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Is Your Old Rolling Pin Worth Money? 5 Ways to Tell · Family Tree Food Stories

0:00
Speaker: That old rolling pin has a heart, and if you know
0:02
where to look, you can find it.
0:04
You might wanna think twice before fixing that old bent rod in your
0:08
rolling pin because it could be worth a lot more than just a memory.
0:12
And Grandma's rolling pin never talked, but oh, honey, the
0:16
evidence of what's happened in her kitchen is written all over it.
0:20
Wanna know more about what's rolling out in this episode?
0:23
Stay tuned because we're talking rolling pins, big, small, little, and
0:28
yes, with delicious outcomes for sure
0:37
Sylvia France: Well, when I received my latest rolling pin, my father
0:40
put a Post-it Note on this pen.
0:43
It's yellow, crinkled, his handwriting, and it was stuck to the barrel.
0:48
Nancy May: Oh, I've gotta see what this one's gonna say
0:51
Sylvia France: It literally said, "Rolling pin, Grandma Spivey, glass/Mom."
0:56
Nancy May: I don't get that one.
0:57
Glass/Mom
0:59
Sylvia France: That's it.
1:00
I still haven't figured out, but I did find a lot about my
1:04
great-grandmother's rolling pin.
1:06
So That's probably everything anybody ever wrote about this rolling pin, and I
1:11
can't tell you about half of what it means
1:13
Nancy May: Okay, on that note, welcome to Family Tree Food Stories.
1:17
I'm Nancy May
1:18
Sylvia France: And I'm Sylvia France.
1:20
Thank you so much for being here,
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Nancy May: And before we start, would you please go to
1:25
Podcast.FamilyTreeFoodStories.com and like, share, and subscribe to the show.
1:30
Because as we always like to say, every meal has a story,
1:34
and every story is a feast.
1:35
And this is a little shift in what we're doing.
1:39
It's the first of a series we're calling the Evidence-Based Series.
1:43
Six weeks, six things sitting in your kitchen right now, and what each one can
1:47
tell you about the people it came from
1:50
Sylvia France: Or at least where it was made.
1:52
So Follow the show so you get the other five.
1:55
And if you got 30 seconds, a review is how anybody new ever
1:59
find us, and you can also share too
2:02
Nancy May: Of course.
2:03
Sharing is caring, as they say.
2:05
And hello to Tukwila, Washington.
2:08
We've got a few people out there, actually it seems like a lot of
2:10
people out there who are listening, so we wanna give you a shout-out.
2:13
It's a beautiful state, and thank you for listening and joining us at our table
2:17
Sylvia France: Tell us what you want to go after this episode.
2:21
Somebody wrote about butter molds, so we're now got it on our list of to-dos
2:26
Nancy May: We do.
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God, there's so much going on with butter too.
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But let's get going because this one we're talking about something that
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maybe was left behind or given to you
2:36
Sylvia France: Somebody dies or downsizes and a box lands into the hands of
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daughter, son, or grandchild who cares.
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Many times it contains photographs, recipe cards, costume jewelry,
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all of the little things
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Nancy May: And you know, Sylvia, if you're lucky, it's a rolling pin,
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which usually has a few stories, if not more, and memories attached to it.
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Because I don't know about you, actually I think I do know about you, mine has
3:00
a lot of stories, and I think yours has got a lot more than mine, actually
3:05
Sylvia France: Well, you didn't have a Post-it Note, so I'm ahead
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Nancy May: No, I didn't.
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Sylvia France: So, the rolling pin might be of real value beyond the story.
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Some could bring thousands of dollars.
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Others might be worth only 20, 30, or in some cases nothing.
3:20
You'll probably don't know which one is the one.
3:23
Think antique roadshow, right?
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Nancy May: it's one of my favorite shows.
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Mine didn't come in a box, and mom thankfully wasn't
3:31
gone when she gave it to me.
3:33
she just asked if I wanted it when they moved to Florida.
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. And of course, I said yes, because that's the one we always used.
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But I also bought three more.
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I've decided I've become a little fanatic about rolling pins.
3:45
You know, every time I go into one of those antique junk shops, there's
3:48
stacks of them, And that's where I usually end up looking, in all
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the rolling pins for some reason.
