It isn`t tough for us. We are OS and we COPE

kitschy

GreyQueen wrote: »

I, too, have been sighing over that photo and am utterly consumed with envy..........

I have long been afflicted with Larder Envy, something which I attribute to early exposure to these wonders in cottages rented by the older generation of my relatives. Young and impressionable (well, not now, of course). I have only one person in RL whom I'm prepared to admit Larder Envy to, and she is a fellow sufferer!

Can anyone tell me the difference between larder and pantry? They often seem to be used interchagably but I guess they once meant different kinds of storage or why bother having two words?

Yup - another green eyed monster here!

I thought one meant a cold-store and the other was for dried and tinned goods, but I'm not sure which and at all whether I'm right! I'll do some digging!

bellaquidsin

When I was young we lived in a house with a cellar. It was over-run with mice. My father built a huge cold table with a stone slab errected on bricks so the mice couldn't access it as they would have had to run upside down on the overhang. It was brilliant, as good as any fridge. Our milk never went off in summer.

PS My mother was very scared of mice and I used to get paid 3d a mouse for emptying the traps. I once earned 1/6d in a week, which was a small fortune for a ten year old in 1953.

Bella.

misscousinitt

Yep, add me to the list of green-eyed monsters...

I do my best, but I only have a small house and kitchen and can't stock-pile huge amounts.

I love all the jars lined up <goes off into a dream-like state....>

Charis

GreyQueen wrote: »

Can anyone tell me the difference between larder and pantry? They often seem to be used interchagably but I guess they once meant different kinds of storage or why bother having two words?

According to the pre-installed dictionary on my Mac,

larder |ˈlɑːdə|
noun
a room or large cupboard for storing food.
ORIGIN Middle English (denoting a store of meat): from Old French lardier, from medieval Latin lardarium, from laridum (see lard ).

pantry |ˈpantri|
noun ( pl. -tries)
a small room or closet in which food, dishes, and utensils are kept.
ORIGIN Middle English : from Anglo-Norman French panterie, from paneter ‘baker,’ based on late Latin panarius ‘bread seller,’ from Latin panis ‘bread.’

Perhaps a larder was bigger, colder, and further from the kitchen than a pantry - hence the storage of bread and utensils in the pantry, closer to hand.

GreyQueen

misscousinitt wrote: »

Yep, add me to the list of green-eyed monsters...

I do my best, but I only have a small house and kitchen and can't stock-pile huge amounts.

I love all the jars lined up <goes off into a dream-like state....>

You can keep tinned goods under the bed! In quantity. If you're reading this, Morganlefay, I accidentally lied to you; I have 56 not 52 lots of tinned tomatoes under there. An I think I'm going to get a cast-off valance from Nan to hide them from the envious.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

((Maniacal laughter))

maryb

And then of course there is a stillroom - which I think is where home made preseves were kept.

Ceridwen, I do use one of the rooms in the cellar for food storage. I've got my two freezers down there and the rest of the space is filled with Ikea shelving, plus I got DH to fit some wall shelves. Makes me feel positively Amish after I've organised it. It does mean that I can buy in bulk when things are on sale or when I get the chance to go to Lidls or Aldis (their tinned tomatoes are so much nicer than Sainsbugs or Tescos value). I've also got quite a lot of dry goods stored in old sweetie jars and the cheap cereal storage tubs that Poundland sell.

One of the other rooms is the utility room with washing machine and tumbler. That room is fairly warm because of the boiler so I have a couple of airers down there which means I don't have to use the tumbler very often even in winter.

Then there are another four rooms. DH has fitted up one with a workbench and the other has more Ikea shelving with all his tools on. Having the tools needed for a job has saved us lots over the years.

