Hitty Visits the Tin Shop at Old Sturbridge Village!

The Lovely Glow of Autumn, Tin and Lantern Light!

Tin lantern made at Old Sturbridge Village with the double sunburst design.

How lovely the light of the design shines!
I love this little lantern and how cheerfully the lantern light sparkles!

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Autumnal splendor at Old Sturbridge Village with the Fitch House and the Center Meetinghouse at the end of the common.

Outside the tin shop at Old Sturbridge Village.

Inside the tin shop the tinner punches a design for a lantern.

The work of the tinner is put to practical use in the butt'ry at the Freeman Farm as the lady fills a tin measure with water.

Our second cousin John May married Delia, one of the Freeman daughters. John May, Delia, and their children lived with Delia's parents at the Freeman Farm in the late 1830s.

On the drainer is a tin skimmer used to skim cream off the milk.

Looking out the window, of the hallway to the woodshed at the Pliny Freeman Farm, at the gathered harvest outside.

The squash harvest was then brought in and stored within the bedroom of the Pliny Freeman Farm.
There is a mellow beauty and autumnal glow to the gathered harvest put away to keep.

The large dark orange are Boston Marrow Squash and the large striped green is a green striped cushaw squash. The little green round one is called an American Citron Melon.

Pumpkins, squash, potatoes, apples and canned goods stored in the Corgyncombe Butt'ry.
This photograph is from our previous post
"Thanksgiving, The Old Way!".

Tasha Tudor illustrated a lovely butt'ry on
the cover of "The Butt'ry Shelf Cookbook".

I keep squash and pumpkins about the cottage, under tables and even under the dollhouse 863 Park Avenue where Tillie Tinkham, the seamstress mouse at Corgyncombe, has a shoppe "Tillie Tinkham's Frocks & Fashions" with Millinery and Tea Room.

I have kept pumpkins at Corgyncombe Cottage until April.

Some of the photographs and some of the writings on this post are from previous Corgyncombe Courant posts that can be found here on the Corgyncombe Courant and from our previous postings elsewhere on the internet.

Squash seeds to save at the Freeman Farm.

Tin basins stored under the table at the Pliny Freeman Farm.
A basket of harvested carrots and some cucumbers alongside in a tin pan.

A receipt for Gourd Soup on the table at the Freeman Farm.

Nanny Nettie-Kin has had an abundance of squash at her Pumpkin House gardens and decides to make gourd soup.

Above, she is chopping the squash.

Nanny Nettie-Kin cooking her gourd soup on her old cast iron stove, which is called the "Ark".

 Nanny Nettie-Kin puts the gourd soup through a sieve.

Nanny Nettie-Kin serves gourd soup.

She went out in her herb garden and found the smallest leaves of sage to put atop the soup.

All the Hittys at Pumpkin House find it to be most delicious!

Tin measures and a funnel in the butt'ry at the Freeman Farm.

Hitty in the Tin shop.
As she stood there, the tinner thought I was only taking a photograph of the lantern.
I motioned to him to peek around the other side and he smiled as he saw Hitty.
Hitty said she liked this lantern and would like to bring one home!

Tin Lantern Light

The light of from the lantern creates a lovely design on the wall.

Tin Caddies

On the upper right is a nurse lamp.

Tasha Tudor delighted, as we do, in refined, simple elegance, in a country way, and the combining of the every day old fashioned tasks as our ancestors did, with artistic skill that could be seen by the beauty in their accomplished results... such as baskets, clothing, gardens, pottery, tinware, textiles, furniture, food preparation, architecture, and even their tools.

How we appreciate the artisans in the old days and now, who through their talents and hard work make beautiful and well made things with their hands!

The tin shop at Old Sturbridge Village.

Pouring water from a tin measure into a tin basin for washing dishes at the Freeman Farm.

Tin turning tool.

Tin measures, graters, cookie cutters and sconces.

In the tin shop at Old Sturbridge Village, a tin kitchen used for roasting meat in front of the fire.

At Corgyncombe, a view of the turkey that faces the fire.
My Tasha Tudor reproduction tin kitchen made by Carl Giordano and sold by Tasha Tudor and Family.

I was so pleased when they became available as I wanted a reproduction of Tasha Tudor's tin kitchen.

As Tasha Tudor herself said, a turkey roasted in a tin kitchen is "Simply unsurpassed!"

Roasting a turkey outside in the Christmastide snow at Corgyncombe.

