I love wooden spoons

This picture is much smaller than I'd like it to be, but when you google for images, you can't always get exactly what you want.


I've always loved wooden spoons.
Why?
Who knows?
Why does anybody like anything?
I have several wooden spoons, in assorted shapes and sizes.
I used to buy them in packs of three at the supermarket, but one day I was at the Brickworks Market here in Adelaide, just browsing, as you do, when I spotted a stall that sold baskets and wooden things and went inside.
Well!!
I could have browsed that one particular stall until the market closed!
Baskets in all shapes and sizes.
Wooden spoons........oh the spoons! Large, small, every size in between. Even some of those gigantic ones that people used to hang on walls.
I happily bought a few and made plans to go back when I could. With a bigger shopping bag.
(Sadly that hasn't happened yet, and maybe that stall isn't there anymore.)
Now, I have seven wooden spoons, although one has a square head so is probably more of a spatula, used for stirfrying. All of them now have different coloured bowls on them, because I use them for different things.
The largest one of all is in the laundry. I use that one for stirring things that are soaking in a bucket of boiling water and Napisan.
In the kitchen there's a small one that I use to stir my porridge as it cooks in the mornings. I've written porridge along the handle, so any visitors won't mistakenly use it for anything strong flavoured, like curry.
I have a round bowled spoon for curry, it's also used for things like my soy-ginger tuna stirfry, and anything else that uses those "hot" spices, curry, mustard, turmeric, you know the ones.
Then there's the long narrow wooden spoon that's used for scraping things out of tall jars where a wider or shorter spoon wouldn't reach, like spaghetti sauce, or those jars with Kantong sauces for chicken.
I have one with an oval shaped bowl and a slightly longer handle, used for stirring big pots of soup in the winter and another shorter one that I use for tomato based gravies and casseroles.
One spoon in particular is rarely used these days. It's my "sweet" spoon. Named so because it's the one I use for mixing cakes and puddings. The bowl on it is oval and shallower than the others and the handle is a bit shorter. It's perfect in my hand, weight and feel, for the "beat for three minutes" stage of mixing things. The size and shape just seem to make a great textured mix.
Lastly, there's a small spoon with a deepish round bowl that holds a tablespoon measure. It looks to be hand carved with an open twisted handle and it's two coloured, light and dark wood.
I meant to take a photo of it, (I thought I already had), but somehow forgot. I'll get around to it.
These days I never even look at the supermarket packs of three spoons anymore. They're just so....blah.
I search the specialty kitchen shops for something that catches my eye, something that looks different, something that I won't find too many of when visiting someone else's kitchen. Something unique and individual. There's not too many out there, after all a wooden spoon is a wooden spoon is a wooden spoon.
So I'm going to have to start going back to the markets and look there. The Brickworks Market, to see if that stall is still there after all these years. The summer markets that are held annually at the beaches, special occasion markets in other areas of Adelaide. Like at the almond blossom festival, or the farmers markets. Even "giant garage sales" type markets held annually by some councils. Car boot sales.
Oh, this is going to be fun! I may even find some wooden bowls to go with all these spoons.
Not to mention chopping blocks......

Comments

  1. Hi River,

    I've won a few wooden spoons ...

    :0)

    Cheers

    PM

    ReplyDelete
  2. I too LOVE my wooden spoons. And the one I use most is blackened by long use and fits perfectly into my hand. We have lots - but that is the one I use for preference. And there are others in the house that we have picked up in markets O/S which don't get used for cooking - are used to treat the eye instead.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Plasman; stirrer of the year awards?

    The Elephant's Child; That's how I feel about my sweet spoon. It fits perfectly and doesn't slip when beating cake mix. I don't have any decorative spoons, they all get used.

    ReplyDelete
  4. 3-pack wooden spoons just don't have any character, do they?! And it seems impossible to cure them properly. And the shape's all wrong, so is the balance.

    Makes you wonder why we bother with them when there's so many FAAAABULOUS pre-loved sppons out there - and the thrill of the chase in hunting them down!!

    Have a great evening!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Love the post and The Plastic Mancunian made me smile:)
    I love wooden spoons and feel well able to relate to this post. My 'most used' is my laundry job which stirs my pre-soak. Some things never change!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I don't care what anyone says. I love wooden spoons and chopping boards!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have two wooden spoons bought from a tiny, animated woman just outside Yellowstone National Park (Montana, I think it is). She went into what wood they were, how she made them: one is definitely a scooper, a yellow wood with a shortcurved handle. The other is a "mixer", dark brown and long, with a twisting, spiral handle. I love them both and they hang on hooks in my kitchen.

    :-)

    Pearl

    ReplyDelete
  8. We have two wooden spoons that we use for everything and already one side (on both spoons) is worn down a little which makes me feel like a grown up. I remember noticing my grandmother's spoons as a child, wondering why one side was smaller than the other. "Because I love to cook," she said.

    The other memory I have of wooden spoons is not such a fond one. When Mum was at the end of her tether she'd yell out, "If you don't stop doing (whatever heinous deed), I'll paddle your backside with the wooden spoon!" She never did though.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I am using my Mum's wooden spoons at the moment. they make me happy

    ReplyDelete
  10. Red Nomad OZ; I don't buy pre-loved spoons,I never seem to find nice ones that aren't too worn down. Mostly I search for that individual look that comes from being handmade.

    Chez; my laundry stirrer is the third one I've had. I've done a lot of soaking over the years. From nappies to work shirts.

    Beet; wooden chopping boards are so much nicer than plastic. If properly cleaned and dried, they don't grow bacteria either. I found the plastic ones smelled like vomit after a few weeks use, in spite of thorough cleaning.

    Pearl; can you post pictures on your blog? I'd love to see them.

    Kath; I remember reaching for "the spoon" and having all the kids instantly go to their rooms and shut the doors. Was I such a mean mummy? I don't think so. I never actually smacked any of them. Not with a spoon anyway.

    Frogpondsrock; I have my mum's big old wooden rolling pin. I've always loved it.

    ReplyDelete

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