This shot shows the little bit of counter space that originally came in this kitchen, a third of which is inaccessible because of the farmhouse sink. That’s lactofermented salsa on the counter and a few random CSA veggies I need to cook asap. On top of the stove, I store my olive oil, Celtic sea salt, Real Salt, coconut oil, pepper, and the sugar bowl for coffee or tea (mostly for guests). I also store my oven mitt on the door to the oven (it has a magnet sewn into the seam) and I love how it’s always accessible. I use the top of the cabinets for large jar overflow storage. I haven’t found a use for those large glass jugs yet, but I’m sure I’ll be glad I saved them someday. I also keep my Abiding Mom vs. Super Mom chart on the cabinet to remind me why I do what I do.

This is my spice cabinet BEFORE I organized it.

and AFTER! blogged here

Moving to the right, we see the original farmhouse sink. It’s nice and big and I use the drainboard all the time for drying dishes or fermenting kombucha (we use the method of bottling the brewed kombucha with juice and letting ferment an additional two days to get a strong fizz). You might be thinking that the fabric skirt is kind of crazy, and you’d be right. But, I think it does a good job of unifying the white sink, cream cabinets, different shade of cream walls, red formica countertop, mint green backsplash, white fridge, black stove, and brownish greenish peel and stick linoleum tiles. Did I mention that the counters in the butler’s pantry are gray and the cabinets are a warm natural wood? Woah, doggy! I used three-inch wide heavy-duty velcro (one side is sticky and one side is not) on the underside of the sink. I attached the sticky side to the cast iron sink and sewed the non-sticky side to the gathered fabric. That way the skirt is removable for laundering. I have no idea if that is the way sink skirts are supposed to be attached, but it works! Also, using velcro gives you a bit of play to make sure the hem doesn’t drag on the floor. There is a linen envelope on the wall where I put the recipes I’ve printed out for each two-week meal plan. And, on top of the fridge you can see a yellow ribbon; that’s our Good Eater Award that we present with great fanfare to a child who might need a bit of encouragement with dinner.

There’s my good eater now! She helps Daddy with Pizza Fridays. That’s our pizza dough, which is also our bread dough, that we soak and prepare in bulk and freeze in plastic baggies. We just thaw out one dough the night before and then roll it out after a few hours of rising in the bag that afternoon. Adele is working the dough on our portable dishwasher, which just wheels over to the sink when it’s time to run it. It’s a bit inconvenient to have to hook it up when you want to use it, but not nearly as much work as hand washing every dish. =) We use a lot of dishes. When we have guests staying with us or dinner parties, I sometimes run the dishwasher three or four times a day. My Mother-in-law even says I have a PhD in Dishwasher because I am able to load so many dishes in each load.  The opening to the left is the butler’s pantry and to the right is the family room.

A little farther to the right and we are back at the stove again. I put this Ikea shelf in here so that my three-year-old daughter could unload the dishwasher. It’s probably not ideal to store dishes in open shelves near the floor, but I really like that my daughter can put the dishes away by herself. These are all the dishes we use every day. I also store canning jars on the shelves to the far left. I just made two gallons of yogurt, so I’m all out of quarts, but that’s where they go. That’s our two gallon jar of kombucha brewing on top. I have milk jugs and pickle jars on the bottom, but I don’t use that area much. I like that the shelf gives us a bit more counter space in here. The dining room is through the doorway to the left of the stove. To the left of the black shelf is an ironing board that folds down. I haven’t used it, but I think it’s kind of cool. Kind of weird, but kind of cool.

Here’s the butler’s pantry! On the left, you can see a batch of soaked granola.

Here in we have very shallow counters and lots of storage. I took the doors off the upper cabinets to make it easier to unload the dishwasher (that was before I put the black shelf in the kitchen). It’s not that pretty, but it works for us. I store potatoes and butternut squash in the large basket on the counter and garlic and onions in the smaller basket. On the counter there’s a quart of kefir brewing and the crockpot is making chicken broth. Why yes, that IS a lot of honey! We also have a gallon or so of maple syrup in the cupboard on the other side. And black strap molasses too. Yum!

We have baking dishes on the bottom three shelves. The next few shelves are for canned goods (just tomatoes, sardines, and a few random things – we don’t really do canned goods anymore), pasta, peanut butter, and miscellaneous food items. Then more jars, mugs, glasses, and kleen kanteens on the top.

This is on the opposite side of the butler’s pantry. I keep my wedding china in here, which we use a lot! Admittedly, it was more often before we had kids, but it really came in handy for the six-course dinner party we hosted this summer. I was glad we had so many plates (with salad plates, bread and butter plates, soup bowls, etc.) because I did not want to be washing dishes in the middle of the party. This is also where I house all my tea supplies. I have a LOT of tea! I just bought a bunch of herbs for making medicinal teas (on the top shelf and also on a few of the bottom shelves). My husband’s “pizza shelf” is on the very bottom, which holds everything except his pizza peel. He’s the pizza master and he shared all his secrets here.

A few of my recent ferments (from left): mango chutney, beet kvass, veggie combo, carrots in soy sauce brine, sauerkraut with carrots, and salsa.