There is NO heat like the heat from a wood fire either in a stove or in a pile or pit. I still have a wood burning kitchen stove in my kitchen, it still works, but it is much easier to push a button and get electric heat. But the smell of cooking with wood and the radiance from the stove still brings back memories of the GOOD OLD DAYS.
In the good old days we would use “liter knots” to start the fires in the fireplace and wood burning stove. “LITER KNOTS ” were “aged pine” found in decaying pine logs or stumps. When rabbit hunting in the winter, when we happen upon an old pine stump, we would kick the decayed would away and in the middle would be a ROSEN rich “LITER KNOT.” We would put them in our coat and take them to use only to start fires.
The kitchen wood stove NEVER went out, stayed warm between meals. My mom would place small arsh taters in the oven between meals and they would bake to a soft crisp taste. Them taters were our snacks.
—LC Barn
It’s been so warm we haven’t had a fire in the last few days. But winter’s not over so there’s still ample time to warm by the woodstove which happens to be one of my favorite things to do on cold days.
My Granny Gazzie had an electric stove in her little kitchen, but she also had a wood cookstove that she still used when I was a girl. I loved to see her or Aunt Fay lift the eyes to drop in a piece of wood. I marveled at the fire glowing through the circle every last time. I loved to open the warming shelf above the stovetop to get one of Granny Gazzie’s biscuits that were leftover from breakfast.
We call the pine LC described rich pine instead of liter knot. I’ve heard it called several other terms too. When Matt is out and about in the woods he always keeps an eye out for it. It’s the best fire starter and free from the woods is hard to beat. We did an entire video about rich pine a few years ago. You can see it here.
Last night’s video: Cleaning Out the Greenhouse.
Tipper
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As much as I love reading your blog Tipper, the comments are full of stories from all your readers. So double pleasure.❤️
Dale, I agree 🙂 the comments are wonderful!
I always heard dried corn cobs were good fire starters
We call it “fat lighter”, and still look for it any chance we get.
My granny had a pot bellied wood stove in the main room for years and we’d sit in rocking chairs around it to stay warm. I remember ruining a pair of Trax tennis shoes from K-Mart by putting them on it while propping my feet. They’d get so hot the rubber wound melt and smell funny. I’d do it a little at a time. Daddy got her an oil furnace heater and moved the pot belly stove to the kitchen and use it while also using the electric stove. It’d get so hot in that kitchen it’d run you out of there! Good memories. ❤️
I love our wood stove. I have so many memories of wood stoves and pot belly stoves. My grandparents only het with a pot belly stove. It would get so hot in the sitting room and be so cold in the bedrooms. Mamaw would cover us so deep with quilts we couldn’t move. Good memories!! God bless y’all!
My people in Oklahoma called it fat wood or fat pine.
We called the pine Fat Pine and Rich Pine. It doesn’t take much to get the fire going. Thinking back to my childhood days, and I’m a senior citizen, I can just hear Mamaw in the kitchen stoking the old cast iron kitchen wood stove. I could hear pans rattling as she was making breakfast. The aroma would fill the house with sausage, buicuits, eggs and gravy. This is a memory I will never forget.
I grew up with a wood stove in our living room as the only heat. It kept our little house nice and warm. It was a family affair to get the wood we needed. Daddy would cut and mama and all us kids would load the truck and help stack it at home. We also burned coal sometimes. My hubby and I lived in a trailer when we were first married and it had fuel oil heat. He was afraid of the furnace, as it and the trailer were very old. So he built a room on and put in a wood stove. It kept us as warm, even in an old trailer with hardly any insulation. We built our house in 1986, and heated it with our little Earth wood stove in the basement. For about the last fifteen years or more, we have used an outdoor wood stove and we love it. We still keep the little Earth stove we had in the trailer in our basement in case of an emergency. We plan to put in a gas furnace soon though, just to have a second source of heat—My hubby wants to make sure I will be ok if he happens to be the first one to leave this old world. You have to think of things like that as we get older. But for now, he gets great pleasure and exercise from cutting up a truck load of wood. He even helps our son get his.
I miss smelling, hearing and seeing wood burning. It’s one of those special memories you just don’t forget. What some called lighter knots, we called, fat lightered. Amazing the different names and spellings for it.