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I don't know why
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Sylvia France: Well, there's an interesting, um, fact that I found
3:57
that over 70% of households in the United States actually have
4:01
rolling pins, but only 14% of the households actually use them
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Nancy May: Well, maybe we can change that in this show, right?
4:08
Sylvia France: Yes.
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And I got my pin because my parents downsized, or at least one of
4:13
the four, and they wanted me to have my great-grandmother's pin
4:17
to go to the family historian.
4:19
And yes, I'm the appointed one
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Nancy May: Of course
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Sylvia France: And ask us both what it's worth, and you'll probably
4:25
get several different answers
4:27
Nancy May: Yep, I'd tell you what I paid and of course the story connected
4:31
with my mom's, which was nothing, but I got paid in a lot of memories
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Sylvia France: And I'll tell you who held it, even though I never met her
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Nancy May: So here's the deal.
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We're gonna give you three things to look at when you pull out your rolling
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pin to make a pie shell or Christmas cookies, and you'll have an interesting
4:47
story to share at your next family gathering or maybe with friends, that
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we can promise, , and likely more than any of your siblings knew as well
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Sylvia France: Oh, I like that, especially when I know more than my
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Nancy May: Sibling rivalry.
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Sylvia France: You have a sister, I have a brother.
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I know it well.
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So . now, if you can, before we start, go get that rolling pin
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that's sitting in your cabinet.
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It's likely not in your drawer because most of them are just too
5:10
long to fit, or at least mine are
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Nancy May: So let's start building that story around it now.
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how did you first find yours, Sylvia?
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Sylvia France: Well, I actually thought I had three, they were stuffed in
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the cabinet with all my other kitchen goodies like cutting boards and
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cooling racks, and I found the fourth
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Nancy May: Ooh.
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Oh, okay, Sylvia, let's keep our tradition going.
5:33
Well, let's say let's keep it rolling
5:36
Sylvia France: Oh, Nancy, is that yet another one of your bad food puns?
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You just can't help yourself, can you sometimes?
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Nancy May: a punny person.
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What can I say?
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Yes, that's pun central.
5:47
But before we get to pulling out the rolling pins or hopefully
5:50
while everybody's out pulling out their rolling pins, let's do our
5:53
tradition, which is glasses up
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Sylvia France: To whatever's just about to roll off your countertop
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. Nancy May: Cheers to the rolling pin and what history our moms
6:02
and dads and grandmas have behind it, and the secrets they know
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Sylvia France: So before you look at anything on your rolling pin, answer
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this: How did you get yours, Nancy?
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Nancy May: Well, there's usually a few typical ways that you get them:
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inherited, a gift, bought new, an estate sale or garage sale, or in two of my
6:21
cases, junk and consignment shops.
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But my mom's is my favorites
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Sylvia France: If yours was inherited, you've at least got a
6:28
person and a story to start with.
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It's just not an object.
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You know it was hers, and hopefully some connection to what she made with it
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Nancy May: And the estate sale is the one that people typically write off.
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Everything in there generally just came out of one household
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Sylvia France: So it was somebody's, not yours, but it still has a ton
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of stories behind it, I'm sure
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Nancy May: Yeah, and a dealer may already know about some of the secrets
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hiding in that pin that you have.
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So let's start with a few of those things and start with looking at yours, Sylvia
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Sylvia France: All right.
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First, look at the shape because the shape tells you what the pin was built to do
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Nancy May: And what shape is yours?
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Sylvia France: It's solid wood, tapers at both ends, no handles.
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That's a French pin.
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That's what professionals use
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Nancy May: Did you know that at the time that you got it?
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Sylvia France: Actually, I did because it was a promo, a gift by some of the
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manufacturers at a cooking school/kitchen gadget shop that I worked at
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Nancy May: Lucky Dog.
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Sylvia France: I was.
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I had some really nice mice and other things
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Nancy May: and so how does the taper work on it?
7:31
Because it's tapered on either ends, right?
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Sylvia France: Yeah, you use it as a pivot so you can feel the
7:36
dough right through the wood
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Nancy May: Okay, and then there's the American, the fat barrel, two
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handles, rod down the middle so that there's handles that turn.
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That's the one that I have from my mom
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Sylvia France: I have one of those, which is what most people picture
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when they think of a rolling pin
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Nancy May: And that's fine for crusts and pies.
