Oil Lamps and No AGA

It was dark when I arrived home from work last night and as I drove down the driveway I noticed that the outside lights did not turn on.  They should have turned on automatically. The wind was blowing like a hurricane and I figured the power was out - again!  I was right.

Oil Lamp

I keep a flash light on the counter just inside the door and an oil lamp on the kitchen island so within a matter of minutes I'd turned on the flashlight, located the box of matches and lighted the oil lamp.
Reality hit me square on when I remembered that my AGA cook stove broke down last month and I've not been able to get it repaired, so its comforting warmth and ready cooking facilities were as cold as the rest of the house.  The power goes off here often, as it has around the area with all the fierce wind storms we've had the last few years.  But I've always had the AGA at the ready, which runs on propane and requires no electricity, radiating its comforting warm and making it possible to cook a nice warm dinner or boil water for tea regardless of the electrical situation.

My AGA Rayburn Classic Cooker
 

The AGA is the perfect stove for a country house.  When its working properly (which it has most of its 14 years in this house) it runs on either propane of natural gas and is on all the time - you can see the stove pipe in the picture. The round silver domes on the top are insulating covers for two large round pads that are the stove top cooking units. One is set for boiling and the other for simmering.  I can put two or three saucepans on each pad or one big canner.  The boiling pad boils a kettle of water in 90 seconds. In the picture above, the tea kettle is sitting on the warming pad. I can keep a pot of tea warm by sitting it on the pad and covering it with a tea towel or I can culture yogurt by sitting the glass jars of milk and starter on a tea towel laid out on the warming pad. It's a great feature.

The AGA has four ovens. Top right is the roasting oven set for 400 to 500 degrees. Under it is the baking oven set for 300 to 375 degrees. The top left oven is the simmering over set for 200 to 275 degrees and the bottom right is the warming oven set at 140 degrees.  You can sit a plate of cooked hot food in the warming oven with a little foil over it to keep it from drying out and it will stay warm and tasty for hours.  It's also perfect for drying herb, corn and making tomato leather.

Wonderful smells of cooking roasts and such come out that stove pipe into the outside air. Working outside in the yard, you can smell a roast in the oven and know there will be a great meal waiting at the end of your work. When you come inside the kitchen is warm and cozy, thanks to the AGA which radiates a little heat - enough that I can shut off the front of the house, set the furnace at 60 degrees and know the AGA will keep the kitchen and family room a cozy 68 degrees all winter long. 

The AGA was an expensive addition to the house. It came shipped from England in crates and had to be built on site. We added extra floor joists to the kitchen floor system and installed a brick pad to house its 900 pounds of cast iron .  It's cost was more than 10 times what a plain electric range would have cost and since its a built in feature of the house it was financed as part of the mortgage.

But it's been well worth the extra cost and effort.  The warm and comforting AGA is the heart of my home. Without its gentle warmth I am bereft!