My paternal grandparents who lived an Appalachian lifestyle on their farm just 35 miles north of Atlanta, had a four room farm house, 1904, with a fireplace in three of the rooms. Granddaddy spent the month of March cutting firewood he piled way high in one of the pastures. As a city kid, I loved the fireplaces, especially in the kitchen. Grandmother often talked about cooking over the fire in her younger years. It was covered up when the whole house was updated with Sheetrock in the 1960s. Granddaddy would pop corn over the fire in the den fireplace for us grandkids & Grandmother would melt butter she churned in an iron skillet, then poured it over the popped corn in a wash pan, sprinkled with lots of salt. We’d wash down the deliciousness with Coca-Cola in the green bottles, stored in a wooden crate on the back porch, waiting for our arrival from the city. My husband & I settled near The Farm & enjoy our extra large masonry fireplace. He, a businessman who sat behind a desk most of his career, loves to cut firewood in our hardwood forest, & build fires, even when it’s warm out, just for the ambiance. I love to lounge on the sofa adjacent to the fire with a good book. Like Matt, I love the fragrant rich pine, as we also call it. Hubby stores it in a drawer, like treasure, in our den & I sometimes open the drawer to be taken back to my childhood. When hickory smoke swirls from our chimney, I’m back on The Farm, enjoying simpler times. Thanks for the memories Tipper & Matt. From NW Georgia.
My Aunt (pronounced ain’t) Merrill had a cookstove that had two eyes that burned coal or wood and two electric eyes. The oven (I think) worked with either one.
My mother’s purely wood cookstove (Rome Eagle) had six eyes and a copper water reservoir at the end.
We had oval shaped two wood heaters. They weren’t like yours, they had a door in front and one on top to load it. The top was big enough for a 12″ cast iron pan and a couple of sauce pans.
Ed, I have been thinking and praying for you. Just want you to know how much you mean to all of us Bling Pig Acorn family.
My great grandma had a “modern” stove that looked pretty dated, even to me as a child, bought for her by her family. But she kept the big old black cast iron and still used it. She made unbeatable biscuits initially.
Happy dance! Happy dance!! My copy of Celebrating Southern Appalachian Food just arrived. I immediately jumped into my car to run down (qtr mile) to my mailbox. It’s spitting rain here in Central IL, but after the winter we’ve already experienced, this spitting rain is very welcome. Now to start perusing my new treasure!
Kim, I sure hope you enjoy it!! Thank you!
While there’s no denying that a wood-burning stove is mighty comforting, I would argue that when it comes to overall solace for the soul nothing can match a fireplace. You can watch the wood burn, mesmerized by the ever-changing, ever-appealing flicker of flames, and while doing so ponder in deep appreciation the effort involved when fireplaces were used for cooking.
I love the wood stove memories or of Matt just working with it. It does bring back memories. Not the memories of my childhood though. When we came to America in 1959 my parents didn’t want that kind of work any more. So no wood stove till much later for me. We did have a fireplace though. I was always with my dad so I was around firewood. As an adult I lived a few years in the California mountains. That taught me many lessons of survival. I had an insert put into my fireplace, they are pretty good but no where near a wood stoves power. It did teach me how to light a fire. Not as easy as it looks. When I went down the mountain and across the valley to the beach, my dad had Eucalyptus wood for me. That is the best. It would still be heating in the morning. So when I retired 4 years ago, we bought an old house. Always be prepared, a few months later a wood stove was put in. Large enough to cook on. Saved us last year when the heater died. I haven’t cooked on it yet. I do enjoy seeing the fire burning, it has a glass door. And the heat it produces is incredible. As always thanks for the wonderful stories and memories. PS: I need more mugs. Hugs and prayers to you. Anna from Arkansas.
My Big Mom had an electric stove and a coal stove in her 2 room house in SE Ky. There was nothing like a meal cooking on that old coal stove. The smell and the warmth of being around it…
I agree, growing up with a coal cook stove in my Granny’s kitchen there was nothing better than coming into her kitchen and feeling the warmth of the stove. Many a good meal made on that stove and lots of gloves and mittens dried and warmed on the oven door. The funniest memory I have seeing my Granny with her hair as all in curlers with her head in the oven drying her hair!!
Denise, I love that memory!!
