Great Grandmother's Kitchen

 You open the door and smile as you're embraced by a warm and comfortable darkness punctuated by firelight.  Around the fire are the grandmothers...waiting for you. A kindly-looking nana in a housedress and a more severe woman in long skirts, white hair in a Gibson bun, part, opening a place for you.  As you join the circle, your eyes adjust to the firelight, you think the fire must surely be bigger then you'd originally thought...past those on either side of you, regency dresses and mob caps make way for long gowns and exotic fabrics, cloaks, clothes made from folding and pinning rather then sewing, and finally, at the very back, an ancient crone wrapped all in furs.  She smiles at you, nodding her head before she speaks.  "There you are...why don't you visit more often?  We miss you, child!"  She rises slowly, and makes her way around the circle as she speaks, asking about your family, your health...are you happy? As she reaches you, she takes your hand and places in it one small seed; "It was good to see you again...but you need to be eating more vegetables. Pay us another visit if you don't know what to do with it."

Great Grandmother's Kitchen looks at history through a quirky lens while integrating neglected concepts into our modern lives.  While many posts focus on the Victorian or Edwardian (and modern Steampunk variations of the same), my love of the retro sometimes will take posts as late as the 1950's, when my grandmother was a young housewife herself.

More then anything, though, this blog looks at roots...Victorian culture is only a handful of generations away.  In some ways a world away, but in others, startlingly similar due to the Industrial Revolution.  Going back even further often leads to alien and uncharted territory, as well as unexpected jewels for those trying to reexamine what works (and what doesn't) within modern culture.  While I often write from my Northern-European heritage, the wisdom passed down is not exclusive to those cultures.  Food and nourishment are found in many shapes and forms, handed down to us by the grandmothers.  All we have to do is listen.