintage style.

It’s also a lovely time of year to start preparing not only for the holiday season but also for the winter ahead where cooking adventures, gift-giving, and craft time await. Autumn doesn’t officially end this year until December 21st. If you’d like to hang onto the season as long as possible you’ll find many fall-favored pieces in the shop that will carry you all the way through…

If you are ready to start gathering ideas for Thanksgiving, you’ll find an assortment of items ideally suited for Turkey Day 2022 and beyond…

Christmas in the Vintage Kitchen always comes in little details. Red and white restaurant ware, a mini Christmas tree, an antique green striped serving plate or a shimmery candelabra that we are sure has seen some magnificent parties in its day. In the shop, you’ll discover a sampling of festive treasures waiting to add a little sparkle to your celebrations…

The sale begins at 12:00am on Wednesday, November 2nd, and ends at 11:59pm that same day. All items in the shop will automatically receive the 40% discount at checkout, so there is no need to fuss with coupon codes or discount names. We encourage you to use the wishlist feature on our site if you have multiple items that have caught your eye. Just click on the heart under each listing title and it will automatically add the item to your favorites list where you can then add them directly to your cart.

Since it is our only sale of the year, shoppers in the past have been known to set their alarms for the moment the sale starts at midnight. If you have fallen completely in love with something in particular, please keep that in mind. New (old) items continue to be added to the shop daily, so stop by for fresh finds leading all the way up to the sale. One of the items coming to the shop today is this set of six vintage Czechoslovakian luncheon plates full of pink, purple and cranberry-colored flowers.

As always, if you are looking for something that we no longer have in stock or you can’t find in the shop, please send us a message. We’ll be happy to add your name and needs to our waitlist. Having said that, I hope on this year’s sale day you will find something truly magical that makes your heart sing with joy. Cheers to all the old souls. And to all the cherished items that they have left for us to enjoy. Happy shopping!

Literal Joy at Year’s End

Published on December 31, 2021January 1, 2022 by In The Vintage Kitchen4 Comments

If I could comb through all the posts this year where I wrote the actual word “joy,” it would probably be embarrassing. Overuse of anything is never exciting. That usually signals that a dependence or an artifice or a crutch is involved. A thing that is trying to act as something else… a salve or a mask or a comfort. Could the kitchen really have provided all that this year?

The Oxford dictionary defines joy as both a noun and a verb. It’s defined as a person, a place, a thing. But also it is defined as an action, an occurrence, a state. It’s a tangible word and a guiding light all in one. It’s an immediate touchpoint and a faraway beacon. It’s a feeling. It’s an aspiration. It’s an anticipation. It’s joy. JOY!

In other words, it is as easy and as complicated to describe as any three-letter word can be.

This year, the Vintage Kitchen said hello to our biggest year yet. Our blog posts met more new readers from around the globe than ever before.

And the kitchen shop grew in leaps and bounds. In just one extra special day, of all the days, the shop welcomed over 15,000 visitors and grew in awareness and engagement tenfold over the course of twelve months. So much kitchen love!

We sent packages as far away as New Zealand this year and as close as 10 miles down the road in our home city of Nashville, TN. We globetrotted our way around the kitchen from Hungary to India, to Ireland to Indonesia to Israel and back home again to America. We prepared fish dishes, chicken dishes, dessert dishes, brunch dishes, and vegetarian vegetable dishes. We answered a plethora of questions about dishes. About your dishes. How much, how old, how rare? And we had the pleasure of learning more about unique artifacts from New Mexico, Minnesota, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia and California as fellow vintage lovers shared their personal collections and the stories behind them.

Read about the enigmatic Rico-Ward family and their linen collection here.

This year, we celebrated with several enthusiastic press mentions …

and we reveled in each and every one of the comments that shoppers sent to us upon receiving their vintage packages in the mail. With each new journey and each new milestone, my cup of joy runneth over. It’s not only a celebration of effort acknowledged but also a testament to the genuine care and stewardship of our community’s love of history and the objects in it. Whether it be a story, a recipe, or a tangible object, each item that passes through the Vintage Kitchen finds not only a new home but also a new layer of story, one that will ultimately mark, affect and carry forth a fresh perspective of old character for new generations to come.