Wood heat truly warms your bones♡ My paternal grandparents & my gma’s sister, lived on a small farm in Adair Co., KY. They ended up moving to town when I was around 20 and my visits were just never the same. I loved getting to see them but not having breakfast cooked on the wonderful wood stove and buttered baked toast from the oven was just so sad to me. The smell, the sound of cast iron on cast iron and the sight of my grandma and great aunt in their cotton dresses and aprons(with pockets bigger than they were) were etched into my childhood deeper than I could ever have imagined. Finding you on YouTube and then your vlog, fills me with the nostalgia that I so love. Granny, reminds me of my little granny and your recipes and fixins from your garden take me back. I know from reading the posts on here, that you do the same for many others. Bless you for your dedication and willingness to share. Keep up the good work. We need you & all your prayer warriors. Such a beautiful community!
If you have a minute, I’d love a small prayer sent my way. Waiting on news from a recent biopsy. Scary and nerve wracking. Ty♡
Kim, I will pray for you. And I hope everything is okay!
Thank you so much and yes, I’m so enjoying my book. I see many hours of pleasure headed my way♡
I may have written this before, but if so here it is again. I lived with my grandparents for a while before we married. The grate in Grandpa’s coal heater broke and he and I went to a scrap yard/junk yard to see if we could find a replacement. The man said he had a whole heater we could buy. I was new to the area and had noticed that people talked differently than I was used to hearing. Grandpa asked him how much and he said, ” Oh, I guess four or five dollars.” I pulled out four dollars, handed them to him and started dismantling the stove/heater and loading it in my car. I watched him count the four dollars several times and when we were ready to go he said, “You only give me four dollars. I wanted five.” I said, “But said four OR five. I thought four was a better deal than five so I made that choice. He looked at us and the money several times and said. “Young man, you probably just taught me a valuable lesson. I’m gonna try to be more clear from on.”
My grandparents had and used a pot belly stove, a woodburning kitchen stove, an outdoor ringer washer and an outhouse, still in 1975 even, in East Central IL even. I was 10yrs old and am so thankful they were poor to money but rich in all ways of their family traditions and hard work. Memories of sleeping on a pallet of handmade quilts and using a chamber pot at night when 7 or 8 of us grandkids would spend the night. Memories of watching grandma ring a chicken’s neck then pluck the feather and burn off any left. Memories of her cooking a dozen eggs at one time in the biggest cast iron skillet she had, crispy edges and runny centers. They had a hand pump in their kitchen sink bc they didn’t have running water. She’d let us 7or8 kids play house with her dishes and when I think about letting my grandkids do that, I kind of hate the thought of the all dirty dishes, sure wish I was more like my grandma! Best memories ever for this 60 yr grandma!
Since early childhood, our homes have been heated with wood, kerosene, electricity, propane gas, and at present a heat pump. Good old wood heat was my favorite. I could stand close or not, and I loved to sit and watch the flames and hear the crackle and smell the smoke. My contribution as a child was to tote in the wood, take out cold ashes, and look for pine knots when I got old enough to roam the woods. I won the “fat lighter” lottery many years ago while hunting along a property line when I came upon a whole log of heart pine, the remains of a very old, very large line tree. I had to saw it into three sections in order to drag it home with my tractor. It is now someone else’s lifetime supply of high grade kindling.
Watching last night I got tickled watching you & Matt. The two of you do work so well together.
Sorry I don’t have any wood stove experiences, I grew up in California in the 60’s.
As always praying for Granny.
As wonderful as it is to have the ease of modern-day stoves, for me, I feel any foods cooked on or baked in a wood stove has a different and more richer flavor taste. And that warming shelf one could open was just downright handy! I loved toast made by taking off the eye after letting the wood burn down to nice glowing coals, then place a wire rack over the eye opening and make toast! Yes, it was more challenging to adjust the heat when cooking but we learned through trial and error where to place our pots for full boil or simmer etc. Never mind the warmth and the wonderful sound of the popping and crackling wood as it burned. Even the gathering and chopping of the wood was an enjoyable task. A wood stove also taught one patience as there was no instant turn on to get the cooking started! Those were the ‘good old days’ for sure. But I don’t miss washing clothes on the scrub board!! 🙂
When I was growing up, our house didn’t have any heat other than a coal-burning stove. I don’t recall ever visiting any friends or family who didn’t heat their house with coal in a fireplace or pot-belly stove. Daddy kept a pile of wood for kindling, but never any rich pine. Spilled coal seemed to be everywhere and free for the taking. Daddy always drove a truck, and he would haul the black gold to my aunts and neighbors who were unable to get their own winter supply. I have seen Dad get scared when the hot burning coal fire would light up the stove pipes a cherry red. Those childhood memories have instilled a fear of fire in me. Those fears make me aware of what could happen, but they don’t stop me from using my woodstove.