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I've got one with the adjustable rings also which I picked up at
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one of those junk shops, and it holds off, you know, at the center.
8:01
I don't particularly like that because when the dough gets really
8:04
large, the ends get cut off.
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You know, it sort of rolls off the edge of the pie crust, and it gets flat.
8:09
Not my favorite
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Sylvia France: Well, that's really annoying the way you described it.
8:13
That would drive me nuts.
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Unless the only thing I've heard that when I was in the cooking school,
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what's nice is professional bakers who are proficient in cookies, that's
8:22
perfect for them because they need a consistent, size across, dozens of cookies
8:27
Nancy May: Ah, so we had Magdalena in a, one of our shows way back
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when, actually for last winter, who was telling me about how to make
8:35
Swedish ginger cookies, which I made.
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I didn't have that pin at the time, but that would work perfect because
8:41
they have to get really thin, and one of our neighbors who's Swedish at
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Christmas time said the cookies were delicious, but they weren't thin enough.
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So we'll use that next time
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Sylvia France: I like to call them bumpers.
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So it's like you really can't mess up when, you know, but
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it is, it's a rectangle.
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If you need something wider, it can be a pain in the butt
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Nancy May: So that's totally it, but yes, it's annoying otherwise
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Sylvia France: And then There's also a straight dowel for flatbreads, a carved
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one for stamping cookies, which would've been perfect for your ginger cookies, and
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a little one-hand v-version for dumplings
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Nancy May: And yours
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Sylvia France: And then the one my great-grandmother had,
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which doesn't fit any of those.
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The handles don't turn, even though it looks like it should, and they're
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part of the same piece of wood
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Nancy May: Hmm, that's interesting.
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I've never heard of those.
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, But what was the first thing that you learned about that one?
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' Sylvia France: Well, first thing is that there's plenty
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of old pins that are like that.
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If yours doesn't match a category, that's not a dead end.
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That's actually a clue
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Nancy May: So I went looking into the story of that kind of pin because
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non-rotating handles sounds like it would be actually pretty difficult
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to use versus the flat French one
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Sylvia France: No, not really.
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But before we go there, let's dig into the history of our pins
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, Nancy May: The first connections to them, it seems like every food story
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starts there, was in Mesopotamia
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Sylvia France: Yep, Mesopotamia yet again.
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Like the Bob stories, they keep showing up.
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But this time it was about 6,000 years ago
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Nancy May: Those were actually used to make bread, beer of all things, I
10:13
can't figure that one out, cheese, and anything that needed to be large and flat.
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. . I'm beginning to think that those folks in Mesopotamia were the ones
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responsible for inventing just about everything in the kitchen.
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Well, maybe except for the KitchenAid
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Sylvia France: Aren't we glad we still have that?
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So Mesopotamia gets the credit for a lot.
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Well, almost everything, honestly, that's cookware
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Nancy May: And the rolling pins, there is the one that's really got me though
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Sylvia France: Which is
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Nancy May: Most of the world doesn't even use handles at all.
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, China rolls out dough with a plain wooden rod.
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India has the Belan.
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Turkey has the oklava.
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I s- I think I'm pronouncing that right.
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And Italy has the mattarello.
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I'm not Italian, so excuse me, folks.
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I
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Sylvia France: Forgive her New York
10:59
Nancy May: need an Italian nonna to tell me that one for sure
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Sylvia France: Well, I'm a nona but not Italian.
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and what's kind of ironic is all of them are just plain sticks or dowels
11:09
Nancy May: every one of them is a stick, and I've even read that you
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can use a PVC pipe if you wanted to.
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But they didn't have PVC back in Mesopotamia then, so I think I just
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like saying that word, Mesopotamia.
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But the different regions didn't have handles on theirs either.
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A flat barrel, two handles, turns up in Europe and America,
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mostly stays put right there
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Sylvia France: So the pin most of our listeners own is the strange one actually
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Nancy May: Yeah, , the odd man out or the odd pin out.
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And there's no hard record noting when they even added them and why
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Sylvia France: Nobody recorded why?
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That seems strange
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Nancy May: Well, hold onto that because it's gonna turn, ha-ha,
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another pun, into an argument later on
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Sylvia France: I'd love to roll pasta paper thin the way they do in Italy.
