Dear Better Homes and Gardens,
I double dog dare you to show some working kitchens and gardens. Take a tour of the Midwest during gardening and canning season, and introduce yourselves to some homespun guys and gals with stains on their clothes and dirt under their fingernails.
Sure the celebrities and high priced decorators you usually feature are swell, but most folks I know have little or nothing in common with these people. Money is tight, and kitchen tools and appliances are picked because they're needed, not because they are a fashion accessory.
Don't be afraid to show a messy kitchen every once in a while! Hard working kitchens have “stuff” in them. All that glorious food from the garden and farmer's markets has to go somewhere.
And haven't you heard – canning and food preserving is in! Articles like Home Canning Is Season's Hottest Food Trend; Consumers Preserve The Fresh Flavors Of Summer In Growing Numbers should tip you off to the fact that home canners are now a hot commodity. Whip out some Excalibur dehydrators and Presto Pressure Canners. Show me some food strainers and jelly bags, and some funky spice racks so I have an assortment of flavors at my finger tips. If you want to get fancy, you could do a spread on my dream pressure canner – the All American. That bad boy's got a metal to metal seal – no gasket – and is made to last. Plus it's made right here in Wisconsin.
One more thing – what do you have against weeds? Don't you know that many (if not most) of them can be used for food and medicine? Plus – (how amazing is this?) – they appear to be capable of something called “biological transmutation“. Some plants can transform certain isotopes of some elements into specific isotopes of other elements. This means they are capable of creating needed elements that are lacking in your garden soil. As a messy gardener by choice, your always well manicured gardens appear to me to be somewhat limited in their ecological diversity and available habitat for the native critters. Couldn't you possibly sneak in some room for a garden that's just a bit wild, once in a while? It would all of us who have less tidy gardens a little more comfortable visiting you, honest. 🙂
While I doubt that the folks at Better Homes and Gardens will ever read or heed this letter, rest assured that you, dear reader, may never need feel intimidated by my immaculate kitchen or pristine garden. We welcome all levels of tidiness here at Common Sense Home. Here's to a wonderfully productive harvest and canning season in 2013. 🙂
P.S. Several people asked about the apples shown at the top of the post. These are Spiced Crabapples and Honey-Cinnamon Crab Apples.
littledeer says
I never knew the All Americans were made here in Wisconsin! I bought mine off ebay while I still lived in Ohio. Bring on spring!
Dawn says
Very nicely said!
Jan @ Another Hatchett Job says
Amen! Real people aren’t airbrushed. Real homes look lived in. Real food is cooked in real kitchens with wear and tear and heart and soul and memories in every nook and cranny. Fancy kitchens are nice, but can you really cook and can in them?
Anna Quarles says
This is so very true to my way of thinking. Sorry I’m busy in the garden and I don’t have time to clean off the kitchen counter right now for your photo shoot! Geez, this magazine is something that is for those people who have enough money to have the cleaning service come in and make it spotless for the photo shoot this afternoon. Sorry my budget does not have room for such. I truly feel this magazine is something that is designed to make women feel inadequate as homemakers and the Lord knows the homemaker is the heart of the home! Remove the stress! Toss that mag rag out the door is my opinion. Quit buying it years ago and don’t plan to start again.
Lisa Lynn says
Lol 🙂 Good luck with that!
Jenny says
As one who was just last night lamenting my “messy” garden and canning supplies in the living room that have yet to find a home, I stand and applaud.
Jill says
Amen, lol. It ain’t always pretty, is it?
Heather-Joan Carls aka Serenity de Clare says
Amen! Plz send that letter to Better Homes & Gardens post haste! How true is that! Step into my tiny kitchen in my tiny apartment. The only appliances to speak of that I own is a toaster, an oven, a microwave, a smaller mincer with a broken lid you have to cobble together to get it to work, and a pair of cheap standard beaters with another pair of beaters that cannot do heavy jobs or else they smoke and smell horrid! I cannot afford much, well, my fiancee and I cannot, and we make do with what we have. We certainly cannot afford anything that is ever shown in any issue of BHG! Thank you!
Tami says
Well Said!!!
Kathleen K says
Amen and Amen. Sometimes my BHG sits for a few weeks/months because I’m too busy in the garden. Often I look at the beautiful kitchen and wonder how on earth they actually cook/preserve food in it!
Rosemarie says
Amen & amen!!!! I have a small kitchen, and last week’s winter crop harvest inundated my counters & floor. I had dirt and pieces of leaves & stems on the floor and the counters, produce in various stages of cleaning, pots on the stove for blanching, etc. A mess! But a wonderful gardening mess. (This is my second year growing.) Also, for a week my living room housed over 130 seedlings during the hardening off process – seedlings that were under grow lights in what will become the guest room. The bench in my living room was covered with seed packets, waiting to be opened for sowing.
BH&G worthy? Obviously not. But I think my home could be featured in Urban Farming magazine! Now THAT would be a prize!
Laurie in Bradenton says
My mother said God was the only who ever created without making a mess. Strawberry jam already on the shelves here in Florida. Tomatoes and fresh lettuce gracing the table!
katzcradul says
Isn’t it the truth! Show us something real for a change BH&G!
Sharon G says
Amen! My kitchen is for cooking…not for show!
Red Robin says
Well said.
Heather says
So timely! I think my canning lids must be pro-creating, as the jam gets eaten over the winter months they tend to crop up all over my kitchen!
Sue says
This has got to be the best article ever written!!! It is one of the many reasons I quit buying the magazine over 10 yrs ago! Where are the articles that deal with “Real Life” I love messy kitchens when you come back from a Farmers Market! I love the smell when I am making my homemade laundry soap. I Love hearing the whistle of my Canner know I have the best foods being saved for us for the next winter. The best when When we smell the yeast of homemade breads. Flat and loaves. Thanks Laurie!
Sue says
Forgive My spelling errors. Not enought coffee working brain cells just yet.
Annmarie says
For all the messy, realistic, practical “domestic goddesses” out there: this has made me feel so much better! I won’t apologize when we have to shove all the fresh herbs aside on the dining room table,to make room for a quick dinner before we head back to the kitchen garden! Praise the Lord of the Harvest for this abundance!