In November, we had to make the very tough decision to temporarily close the shop down for the holiday season while we embarked on our biggest adventure of the year – a South to North move. This temporary pause in shopkeeping not only reminded me how much I truly love this land of the Vintage Kitchen and all the aspects of it, but it also reminded me that once you find true joy and purpose it will never completely leave you. I was so happy to see that even though the shop was closed for a bit and a big source of my creativity was stunted because of it, communication from this lovely vintage kitchen community never let up. You kept in touch.

While we are staying in a temporary waterside cottage awaiting some big plans for a big announcement coming soon, I knew everything was going to be okay in regards to leaving the shop unattended for a bit when, on the very first day that we arrived, I spotted a beacon in the cottage bookshelf. Tucked in between the potted plants and the Polish pottery, there was a cookbook. And not just any cookbook. There was…

Joy of Cooking! Irma Rombauer knew her own series of trials and tribulations throughout her life but she cast those aside in her middle years and went after the pursuit of a passion. She found it in the kitchen. It was the one place she would come to know best in the world. And in that kitchen, following that passion, she made joy…

All the editions of Joy of Cooking through the years.

Throughout the rest of her life, Irma witnessed firsthand, the endless amounts of joy that good food and good cooking brought not only to herself but also to every kitchen it touched. Maybe it was just a coincidence that this cookbook just happened to be in the cottage, just at the right time taht I needed to see it, but given the fact that there are millions of cookbooks floating around in the world, and the cottage could have been the holder of any one of those, the notion that it was a vintage JOY was pretty comforting. I like to think that it was a little sign from Irma herself, sent with love and a little message about joy in cooking, of cooking, for cooking and how it prevails always, no matter what kitchen you find yourself in.

So it is with complete love and gratitude, that I say THANK YOU so much to everyone who contributed to bringing joy to our little section of the world this year. Thank you for being both the noun and the verb. Thank you for keeping in touch. Whether you submitted a comment, made a recipe or purchased a piece of history from the shop, thank you. I hope you’ll always be a part of our joyful landscape and that we can continue to inspire each other year after year after year.

Cheers to a new year full of new potential and bright possibilities in the kitchen and beyond.

Happy New Year!

Market Bags, Mother’s Day & Some Newsy Bits

Published on May 2, 2021May 4, 2021 by In The Vintage Kitchen2 Comments

Happy May! Hope everyone’s new month is off to a lovely start. Around here, all the trees are proudly sporting their leafy greens and the city flowers are unfurling so many colorful shades each day brings a new sight of delight in the neighborhood. These long waited pops of color remind me of Janice in her book, A Paris Year, when she walked around the City of Light scouting out items of a specific color to photograph. Starting out at the onset of each journey, Janice would pick a particular color, say red or yellow or turquoise, and then look for things to photograph that were made up primarily of that hue during her walk. This past weekend, I did the same thing when I walked to the farmers market. Before I started out I decided on the color peach. This is what I saw along the way…

Blooming roses, a bright front door and a sidewalk cat named Lorenzo!

It’s too early for peaches at the market so there were no color-themed fruits to photograph in that department quite yet, but while we wait for summer crops and our next blog post coming out this week (a special Mother’s Day themed story and interview!) I wanted to share, in the meantime, some new changes that are occuring in the Vintage Kitchen, so that you can be kept abreast of all the latest news.

New Products

Most excitedly, the Vintage Kitchen is growing! Over the next few months, we’ll be expanding our vintage product range in the shop to include some newly made yet very classic kitchen essentials all based on historic designs or nostalgic stories that have been personally tried and tested for years. This is in an effort to introduce fun and unique finds to your space that will not only augment your love of the vintage aesthetic, but will also be of very helpful assistence in the kitchen. The first of these new products arrived in the shop this past week…

Introducing the French market bag! Imported from Europe, this is the best way I have found to tote vegetables home from the farmers market.

The bags, made of handwoven palm leaves, are light-weight yet very durable. The long leather straps rest comfortably on your shoulder and the funnel shaped design (wider at the top than it is at the base) allows for longer and more fragile items to be stowed away securely without being crushed or tossed about. No more broken baguettes or decapitated flowers with this beauty!

There are two different styles of the market bag available in the shop. One has long leather shoulder straps (pictured above) and the other has hand-held rolled leather handles (pictured below). Both are convenient for grabbing and going and they are both the same size as far as bag capacity. The preference, of course, is totally up to you, but I recommend the shoulder strap version if you generally tend to walk to your market or live in a more urban environment where you gather your groceries primarily on foot. It’s such a comfortable way to tote your items around town. The hand-held bag…

… I would recommend for shoppers who drive to their market since the bag sits up right on its own and stows away really well in the car. Tucked into the back seat or the trunk it does not topple over easily, and will keep all your market finds secure while you drive home.

