Wood Cook Stoves

This past weekend my folks were at our house for a visit and we all went to a local apple orchard, one of our favorite Fall traditions. After wandering around the orchard for a while, my family and I made our way over to the orchard’s shop and restaurant which features fresh, simply made food. One thing I like about this restaurant is that wherever there’s space available, there’s an antique. Old ladies’ boots, muffin tins, shoe horns and cheese graters adorn the walls while the floor space is taken up with washstands, apple-picking ladders and butter churns. Tucked away between two freezers full of pies was a monstrous black wood cook stove, the sight of which instantly sent my dad on a trip down memory lane. He recalled actually having a similar stove in the kitchen of one of his childhood homes and demonstrated how the wood was loaded in through a door at the front of the stove and pots and pans placed on the burners on top. I left the orchard with apples, apple cider, apple muffins, apple donuts, apple pie and an interest in learning more about that stove.

When I looked into it, I found that there is a demand for antique wood cook stoves and brand new wood stoves are still being made. Most of the old wood cook stoves still available today were built between 1850 and 1930. Not only do they make great conversation pieces when displayed in a home or business, but many people choose to cook with them, provided they are still in good working order or have been restored. Wood cook stoves seem to be popular with those who prefer the taste of food cooked over wood, want to save on gas or electric bills, or homesteaders who prefer to be self-reliant and not use utilities. Wood cook stoves can also be an additional heat source to help keep the home warm during cold weather.

While I doubt I could muster the patience to master a wood cook stove, I like the idea that although they seem so out of place in our sleek, stainless steel modern society, these beautiful cast iron behemoths still have a place in the world.

An older article about cooking with a wood cookstove