Shirl, there was many times during the very cold winter days when I saw the sides and stove pipe be glowing cherry red on the stove in my grandparents old home. Their home’s foundation was field rocks, not underpinned, cracks in the floor and the widow panes would rattle if the wind was blowing hard. A stove that hot would keep the chimney clean! Looking back my grandparents and others living in similar homes never seemed to be sick with colds or have sinus problems. I think we keep our homes to “airtight” these days.
Such great memories! My Dad’s parents had a wood stove. I loved to visit their house in the country. Thanks for jogging my memory to recall how blessed I have always been…raised in a Christian home, in the USA at a time before the internet and the world going crazy. God’s timing is perfect.♥️
Obviously when you forage the wood you’ll be taking what’s available. But even so, you have to figure, “Will this wood stink the joint out?” or “How much heat does it produce relative to other types of wood?” I’m guessing that in the olden days when you couldn’t just look stuff up online, this sort of knowledge was passed down, parent to child, or else you learned it by trial-and-error.
I spent a lot of time with my grandparents while growing up. My grandmother had a modern kitchen and next to it was what she called her canning kitchen. A wood cook stove was in that kitchen and she used it for not only canning but also for cooking most meals. Her biscuits were the best I’ve ever eaten.
Everyone needs at least two sources of heat. We have central heating and air, but also a propane fireplace in the living room and a wood burning fireplace in the master bedroom that we don’t use unless it is an emergency. I am allergic to both. The propane fireplace even though it was cleaned very good, blackened my walls, ceilings and curtains until they were gray. I had to repaint and throw away everything. I swore off using it unless it was life and death. lol I am allergic to pine and most trees so I don’t use the fireplace. Back several years ago, we were without power for about 11 days due to snow. I cooked everything we ate on it. I love wood burning fireplace food, but it is a lot of work and it is a young woman’s game. Lol
Little did I know growing up (when plenty of people still had – and used – wood-burning ranges) that I was seeing the end of that. BP&A often reminds me of how we were once so much more self-sufficient. When it was a common thing it was unremarkable, as are all such. Then one day it is gone. This talk of liter knots makes me wonder, does Pine Sol use “real” pine oil or synthetic?
What you call liter knots we called fat lighter
YAAASSSSS, wood stove heat is the BEST! We had one the whole time I was growing up; it sat at the foot of the stairs in the living room, and the stairway would draw the heat up and circulate it through the house. My room was at the top of the stairs, and it was so cozy in the winter. We also had my great-grandmother’s wood cookstove in the kitchen, although we used it only when the temperatures were super cold or the power was off. I cooked on it and made bread in it a few times. Right now my husband and I use my grandmother’s wood stove fireplace insert, and it will warm the whole house up to 80 degrees easily, even without the blower on!
We used a wood stove for most of our marriage, about 45 years. The last five years we have used a gas stove with logs that give a fair impression of a wood fire….kind of…..however, I have really tried to accept the changes we are making as our bodies and strength change, making it very difficult if not impossible to continue to do the things we have enjoyed in the past. …..but on a cold winter day, with the wind whistling around the corners of this old house, I sure do miss the smell of a pot of pinto beans cooking on the wood stove. They still cook on the kitchen stove, but they just don’t smell or taste the same!
God is good to us and we are thankful to still be warm, but I agree, there is no warmth like a wood fire.
My Granny and Grandpa had a pot bellied stove in their living room. When we visited it was usually in the summer but we would go see them at Christmas too. My mom would caution us to stay clear of the stove and send us outside to play. She would then caution us to stay away from the train tracks which were always active. Prayers for the family.
My Uncle Bill would call those pine knots “lighters”
God Morning Tipper and Matt. I sure miss a nice wood fire in the winter. My grandparents had the wood/coal burning stoves in their homes. I had a little wood stove like yours. It was a Baby Bear Wood Stove by the Fisher Stove Company. I loved busting wood with a “Go Devil” , also called a block buster, sledge axe, or hamaxe. I bet the woods all over Johnson County is full of rich pine since the tornadoes went thru in 2011 and knocked over or topped out all the pines. I keep y’all in my prayers. We go to the heart doctor for my son, ED, today. Please keep us in your prayers, TY. I love y’all.