In addition to being helpful, these market bags also bring a bit of Parisian style and joie de vivre to your shopping experience. Each bag holds quite a bit of items, so if you get carried away at the market, your bag will be able to handle all your whims. For example all this fits in one bag with plenty of room to spare…

I have used my market bag (the very same one with the long straps) for over 4 years now. It has become so indispensable, it adventures with me on a daily basis. At this point, it feels not only like a bag but also like a true and cherished companion! I can’t say enough wonderful things about it. I hope you will love the bags just as much too. There are limited supplies of each style and they are selling quickly, so if they strike your fancy don’t hesitate. You can find them in the shop here and here.

Email Newsletters

If you would like to be made aware of new items listed in the shop each week, along with special promotions and added seasonal content, then please sign up for our new email newsletter which will be going out once a week (starting next Friday). Unlike many of these blog posts, this newsletter is designed to be a quick read, featuring mainly photographs and a few links to some fun content. In response to many shoppers asking how they can be kept aware of new items coming to the Vintage Kitchen, and after testing out many avenues over the past few weeks, I’m excited to finally have a good solution that will help collectors find what they love quickly. Sign up for the email newsletter by clicking the subscribe now button on the left-hand side of the shop’s home page here. It looks like this…

Sold Items in the Shop

Another improvement for the shop this past week came in the form of relocating sold items to a new category all their own. This transfer, which removed all listings that were sold out from the general inventory of available items, came at the request of a few shoppers who were frustrated in not being able to easily navigate around the site to see what was actually available to purchase. But with many historians and researchers accessing the shop for informational purposes (due to all the history we include with each item’s listing) I didn’t want these sold items to be completely removed from the shop all together. In an effort to make it a pleasant experience for everyone spending time in the shop, I hope this new solution will help. From here on out, see all the sold items in this category (found in the header section) here…

Mother’s Day

I hope you’ll come back to the blog this week to read our upcoming Mother’s day inspired post about a talented seamstress in Minnesota who led a really an interesting and dynamic life. Through an interview with her daughter, who generously shared family photographs, their family linen collection, and many stories about her mom (including a recipe!) we’ll learn how one spirited woman lived a passion fueled life and defied many stereotypes that tend to be attached to women of the mid-20th century.

Until then, of you are looking for any last-minute Mother’s Day gifts, there’s still time left to find something just as unique and treasured as Mom is. From the shop, I recommend these items…

From top left: Vintage 1950s Maurice Urtillo Art Print, Antique 19th Century Steamship Chairs, Embroidered 1950s Pillowcases, Vintage Peacock Wall Pocket Planter, French Market Basket

What makes these particular items so wonderful for mom? All of the mothers in our lives deserve to spoiled on their special day. These carefully selected items will add a little dose of symbolic beauty to her every day, while also presenting her with a unique bit of history. French artist Maurice Utrillo (1883-1955) learned to appreciate the beauty of flowers from his mother, Suzanne Valadon who was also a painter. The his & hers set of antique steamship chairs signifed luxury and comfort aboard cruise liners of the late 1800s. Breakfast in bed never looked prettier in the 1950s than with a pair of embroidered pillowcases, which were often gifted as wedding presents. Peacocks throughout history have been considered the most beautiful bird in the avian kingdom and signifies power, protection and elegance. And finally, the market bag will add chic Parisian style and a little extra joie de vivre to each and every one of her days.

Find each one in the shop here print, chairs, embroidery, peacock, market bag. Hope they offer a little extra inspiration should you need it.

Until the next post… cheers to celebrating May, new growth and vintage-inspired joy! Hope you have a great rest of the weekend!

Hello and Happy New Year’s Eve and Thank You for Bringing the Joy in 2020

Published on December 31, 2020February 11, 2021 by In The Vintage Kitchen2 Comments

Hello, dear kitcheners. Hope everyone is having a cozy holiday and enjoying something delicious. I wanted to send out a little Merry Christmas post last Friday with well-wishes for the holiday and a photo of the outdoor Christmas tree we made for the city birds this year, but the December 25th bomb explosion in our city waylayed those plans. The explosion happened just a half-mile away from where my husband and I live. Fortunately, everyone we know is safe and fine, but the whole event was pretty nerve-wracking. We lost internet service for three days, so that’s what stalled the happy holidays post, but that time offline gave me a chance to think about this post and all things that brought real joy to a year that can only be off-handly described as challenging.