One small room has 'heritage' toys and the pram and cot which I am saving for grandbabies. There's a small fortune in Brio railway tracks and Lego which I wasn't getting rid of even though you have to be ruthless with the plastic tat. And the pram is a Silver Cross. It's just a small one, really a carry cot on wheels but so well sprung. That pram really sums up what was wrong with British manufacturing. It was so well designed and the quality was fantastic. But I ordered it when I was 12 weeks pregnant and it hadn't arrived by the time I went into labour. I sent DH home from the hospital to get some sleep after DD1 was born and he was just setting out to visit us at 9am the next morning when the John Lewis van turned up with the pram. It's not surprising they went bust - they were so badly managed. Now of course, they are reviving the Silver Cross brand and it's a status symbol to have one of the really big prams. But I wonder if the new ones are as well made. And I wonder where they are made. Probably not in the UK or at least not from start to finish - components probably imported from the Far East.

Anyway, the last room in the cellar is a general junk room. That sort of gives the impression that the other rooms are oases of order - I wish!! But having all that space does mean that stuff accumulates. And we have been in this house 24 years. So you can see why I can never face moving

Sweet_Pea_2

Our house was built in1969, and it's a fairly modern style, nothing really traditional about it, but it has a pantry. Most of the neighbours that I know of have knocked it out as the kitchen is not massive, so making a bigger kitchen. When we could finally afford to get our kitchen redone we toyed with the idea of knocking it out but it has a sloping roof, (as it's also under the stairs) so I wouldn't really be able to fit more than a double doored cupboard on the wall space, currently there are shelves kindly put up by the previous owners. Although it's not massive I have shoehorned a fridge freezer and a seperate freezer in there, along with all my kitchen equipment on the shelves and my best dinner service, tea towels etc, the iron, the ironing board, the veg rack, sacks of pet food, mop and bucket, ironing basket.... I'd never get all that lot into the same space if I knocked out the pantry.

Hearing what everyone else says though, and looking at the pictures, I'm wondering whether I should have a swap around and put all my food in the pantry and the breadmaker, steamer, slow cookers, baking equipment etc in the kitchen cupboards as I seem to be a bit topsy turvy.

My mums last house was built in the 80's and also had a pantry which like me she didnt use for food.
I remember my best friends house at primary school, she had a massive walk in pantry, which they did use for food.

ChocClare

ceridwen wrote: »

maryb wrote: »

Ooh..you lucky thing...a cellar is on my wishlist for my "proper home" if I ever get it:(. Could you maybe use them for "larder" purposes - I think thats the type of space often used by Mormons with their really "heavy" level stocking-up with food? I'd also have a go at growing my own mushrooms. I feel so frustrated every time I read about preserving fruit/veg by putting in the "cold store" and decide to do so and then remember "Whoops - cant - no cellar".

If you've got a garden you can dig a hole (a BIG hole :rotfl:) and make your own root cellar. You will need a small chest freezer - ask on freecycle for one that no longer works. I've got one not much bigger than an under-the-counter fridge, for example (though mine works and is in my kitchen ). You drop the freezer into the hole and then you need layers of insulation on the top, perhaps even covered over with earth - or perhaps not, or you'd never get to it - insulation plus a wooden planter on top might be better! Anyway, you can then apparently use this a root cellar, according to one of DH's books. I imagine you'd have to lean quite far down to get the stuff out of the bottom though...

ChocClare

maryb wrote: »

And then of course there is a stillroom - which I think is where home made preseves were kept

Yep, the room where I keep jam, pickles and marmalade is called the stillroom. At least by me :rotfl:

Most of the room is admittedly a utility room, but my kids love to mock and say it's in the utility - no wait - the STILL room. Oh well, what are mothers for if not for the amusement of their children?

Secondly: I have cellar envy. Of you. That is all.

mardatha

My house is built on a hillside and at the downhill end I can walk around upright in the foundations (I'm 5ft). We have a hatch cut into the floorboards in the hall. Its cool and very dry down there , very clean. I was amazed. If we were younger we'd have done something with that space but now we canny be assed