subject: Life Refected In A Farmhouse Table [print this page] The history of farmhouse tables is well worth telling, because it cuts through the social structure of how people lived their lives over the past 150 years. Society has always tried to improve its own position, either by making things easier or by growing with technology and using new ingredients discovered by scientists.
By looking at recent developments , one can look far below the surface and see how a society lived , worked and survived. This can be said for all aspects of life not just pine furniture, or in this case a simple pine farmhouse table.
The main place of a family congregating used to be the kitchen.It was the social meeting place for the family, work was done in meal preparation,and in the time before television, people entertained themselves, and most probably talked more. Children not stuck in computer games, would have to communicate. Daily food was bought locally in small shops not impersonal supermarket giants
Food already prepared to authentic recipes from around the world ,can now be pulled out of freezers that line the walls in one of the many supermarkets, that are found out side the local towns. These ready meals can be stored at home in freezers, and heated up in a microwave oven. With this progress comes a complete breakdown or change in family structure or life.
All the food was prepared on the kitchen table, and after use it would be scrubbed down and either eaten off or made ready for using the next day.
Farmhouse tables tended to all look the same, thick top and solid legs , sometimes straight and sometimes turned legs. There was always a very practical drawer for storing cutlery. the washing or scrubbing that the tables had done to them is in fact an effect that is popular today, as we clearly want reminders of our past.