The Nashville skyline as seen from mid-town. September 2018

To everyone who checked in on us over the holiday, I just wanted to say a special thank you. I don’t often write about our local home base of Nashville here on the blog, because I always like to think of the Vintage Kitchen as a universal place that defies roots in a specific city, state, or country. But on certain occasions, local events and local situations do affect the workings of the Kitchen and therefore require some recognition. Like the highs and lows that punctuated every week in this calendar year, the holiday started off lovely with a snowstorm on Christmas Eve. How rare and enchanting! Then in the morning, there was a bomb and the city was changed.

In other years, other Christmases, this is what 2nd Avenue looked like during the holiday season…

I’ve walked this street a million times on my way to the French bakery for baguettes, on my way to the library for research, on my way to dinner at some favorite downtown restaurants. With its sparkly trees and century-old brick buildings, the atmosphere on 2nd Avenue during November and December is usually a reliable guarantee. It always hums with cocktail fueled celebrations, Christmas music pouring out of the bars, and a sense of bustling adventure as merrymakers drift from one entertaining music venue to the next.

Renowned in town as the section of the city that contains the most concentrated collection of Victorian and early 20th-century commercial warehouses, it has an enchanting aesthetic that blends the contemporary with the historic. Horse and buggy carriage rides line the street as country bands croon and tourists from all over the world traipse up and down, in and out, and all around the brick structures that have lorded over this side of the city since the 1860s.

Unfortunately, that environment is no longer a guarantee anymore. This is what 2nd Avenue looked like this Christmas…

On the National Register of Historic Places since the 1970s, the buildings of 2nd avenue for the past 170 years have told stories of Southern history that date back to the steamboat days of the Victorian era. Located just one block from the riverfront, they are especially significant in regards to the role they played in the commercial trade occurring along the vital Cumberland River during the 19th and 20th centuries.

With loading docks on the riverside and retail sales space on the 2nd avenue side, these tall, elegant and imposing warehouses were all-encompassing, enabling entrepreneurs to handle all sides of their business including shipping, receiving, distribution, and retail sales all in one place, all in one space.

Evolving with the times for different needs and uses, most of the buildings along the waterfront have been able to retain the unique architectural details that hint at what wharf life was like in the 1800s. Rounded doorways, intricate moldings, barely visible painted signs peek out from their facades. Side doors, basement entrances, industrial windows, weathered wood, hand-forged hardware, rooftop terraces, even a secret garden in one stretch hint at activities that once occurred. It’s not hard to imagine different days and different eras. In a city that is constantly growing and changing, this set of buildings adds a comforting sense, a grounding blanket, to an urban landscape that grows taller, newer, every week.

Downtown Nashville Waterfront Photo Credit: Austin Wills

But now the bombing has marked these buildings and left the fate of them hanging in a precarious state. All the damage has yet to be completely accessed, but it looks grim for several of the historic structures on 2nd Avenue.

It’s impossible to try and sort out the reasoning behind the whole bombing ordeal when information is still being gathered and one man’s mental state is still up to interpretation. Right now all I can do is chalk it up to a really terrible event in a year plagued with really terrible events.

It would be easy to slide into despair about everything that has gone wrong in these past 365 days, especially here in my city, but on January 1st, 2020 I wholeheartedly declared that this was going to be the year of joy and I’m determined, as the title of this blog post states, to wrap up these past 12 months by highlighting the things that did bring joy this year, no matter how big or small. So here it goes, pandemic and bomb explosions and race riots and tornadoes aside, here are the best moments of joy that occurred in the Vintage Kitchen this year…

If you are in a hurry and you need a nutshell, the year of 2020 goes something like this – we cooked, we read, we watched fun things. We donated, we crafted, we communicated. We treasured nature. We treasured life. We treasured any thing that grew in a positive direction. We laughed, we celebrated. We zoomed. We wrote about other times and other places. We researched. We discovered. We cherished anything that birthed a smile or spawned a good time, no matter how silly or fleeting. And we grew. This was the year for patience and appreciation. For understanding and for finding more meaning. This was the year for the Kitchen and for the comfort it brought.

