My Kitchen Story with Fairy Platinum and BritMums

A lot of people say their kitchen is the heart of their home but I don’t think anyone can say this and mean it more than a farmer’s wife.

For us it us such a multi-functional room. I cook there-three meals a day most days so I spend a LOT of my time in there.

It is a play room-that much cooking and preparation means that little Boo needs entertaining when Hubster is working, which is most of the time.

It is used for meetings when various people come to the farm on business. We use it for the mounds of paper work which come with running an agricultural business.

When we moved to the farm, just under three years ago, the kitchen, as it is now, wasn’t even there.

It is an ‘L’ shape and the bottom bit of the L was there and was a pantry in the old part of the farm house. The long bit of the L is an extension.

When the foundations were laid, I spent a lot of time walking on them and, without walls, I thought it was going to be really small.

Once the walls went up though and the plaster went on, it seemed massive.

The company I choose to do our kitchen was fantastic. Despite my vague instructions, the plan they came up with was amazing.

I wanted it cream with a farmhouse, country theme-not very original on a farm, but it was my dream.

I was lucky enough to get a cream range-style cooker, a Belfast sink, a plate rack, wine rack, shelf for recipe books and a breakfast bar, still with loads of room besides.

For me, the table was one of the most important buys. I searched and searched for the right one.

I wanted it to be big enough for our (hopefully) expanding family and to have other family members around it with ease.

I ended up with a five foot square table which I bought for £20 off eBay. It seats eight comfortably but 12 at a push.

The logistics of getting it home were a nightmare. We attached a trailer to my car but the house where we got it was down a canal tow path and I screamed quite a few times before we were safely on the road home again.

Three men had to carry the top part in and we attached the legs where it now stands.

It is so heavy, I don’t think it will be moved for a long, long time.

We are able to have a tree in the kitchen at Christmas which I love as nothing makes you feel more festive when you’re doing seasonal baking than a twinkly tree in the corner.

We went for red to accent the cream and that includes the tiles and my feature wall which did start off powder blue but was changed to red on a whim and I really love it. There is also the nod to farming with a framed picture of cow breeds and a tractor calendar.

Our kitchen is lived in however. It is no show-room.

We have an arm chair in the corner which gets used as either a storage facility or, a dog bed when the floor is too cold for little Rosie.

The table, being five foot, has books piled up most of the time and a little DVD player for those times when nothing but Peppa Pig will do.

Our kitchen is a sociable space for parties and get togethers.

For crisis talks about the weather and even for hatching chicks (Hubster was not happy about the incubator on the breakfast bar but when they hatched, the chicks went outside).

I have written before how farmers do not function on cereal and salads. Hubster has a cooked breakfast each morning. Two snacks in the day-at least one being a hot one in the winter and a cooked meal at night.

Anyone working at the farm gets fed from my kitchen too. At sheep shearing, ten people ate bacon butties and home made chocolate cake and it is just a little below that number during hay making and other busy times.

Our kitchen is never dull but with that amount of cooking, comes an incredible amount of washing up.

Thank goodness for a dishwasher is all I can say.

Sometimes, I could do a dishwasher full of just cups-especially in winter when it’s cold and the kettle can’t keep up with the number of hot drinks requested.

It is a different life to most, living on a farm. I realise it is not for everyone.

When I stand back at night or early in the morning when it’s all tidy (apart from the little pile on the table), I am glad to be a farmer’s wife and invite people into my farmhouse kitchen which really is the heart of our home.

This post is an entry for the BritMums My Kitchen Story Linky Challenge, sponsored by Fairy Platinum.