Maine newbie

[CharlieK]

After seeing a friend's enameled Dutch oven, last winter I bought a new lodge #8 DO & one of the links in my search for recipes brought me to this site. I'm sooo grateful to have found it! What I saw here convinced me to collect and use vintage cast iron. I lugged all my teflon cookware out to the garage, I'm done with it! My thanks to DougD and the regular contributors here, you've all added immensely to my knowledge but I have much more to learn. Although I've done my due diligence by trolling past posts here and elsewhere in an attempt to answer my many questions, I have many more. Please bear with me if/when I ask dumb ones!
I hail from a small town in Eastern Maine where some families, back when I moved there 47 years ago, used wood cookstoves and had a hand pump by the edge of the sink. Wish I'd started collecting ci then! Not knowing I was going to get bitten by the ci bug last year, I bought a circa 1920's Florence cook stove that was oil & gas, but last winter I had the oil gear removed and had a propane "fire log" installed in it's place. It's a beauty & I'm looking forward to doing lots of cooking on and in it.

 

[RickC]

Wish I'd started collecting ci then! Not knowing I was going to get bitten by the ci bug last year,

OH, let me tell you..... I've been going to flea markets, yard sales etc with my Father since I was about 6, I'm 44 now. If I'd have known that when I was this old I'd be searching out old cast iron I'm sure my collection would/could have been one of the best collections in the Western U.S. Ya' know what they say about hindsight.

 

[Jeffrey R.]

OH, let me tell you..... I've been going to flea markets, yard sales etc with my Father since I was about 6, I'm 44 now. If I'd have known that when I was this old I'd be searching out old cast iron I'm sure my collection would/could have been one of the best collections in the Western U.S. Ya' know what they say about hindsight.

You know that right Rick, best collections in the Western U.S.. Not East Coast.:icon_rofl:

Welcome to the forum CharlieK. Lots of iron over in your neck of the woods, fact I am planing my 4 trip this year to Maine. I come home with lobsters in my belly and iron in my truck every time. :icon_thumbsup:

 

[CharlieK]

You know that right Rick, best collections in the Western U.S.. Not East Coast.:icon_rofl:

Welcome to the forum CharlieK. Lots of iron over in your neck of the woods, fact I am planning my 4 trip this year to Maine. I come home with lobsters in my belly and iron in my truck every time. :icon_thumbsup:

Where's you're destination in Maine this summer? I'm not far from what is billed as "Maine's largest antiques mall" where I've spent too much $ already. I've got to hit some yard and estate sales when time allows.

Many folks are willing to give old iron away too. For instance, a friend who was contracted to demolish a 200+ year old house in Topsfield, Maine found a grungy skillet hanging in the cellar. It rode around in the bed of his pickup truck for a while, then spent the next few years hanging off a post in his sawmill lean-to before he gave it to me. I cleaned it with oven cleaner and rust remover over 3 days & nights, now it's my go-to skillet at camp. I'll post some pictures of it as I cannot ID it but it's pretty crude. Another friend found a #8 griddle buried in his girlfriend's lawn, so deep it had never been touched by a mower. Cleaned it up too & cooked a breakfast with it.

I've been a coin collector since youth and love the circulated examples most of all. I wonder who had them and what they were spent on back in the day. Vintage cast iron cookware is the same, I love resurrecting and using something that would have a story to tell, if it could.

 

[Jeffrey R.]

I attend any number of auctions, and hit every antique shop or estate sale that we drive by or take a spin of the compass. So you hit the Fairfield Antiques mall, I have been there also.

 

[CharlieK]

I attend any number of auctions, and hit every antique shop or estate sale that we drive by or take a spin of the compass. So you hit the Fairfield Antiques mall, I have been there also.

I work at the paper mill you'll pass just a few miles before the Fairfield Antiques mall. The best display is straight ahead, as soon as you walk in the door. Never met that particular vendor but he sure does an outstanding job of prepping his iron, the owner says he uses an e tank. Not sure what he does for the initial seasoning, but it looks real nice. Another vendor has a new old stock Griswold #8 Dutch oven with lid (sticker in place) and trivet for $135. haven't bought it because it's just too nice to use. If it were a deep DO, I'd buy it regardless, I really need one.
It's reassuring to know that I live so close to a ci source that would draw an experienced hound such as yourself, I'll consider myself lucky!

 

[MikeZ]

Welcome, Charlie

Good to meet someone else from Maine! The last time I was in the Fairfield Mall, I met a guy with a ruler, checking the bottoms of skillets for flatness and he said he had a newly restored iron stove. When I mentioned this site as the go-to place for CI info, he said he was planning to join up. Thinking that was you?

If you're ever down in the southern Maine area, plan on spending time at the Arundel Flea Market. I've only been there twice and both when vendors were packing up, but thought there were good prices on CI. Last trip thru, got a great "ERIE" No. 9 skillet for $18.00 (added it to my Nos 7 and 8).

Good luck hunting and hit those yard sales and people with camps!

 

[Jeffrey R.]

It's reassuring to know that I live so close to a ci source that would draw an experienced hound such as yourself, I'll consider myself lucky!

You are lucky, you can eat lobsters on the beach any time. I have to drive over, land locked VT. There are not to many places that I have not been to in Maine, NH, & VT. for antiques. But I have been to all New England states antiquing.

I just returned last night from a day of an auction, antiquing & YD sales in NH, & Maine. Ended up over to Windham, Maine for dinner at Pats Pizza. Very Good.:glutton:

Have you ever been to the Chicken Barn in Ellsworth? Pack lunch.

 

[CharlieK]

Welcome, Charlie

Good to meet someone else from Maine! The last time I was in the Fairfield Mall, I met a guy with a ruler, checking the bottoms of skillets for flatness and he said he had a newly restored iron stove. When I mentioned this site as the go-to place for CI info, he said he was planning to join up. Thinking that was you?

Wow, it's a small world, huh? At that time I had been visiting this site but hadn't yet joined, you pushed me over the edge! Thanks!
Another example of a small world is that, while I live and work near the Sappi mill in Skowhegan, my home town is Springfield, & I have lots of friends in the area as well as a lakeside camp, where the cookstove you mentioned resides. Been wondering who you are, the fact your last initial had me puzzled since most people in Dunkie are Faloons or McKechnies!

---------- Post added at 07:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:54 PM ----------

You are lucky, you can eat lobsters on the beach any time. I have to drive over, land locked VT. There are not to many places that I have not been to in Maine, NH, & VT. for antiques. But I have been to all New England states antiquing.

I just returned last night from a day of an auction, antiquing & YD sales in NH, & Maine. Ended up over to Windham, Maine for dinner at Pats Pizza. Very Good.:glutton:

Have you ever been to the Chicken Barn in Ellsworth? Pack lunch.

Gee, I was planning on trying to pick up some iron on my way to visit my daughter in Fairfax but if you've got the place picked clean, I may as well stay in Maine!
No, never been to the Chicken Barn but if I'm in that area, maybe I'll check it out.