If you have some time to spend over this holiday weekend, here’s a little bit more of an in-depth look at what made the land of the Vintage Kitchen most joyful this past year.

Kangaroo Island

When the wildfires broke out in Australia in January, we were on Week Two of the International Vintage Recipe Tour. Featuring a cake recipe popular in the land down under, we hosted our first-ever donation drive with a percentage of shop sales for the week going to the rescue efforts at Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park via their GoFundMe page. I’m so happy to say that the Vintage Kitchen raised over $100 for the cause. As a thank you on behalf of any and all donations, the Park sends out regular updates on how the animals are doing and the progress that they are making to get everyone back on their feet again. Every one of you who purchased a shop item during our drive in January, aided in this rescue effort, so I wanted to share two updates with you that really made me stop and smile this year. The first is this photo featuring a recovering koala that had been burned in the fires.

The photo was taken on weigh day in April, which is an exciting progress report both for the koalas themselves and the rescue team. I just love that the koalas get weighed on a tree pole. So cute! And this one looks so happy and ready to be back on the road to healthy.

In July, the park sent out this 2-minute video. Koalas are not bears, but when they all sit together on their tree branches they look as cuddly as a favorite teddy:)

A Press Feature

In November 2020, our very first International Vintage Recipe Tour dish (Week One: Armenian Stuffed Meatballs) was featured both in print and online with the readers of the Armenian Mirror-Spectator, a weekly newspaper based in Massachusetts. Especially exciting because the newspaper reports on all things Armenia from around the globe including news, arts, culture and cooking, the feature introduced a whole new community of home cooks to the Vintage Kitchen and helped promote not only our love of heirloom recipes but also our love of traditional heritage foods.

Messages From You

One of the most consistent things that helped fuel the Kitchen this year were messages from you. Feedback from shop sales, inquiries about vintage kitchenware and chats about blog posts and recipes peppered email and social media conversations throughout 2020. Here are a few fun snippets shared from within our culinary community that brought an extra dose of joy to the year…

Melissa wrote into the shop with a question about the age of her grandmother’s nut chopper, which resulted in a lovely conversation about family heirlooms. She also shared a photo of her 5-year-old kitchen helper, who is now the fourth generation family member to use (and love) this vintage grinder. How wonderful!

Viktoria, who you may recall from the Recipe Tour’s Austrian interview, sent a note and photo to say that she finally made it to the top of the Stanser Joch mountain this year. In her interview published in late January, when asked about goals for the year she admitted that it was hard to plan given these uncertain times. But one thing she hoped to accomplish was climbing to the top of Stanser Joch. In the fall of 2020 she sent this photo and crossed that goal off her list. How exciting! She joked that it was pretty much the only goal she was able to count on accomplishing this year, but in my book that makes it her best goal. Cheers to Viktoria!

Blog reader Gwen, wrote in to say that she braved the flambe and made Bananas Au Rhum (featured in this Haitian post) and not only enjoyed the recipe but also was impressed by the fact that she did not burn her kitchen down in the process! Cheers to you and your bravery Gwen!

Fellow blog reader and Vintage Kitchen shopper, Marianne, purchased the 1965 edition of Farm Journal’s Complete Pie Cookbook and then got to baking in her kitchen. She shared this photo of her first vintage Farm Journal foray… Country Apple Pie. It’s a vintage recipe that contains two unusual ingredients – heavy cream and tapioca. She wrote “It was good! You wouldn’t really think there was cream in there if you didn’t know. It makes the juices from the pie into a silky sauce.” Sounds delish! And cheers to a beautiful dessert!

Laura wrote into the Kitchen this month with a longshot request regarding the possibility of finding a very specific lost holiday cookie recipe that was a favorite of her 83-year-old mom. This humble inquiry opened up a world of wonder around the Vintage Kitchen for days, instigated a deep dive into vintage recipe archives, yielded two blog posts (here and here) and provoked a nationwide recipe search that connected a handful of people across a wave of different social media platforms. This 2020 search for the 1970s Date Accordions goes down as the most quickly solved (and most satisfyingly resolved) mystery of the year! Read more about it here.

The International Vintage Recipe Tour 2020

As you can see from some of the mentions above, the International Vintage Recipe Tour 2020 influenced and instigated many of the joyful moments of this year. The goal set out in January was to cook our way through the cuisines of 45 countries over a 12 month period with recipes that were featured in the 1971 edition of the New York Times International Cook Book. We didn’t make it all the way through the Recipe Tour this year, but I am pleased to say that we at least made it halfway. 21 countries to be exact! Not so bad considering the momentous sandwich of a year that began with a tornado, ended with a bombing and was stuffed with a global pandemic in between.