In Tasha Tudor's "Around the Year", Tasha has illustrated a tin kitchen with traditional Thanksgiving food around it. In "A Time to Keep", Tasha Tudor illustrated a lady basting the turkey in a tin kitchen in front of the fire. Hungry corgyn gather round, hoping for a taste of turkey. "The New England Butt'ry Shelf Cookbook" written by Mary Mason Campbell and illustrated by Tasha Tudor, also features an illustration of a woman using a tin kitchen with a table of Thanksgiving food. In "A Basket of Herbs", illustrated by Tasha Tudor, on the Sage pages there is a lady fixing a turkey to be put in the tin kitchen with hungry corgyn looking on.

Punched tin lanterns on display at the Early Lighting Exhibit at Old Sturbridge Village.

In the pasture along the fence line in front of the Freeman Farm at Old Sturbridge Village, this squirrel found an ear of corn of which he is removing kernels and then....

He digs a hole, deposits the corn kernels and covers them up.
He moved along the fence digging holes for kernels, bringing his ear of corn down the fence line of the pasture of the Freeman Farm.

Corgyncombe

Pumpkin House
An Old New England House

Nanny Nettie-Kin and the Little Dolls of Pumpkin House gathering the harvest by tin lantern light!

Nanny Nettie-Kin and the Little Dolls of Pumpkin House
bringing the harvest in to the hall of their Old New England House.
Many hands make light work.

And Tillie Tinkham comes and little paws help, too.

As the days get shorter, darkness comes early. A lantern that stays lit in the wind becomes handy. Alongside the lantern is a milk bucket made from tin the old way by a tinner, John Forshee.

Corgyncombe's tin collection made by
John Forshee of Cincinnatus, New York.

There are three different sizes of milk pans.
John Forshee and his father were both tinsmiths.

My great great great grand Aunt Parthenia (Shepard) Richards also lived in Cincinnatus, New York and her son James Richards was a tinner. Parthenia was second cousin to John May who lived at the Freeman Farm at Sturbridge.

The squash are stored in the hall of Pumpkin House,
which also serves as Nanny Nettie-Kin's Herbary.
Hitty had rushed upstairs with her favorite Pumpkin and hid it under the bed to later make a "Pumpkin Moonshine". Tasha Tudor wrote and illustrated the book "Pumpkin Moonshine" about a little girl who found a special pumpkin to make a pumpkin moonshine.

Sarah looking for the best pumpkin in the patch.
Tasha Tudor was delighted by this photograph that I took of my daughter Sarah.

Sarah of Corgyncombe was Tasha's model for the illustrations of the little girl Kathy in "The Real Pretend". Our Kitty was illustrated in the above pose and also as various ages on the cover. "The Real Pretend" was written by Joan Donaldson and illustrated by Tasha Tudor.

Pumpkin House
An Old New England House

Nanny Nettie-Kin and the Little Dolls of Pumpkin House

The beautiful autumnal leaves can be seen out the window.

Nanny Nettie-Kin, Hitty and Ima were made by talented doll carver Judy Brown.

A basket of acorn squash harvested from the Vegetable Garden at Corgyncombe.

A Small Little House for a Small Little Nanny and a Wee Little Mouse.
The Boston Marrow Squash alongside Nanny Nettie-Kin and Tillie Tinkham the seamstress mouse, in the "Small House" at Old Sturbridge Village.
Nanny Nettie-Kin and Tillie Tinkham love the Middlefield Sprig wallpaper! This wallpaper is a reproduction of the antique wallpaper found in Middlefield, New York, a town where my ancestors lived. It is the town where my great great grand uncle was a tinner in the 1800s.

Here is a link to:
the Receipt for Gourd Soup
at Old Sturbridge Village

Here is a link to:

Almost 89 year old Tinner John Forshee

working in his tin shop with old tools.

A fantastic video, you will love it!

Here are links to our previous posts in the series of
"Hitty's Journey and Adventures
at Old Sturbridge Village"
at the
Corgyncombe Courant:

Hitty Visits Old Sturbridge Village, Freeman Farm!

At Old Sturbridge Village Hitty Finds George Washington!

Hitty, Tasha Tudor Birthday Celebration,
and Asa Knight Store at Old Sturbridge Village!

 Tasha Tudor and Old School House Remembrances!
Old Sturbridge Village School Attended by Izannah and Hitty!

Here is a link to:
Old Sturbridge Village

Our email:
atthecottagegate@yahoo.com

http://corgyncombecourant.blogspot.com/2014/11/hitty-visits-tin-shop-at-old-sturbridge.html
copyright © 2014 Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson
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