Barbara I will keep praying! I hope the appointment goes well!!
Barbara, Daddy’s stove I mentioned in my comment was the mama bear stove, my wife’s grandaddy had the big papa bear, all made by Fisher Stove Company. I think I heard this company was located in northern Georgia. I have always joked and said when you cut your own trees for fire wood, the wood will warm you up multiple times. After cutting, splitting, loading to haul and then unloading a good load of firewood you don’t have to go to a gym to exercise! It “kills me” to see all of the good oak trees blown over by Helene going to waste in my neck of the woods.
Barbara, I will be praying for your son. God bless both of you.
I so look forward to these posts every morning. They just take me back to my Southern roots and some memories that are almost forgotten.
I remember the excitement my daddy had when he would find some liter knot. He passed in 2023 and we hadn’t had a great relationship since I was a girl, but I had some okay memories from when I was little. This one makes me smile.
Always praying for Granny and the family. God bless y’all.
I agree, wood stove heat is the best. We had it in the living room and Mama has said that is something she wished she’d never gotten rid of.
I have a prayer request for your prayer warriors. Please pray for me. I’ve been through two traumatic experiences with having surgery in the foot doctors office without going to the hospital. I don’t have insurance and we’re trying to save my foot. It’s been awful painful and looks terrible. Please please pray for me.
Kourtni, I will continue to pray for you. I’m sorry you’re having to go through this. God bless you!!
Prayers for healing for you.
Kourtni, having foot problems myself and knowing how scary it can be, I understand and will keep you in my prayers. Blessings from Maine, J.
Prayers for you!
We moved to a home with a woodstove in rural WI five years ago and it’s one of my favorite parts about winter. There is nothing like that penetrating heat. I enjoy it all from stacking it, carrying it in etc. My husband does the splitting but I love to help where I can! Have a blessed day everyone!
Kourtni, I am praying for you. God bless you.
Kourtni, I will pray for you, too. I’m so sorry you are going through this. God bless you.
There really is nothing like wood heat. Growing up in my childhood home we had a wood stove in the living room. I moved out and in my first apartment we had electric heat- I thought I would about freeze! Then about 11 years ago we moved to my grandparents old farm house and we have a wood stove here. It is the only source of heat we have in this old house.
my Uncle Joe, had a low sitting/ heater , four-legged, you could put your wood in one end, and it had what I call two eyes on the top,and when I lived with him, we would put a pot of beans on the stove,Great Northern, maybe some boneless pork chops from food Lion, and small pealed white potatoes, you had to stay close and tend to it, and sometimes the heat was more than I could stand, God bless you friends thank you for praying for me and my family, God bless Granny Wilson, God bless the Wilson s and God bless the Pressley’s
I loved large potatoes sliced and laid out on top of the wood stove. Butter on two slices of white bread and potato slice. Delicious. It has been 50 years since I had this treat from our hunting camp in northern Pennsylvania.
Deatra, Granny said that was her favorite snack when she was a girl 🙂
One other thing about the unusual warm weather, this week I noticed my daffodils sprouting up. I hope Grandmother’s peony has not starting sprouting. It has been here all of my life (soon to be 72 years) I sure would hate to see anything happen to it, Grandmother telling me when I was very young when the peony would bloom, you mess with the flowers and I will tear you rear end up! I believed her!
When I was growing up we would burn wood in a fireplace along with a kerosene heater. Later on Daddy closed up the fireplace and bought a flattop wood stove and heated with nothing but wood and would often cook on top of the stove. I always helped him cut his wood and after his heart attack, I cut all of it for him and usually kept about a years supply ahead for him. Like in this story I was always on the lookout for liter when hunting. Two good memories, laying in the floor beside of my Daddy when I was child in front of the fireplace eating parched/roasted peanuts . We had grew the peanuts. The other is walking through the woods with my Grandaddy looking for liter knots on a pretty fall day. He would take the sack he used when picking cotton and his axe and put the liter in the sack. He would always have an apple or some other little snack for us. We would cup our hands and drink water from a creek on our property. How I wish it would be possible to go back and relive those times. One other memory, Daddy crying because of me cutting his wood on my one day off from work and telling me how much it hurt because of not being able to do for himself. I would tell him I am just paying you back for all of the things you did for me. I now know how he felt, I now have to get my son or grandsons to do many things for me that I can no longer do.