Beth Emmott

Illustration from Breakfast, Dinner and Supper, by Maud C. Cooke

My grandmother gave me a number of early kitchen tools, most of which I could identify. One, however stumped me. It was cast iron and no one I asked could come up with its use. Many suggestions but …

This weekend our house is to be on a house tour and I was straightening up my cook book shelves and on the highest—I need a ladder to reach it—I keep old cookbooks. One, Breakfast, Dinner and Supper, by Maud C. Cooke, 1897 had illustrations of different tools and there it was page 104. A FISH SCALER.

Engraving of cast iron Fish Scaler c. 1897

Maud C. Cooke tells:
“Pour vinegar over fresh fish to make the scales come off easily…To scale a fish hold it by the tail under water (which is salted) in a deep pan… scrape the scales from the tail towards the head. The scales will come off easier under water and will fall to the bottom of the pan instead of flying about.”

Making some changes on this site.
Have added a portfolio page, rewrote the about page and changed the name from “Gardens, my non digital world” to “Beth Emmott, image maker”.
Still some changes to come.
Check the changes out.

After Connecticut we drove to Maine where we stayed with Margie and Joe in their wonderful home where guest rooms are private apartments, the food and conversation are wonderful and their garden is perfect for both human folk and VERY large doggie folk.

Bob visited with Joe at work and photographed along the coast while Margie and I headed north to meet Sally and Pam at the Maine Botanical Gardens for this years Garden Hoax. Words don’t do justice. It was misty (as all our garden events seem to be) giving the garden an ethereal feeling. We’ve been to lots of terrific gardens but this was different. It was a Maine Botanical garden. Where elsewhere beautiful flowers are planted to create vistas and swathes of color and texture, here the texture is of Maine. It is a garden in a forest.

Pam and I are in the rain in this pic Margie took
and House in the children’s garden with a cat fence!

Back to Margie and Joe’s for a bowl of home made chowder (what else) and the next day Bob and I headed north to Waldoboro where we stayed at the Blue Skye Inn, visited Pam and David, and ate Ginger Ice Cream in Thomaston (my mother has always raved of the Ginger Ice cream she ate in Thomaston, ME as a child in the 1920′s).

Alpaca

Bought alpaca from an Alpaca farm to card with some wool I have for spinning—this winter’s stress reducing project! and then home driving in one of this summer’s wild rain extravaganzas.

Short and sweet and lots of fun!

White dusting on the lawn with more slush and snow tonight. At least I had a glimpse of things to come!

The snow has finally melted – there’s more on they way – but I can finally see what’s peeking about in my garden and if I look very close I can see some fat buds on the forsythia and more exciting are the little bumps of daffodils poking through the leaves!

Come on Spring!!!