The Old Wood Stove Teakettle

A teakettle always sat on the wood-burning cook stove in our farm kitchen. Why? Nobody in the family drank tea. Not once in my years at home, well maybe once when a fussy Chicago visitor demanded the beverage, did I see anyone make tea using our teakettle.

With no indoor plumbing at the home farm, the teakettle, which never left its place on the cook stove, provided our sole source of hot water. Its uses were many. Thawing out a frozen pipe in the pump house. Removing the ice from a frozen pig trough. Providing hot water for what my father called a “whiskey sling” when someone in the family had a cold. [Directions for a whiskey sling: Start with a tall glass of hot water. Add a jigger of “medicinal” whiskey, and add a little honey to make the concoction go down more easily.]

The idea of the whiskey sling, which was taken just before bedtime, was to cause the sick person to sweat. “It’ll sweat that cold right out of you,” Pa would say.

It worked. I’m still here.

Today, at our Roshara Cabin, we cook with a wood-burning stove. And the teakettle (see photo) is always there. One difference. It has been a long time since I’ve partaken of a whiskey sling.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: I met a fellow the other day who talked nonstop and didn’t say a thing.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Tune in Public Television on Tuesday, March 6, 7:00 pm. to see my newest documentary, ONE ROOM SCHOOL.


Purchase Jerry’s DVDs and his Books from the Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
920-622-3835
The library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs:

Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)
Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)
The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows,) and Never Curse the Rain, Jerry’s newest DVD based on his book with the same title.

Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his latest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also available are Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guidebook for those who want to write their own stories.
Contact the library for prices and special package deals.