I am happy to announce that the Tour will be carrying over into 2021, so that we can continue the fun of exploring heirloom foods from far off places. The second-half of the tour will be handled a little bit differently in the new year – it will no longer be the only focus of the blog like it was primarily this year. Instead, the recipes will get peppered in with other kitchen posts throughout the next twelve months. It was a pretty enthusiastic schedule laid out for 2020, with a new country and new recipe featured every week. While those plans were industrious, they left very little room (and time!) to write about anything other than the Recipe Tour adventures. So in 2021, I hope to open up the blog to more posts about a wider variety of subjects and recipes, most particularly bringing back some seasonality to the blog and highlighting holidays once again.

In January we will be kicking off the new year, and the new half of the International Vintage Recipe Tour, with a hunger for Hungary (pun intended!). So stay tuned for more adventures in the kitchen as we continue to cook our way around the globe. In the meantime, catch up on previous International Vintage Recipe Tour posts here.

The Kitchen Garden

Quirky gardening ruled the roost around here this year, thanks to the help of a flourishing experimental garden that included papayas, coconuts, avocados, grapefruit and a Liz lemon tree. Finding new things to grow, new ways to grow them, and new garden subjects to learn about meant a continuous stream of curious growing in 2020. Getting hands in the dirt, clipping, pruning, shaping and fertilizing every week, indoors and out, added a sense of hope and purpose to the pandemic, as well as reaffirming the fact that life continues to grow and thrive regardless.

The succulent garden in particular really grew by leaps and bounds this year, and had to be re-homed to larger containers a number of different times. Two of the homes included repurposed containers – a hollowed-out half coconut shell and a broken vintage Japanese sugar bowl. The coconut was a leftover cooking component of the Ceylon blog post. The sugar bowl was destined for the shop but suffered an unfortunate fall before it ever got there. Now they are both quirky containers that bring joy to the kitchen each day along with reminders that life isn’t perfect and home is what you make it.

The Wormholes of History

The reliable saving grace of 2020 was the research. Whether we were traveling down the wormholes of history for the Recipe Tour, learning about the backstory of shop items or discovering the biographies of true adventurers from the past, it was these curious moments that lent an air of much-needed escapism when the pandemic loomed too large or the political world seemed too crazy. This year I was totally enthralled with these past lives…

Clockwise from top left: Pamela Harlech, Harriet Risley Foote , Adelle Davis and Charlotte Bartholdi

and these old objects…

Clockwise from top left: The work of novelist Rumer Godden, the art of French painter Maurice Utrillo, demitasse spoons from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and a vintage Portmeirion fruit strainer.

The Bird Seed Christmas Tree

Julia and Paul, our resident city mourning doves visited the balcony every day throughout 2020 offering their consistent, reassuring, and calming presence in exchange for a seed tray and a lump of suet or two.

They turned out to be quite the ambassadors for the neighborhood, inviting a host of other feathered friends to dine with them as well. Throughout each day of 2020, we had visits from chickadees, wrens, cardinals, cowbirds, titmice, blackbirds, mockingbirds and an occasional brown thrasher. We loved all these visitors so much that my husband and I made them an outdoor Christmas tree for them on the balcony, complete with white fairy lights, homemade birdseed ornaments, orange slices, dried fruit cups and cranberry swags.

The ornaments were fun to make – requiring nothing more than birdseed, unflavored gelatin and some cookie cutters. I wasn’t sure if the birds who had been used to a full seed tray every day would be interested in these ornaments at all. If this year taught me anything it was to keep my expectations low. But to my surprise, after day two of the decorated tree, Julia and Paul got to pecking away at the ornaments and encouraged the other birds to do so too.

