No Man Is An Island . . . But a MUST In The Kitchen!

Linderhof's kitchen is small

10 by 10

And what does one do with a kitchen so small?

Why put an island in the middle, of course!

A 1940s era kitchen cabinet was the first island

Then about 15 years ago we had one custom built

The top of the island is marble

From 1885 or so

From the State Hospital where I used to work

It was well used when I got it

And I've not been kind to it

Whoever says marble is a bad choice in the kitchen

Really doesn't know what they're talking about!

When Daughter Sarah and her Andy looked at their house,

the kitchen boasted a piece of furniture used as an island

with two pendants hanging over.

Sigh -- the sellers took that island with them

(leaving the pendants, however)

Sarah and Andy were island less

And then our Scottish Rite had a complete auction

of their almost century old building in our little town,

Sarah looked over the auction photos

And spotted this

That piece with the wooden top with the big coffee urn on top

Could we go look at it, she asked,

And we did

And took pictures and sent them to her

The top -- with patina from many years of use

And, it appeared, many years of grease!

But it was sturdy

And we carefully measured to make sure that it wasn't 

"too big" or "too small" 

That it was "just right"!

On the side we found this

 A brass plaque

We attended the auction, we were the high bidder

(although it was a fierce bidding war for the piece --

there were others there that saw the potential in the piece)

We took it up when we went north for

Grandgirl Lucy's birthday

And unloaded it

The rest was up to Sarah and Andy

We received these pictures last Friday

The island, 

the top cleaned,

the bottom painted 

The wooden butcher block oiled

And in place in the kitchen

It fit perfectly in that space

under the two pendant lights

And we got pictures of all angles

The shelf is handy for those big baking dishes!

 And the plaque

Cleaned and polished

and the brass shines like new!

One thing that both islands have

(hers and mine)

Is a commercial can opener

I can't think of using any other type of can opener

It opens tomato paste cans to the huge commercial cans with ease

Sarah's has one, too,

although hers is newer than ours

If you planned a piece for this kitchen,

I don't think you could come up with anything better

than this almost century old island with a well used butchers block top

But there is more --

It's not just an island from the Scottish Rite kitchen

Jim and I have used that island many times preparing food for

Rotary feeds and Beacon soup lines

It is because of that island that I have a commercial can opener

One of the first times we used that kitchen, I feel in love with their can opener

We found one at an antique shop three months later

And it came home with me

But there is still more --

I catered Daughter Sarah's wedding to Andy in 2002

We rented the Scottish Rite kitchen to prepare the wedding feast

(it was like a second kitchen to me because of all the time we had spent in that kitchen

cooking spaghetti and meatballs and tacos and soups for thousands of people)

We used that island when we prepared the wedding feast.

Friend Shirley Ann chopped all the broccoli for the salad on that island

The 175 pounds of brisket that we cooked was sliced on that island.

It's not just part of Fort Scott's history,

that island

but it's part of Sarah and Andy's history.

And that's why we like to buy old things --

they have a history that new things never will.

They did a great job on their refinishing

It's a great piece and looks so good in their kitchen!