Diary of an urban Grandad
Carving out a new hobby
WOODEN spoons. Don’t know about you, but can’t say I spend too much time thinking about them in normal times. Only time they cross my mind is when I decide which one to use for stirring baked beans before they get poured over toast.
However, as we all know, now is not normal times. So recently these simple hearty stirrers have been looming large in my thoughts. For instance. The shape. There are so many variations to choose from. Oval, round, square edged and wavy. Then there’s the prices. Don’t start me! Ranging all the way from cheap as chips, four for a pound from Asda, all the way up to hand made artisan demonstrations of the carpenter’s art.
Hand carved, hand finished and with a very handsome hipster price tag attached. Suits you, sir.
Never quite sure if they are forgotten heroes or cooking champions. Either way, seems every kitchen has got one or two of them lying about. Mine certainly has, expect yours has too. All of them just waiting to be used, abused, cleaned and ignored until the next time their services are required.
Makes you wonder how on earth chefs would ever cope without these sterling stirring beasts.
By the way, if you are now wondering what has got me thinking so long and hard about spoonage. Let me explain.
As regular readers will have worked out by now, like many other folk out there, I am more than a little bored by the present Covid craziness. Admittedly, there is now a slow and squeaky roadmap pointing the way ahead. But that still leaves plenty of dull days to be filled.
So, I have been looking around for things to do. Tiny projects to bring relief from the monotony. Whilst chatting to a mate a while back, we both decided the time was ripe for action. We needed to find something new to fill the void.
For some reason, this mate mentioned that his blessed old mum used to do a spot of decorative wood carving. When she was bored. Purely for the sheer pleasure of it. Which was both weird, and also, rather impressive. This mate then went on to mention that he had a great aunt who took up the same hobby for the same reason. Seems the two old ladies could happily carve away side by side. Passing the time nicely, whilst also making lovely little knick knacks for home and hearth.
Not going to lie, at this juncture, I was getting a tad confused. Couldn’t work out where this story was heading. But then my chum dropped the bombshell. Since the sad passing of these two fine ladies, he now had their carving sets in his possession. Both of them. That’s right, folks, he had two sets of tiny chisels and even tinier wooden mallets to drive them. Didn’t take long for one of these sets to move within reach of my eager paws. On loan for the duration.
Neither did it take long to work out that although we might be separated by a few miles, there was nothing to stop us each getting to work, carving.
We could then send pictures across to each other. To encourage and sustain each other along the way as we set off on our new venture.
Only question remaining was, what should we carve? It had to be something that was not very big, not very clever and not very hard to produce. Especially bearing in mind the minor detail that we are both absolute beginners at the art of carvery. Hmm. Tricky.
As so often when difficult thinking is the order of the day, I popped into the kitchen to put the kettle on. Which is when I noticed our collection of kitchen utensils.
Expect you can see where this is going. If there is one thing you can never have too many of, it is the humble wooden spoon. After this lightbulb moment, things moved on apace.
Long story short, we both got to work with our tiny chisels, hammers and sandpaper. After many long hours of heartache, sniggers and rather hurtful comments from friends about my obvious lack of talent, the very first spoon has dropped off the end of my own personal production line.
It’s not the finest stirrer in all the land. But it is the only one I have ever made in my whole life. And right now, that’s enough. I’ll take that. Now all I have to do is use it to stir something substantial, to prove that it can take the strain.
Think it just might be time for beans on toast this weekend.
Hope you and yours are safe, well and happy.
Until next time, all the best,