This whole birdseed ornament Christmas tree project was an unexpected reassuring wrap-up to a climatic year. Once you mix the birdseed with a mixture of gelatin and water it sets over the course of a few hours and eventually, the ornaments harden – petrifying into whatever shape they form to. This process kind of reminded me of the year of joy. In the beginning of 2020, I was determined to focus on joy, find the joy, feel the joy. Then one catastrophe after another happened and joy felt harder to proclaim. Harder to find. Somehow though joy found its way. Present in the little nooks and crannies that formed the year. Luckily, those moments, like the birdseed ornaments, petrified and have turned hard and lasting in my memory of 2020. For that I’m grateful. For the joy I’m grateful. And for you and the Vintage Kitchen, in this weird and wonky year, I am grateful. For anyone who bought a teacup or a towel from the shop, shared a story or a recipe, left a note of kindness or support on a post or a story I’m grateful. In the nicest way, you are the glue of joy that stuck this year together.

Now, with just hours left in 2020, I would like to say cheers to this New Year’s Eve. Cheers to the strength that made this year liveable, to the micro-moments of joy and happiness that carried us through from January to December. Cheers to a more calm, peaceful year ahead. Thank you for being a part of the Vintage Kitchen. Onwards and upwards in 2021.

So Timely: All About Wishlists, Quick Cooking and the Biggest Sale of the Year…

Published on October 12, 2020October 12, 2020 by In The Vintage KitchenLeave a comment

It seems like a bit of a rush to talk about the holidays already. Autumn has just arrived and it’s not even Halloween yet. But time flies faster this last quarter of the year, and I didn’t want it all to blaze by without sharing some fun things that have been brewing in the Vintage Kitchen recently. Especially since they might be of help when it comes to celebrating the holidays this year.

Add to Wishlist

It’s here! It’s here! Your very own Vintage Kitchen wishlist is here! Launched just last month, you’ll notice a heartshaped icon on all product pages in the shop, both in the upper right corner and underneath every specific item’s title on each product page. If clicked, the item will be saved to your own personal wishlist where it will sit until you decide to remove it. Whether you are deciding about a vintage or antique piece for yourself, or you want to share your favorite gift ideas with friends or family, this will keep everything you love all in one organized place.

Shop Sale – November 2

Our BIG shop sale day is just three weeks away! Enjoy 40% off site-wide on Monday, November 2nd during our annual one-day-only All Souls Day sale! This is the only sale in the shop all year, so if you have your eye on something special, November 2nd is the day to capture deep discounts and get a head start on your holiday shopping. Discounts will automatically be applied upon checkout which means no coupon codes are needed. The sale begins at 12:00am, November 2nd and ends at 12:00am, November 3rd. Hope you find something that speaks to your soul or reminds you of a dearly departed loved one from days gone by:)

The Quick Cooking Chronicles

For all the busy cooks out there who are short on time these days, but still long for interesting, home-cooked foods, I’m excited to announce a new series of fast-acting heirloom recipes – The Quick Cooking Chronicles.

Not every fantastic vintage recipe I make in the kitchen actually makes it to the blog. This is a true travesty and something I have been trying to figure out a way to remedy for over a year now. So many marvelous heirloom recipes get left behind just because there is not enough time to research and write about their history in a thoughtful manner.

In an effort to continuously share good food, especially during hectic times, these not-enough-time recipes will now have a new home on the Vintage Kitchen Pinterest board, aptly called The Quick Cooking Chronicles. All the vintage recipes featured here are made with simple ingredients and simple steps. They are heirlooms that have been around for decades and have been sourced from old cookbooks, or passed down from family members, or shared between readers here on the blog. They are the good foods, the new (old) favorites, the time savers, the uncomplicateds. All made with just a handful of everyday ingredients yet arranged in interesting, unexpected ways. Super helpful, they are foods made for days filled full with gift wrapping and snow shoveling and turkey prep and hanging lights and decorating trees and clinking glasses and celebrating life. It’s a continual work-in-progress so check back often here if you are in the search for some quick, good recipes. I hope they will help bring ease to your kitchen and keep you fed and fueled! Here’s an example of such a meal… the recipe that instigated it all…

And finally,

The algorithms have been changing again on Instagram, which means that the Vintage Kitchen content is getting covered over. I have no interest in being a slave to these constantly ever-changing metrics with their unpredictable highs and lows and their peaks and valleys. I just want to bring good stories and good food to you:) The best way to help shed light on vintage kitchen history is to comment and to share posts if you feel so inclined or generally like the content. This will help our community of cooks and readers grow more vibrant each and every day and for that I’m so grateful! There are a couple of VERY EXCITING things in store for the Vintage Kitchen, all which will be unveiled soon. I can’t wait to share the news! In the meantime, cheers to Autumn and to appetites and to schedules that keep us on our toes 🙂