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It takes years to learn how to do it well, and I'm in awe
11:55
of the women who can do this.
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It's like second nature to them, and it's almost translucent
12:00
Nancy May: Ooh, I haven't seen that before, but you'd
12:03
need a stick for that one
12:04
Sylvia France: A stick and about a . Decade or so of practice,
12:07
but I'll admit something.
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When I don't want to wash my rolling pin because they're kind of awkward, I've been
12:14
known to pull a glass out off the shelf
12:18
Nancy May: Okay.
12:18
I get that.
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Sylvia France: Well, you know, rolling pins can also be used as
12:22
a great meat tenderizer as well
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Nancy May: Nah, that's what I use the wine bottle for occasionally And then drinking
12:28
Sylvia France: Why, I'm not surprised
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Nancy May: Well, that's enough sarcasm, I think, you know, or our punny stories.
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, But the next time you will not get a glass at our house, you're gonna get
12:38
the rolling pin , , so now let's take a look at what these pins are made of
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Sylvia France: Well, that's kind of obvious.
12:44
You'll know by just picking it up and actually looking at it.
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It's typically , wood, plastic, glass, marble, steel.
12:51
Some older are ceramic, and I actually heard they make them out
12:55
of silicone as well these days
12:57
Nancy May: Ooh, I haven't seen those yet.
12:59
Each picked for a reason or a purpose because of its use.
13:02
The marble and the steel are designed to stay cold so your butter doesn't go
13:06
soft while you're working, - and that cold butter actually helps everything
13:10
rise better too, and stay flaky
13:12
Sylvia France: So how about the hollow ones?
13:14
How do they work
13:15
Nancy May: Well, the glass and the plastic are the hollow ones.
13:18
. You fill them with cold water or ice water.
13:22
And you can put them in the freezer to chill, except I'd be careful about that
13:25
with the glass , and the wood can't go anywhere near water, obviously.
13:30
, Same often with ceramic , - because the old ones had printed
13:32
advertising slogans on them
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Sylvia France: So - Now let's move on to the barrel type.
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Mine actually has a plastic collar where the handle meets the barrel.
13:41
I bought it new and it looks new
13:43
Nancy May: And that's the one that you forgot, I'm gonna guess
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Sylvia France: Yep, it hasn't been used much.
13:48
That's the one I forgot.
13:49
And the fourth pin that I have was actually a birthday present.
13:53
- A friend of mine retired, likes making things cherry oak glue together
13:58
Nancy May: So why did he use two different types of wood?
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Is there a particular reason for that?
14:02
.. Sylvia France: Nobody laminates or glues the pin wood together for strength.
14:06
He just liked how they looked side by side, and it is beautiful
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Nancy May: Aw, that's really sweet.
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But , hold that for a second because I have to tell everybody what my Bob
14:16
nearly did to an old one that I just got
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Sylvia France: Right after this.
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Stay tuned
14:54
.. Nancy May: So yes, we're back and with yet another Bob story.
14:58
We have to get him in here on the show, right?
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Sylvia France: I love Bob's stories.
15:02
So what did he try to do this time?
15:05
Nancy May: Well, I found this beautiful heavy old wood rolling pin at one of
15:10
those antique kind of consignment shops.
15:13
I picked it up and it just felt beautiful and was absolutely gorgeous.
15:17
I haven't used it yet, but Bob took one look it and announced he could fix it
15:22
Sylvia France: What did he need to fix?
15:24
Nancy May: Well, there is this iron bar that runs through the middle so
15:27
that the handles roll on it, and it's bent just on one side just a little
15:32
bit so it's not perfectly even.
15:34
And he was gonna take it apart, cut the bar out, and put a new one in
15:38
Sylvia France: And then
15:39
Nancy May: Well, first of all, I freaked and I said, "No, it adds character."
15:44
And he said, "Nonsense." But then he took a second look and he said somebody
15:48
had put a bolt and a nut at the end, and well, Bob does some blacksmithing,
15:53
not horseshoe blacksmithing, but ironworking, and he knew exactly
15:57
what the metal was made out of.
15:58
And he stopped and said, " This one gets left alone
16:02
Sylvia France: So he actually wasn't being careless this time
16:05
Nancy May: No, he wasn't.
16:06
He was trying to help me, but he knew the ways of his errors
16:10
Sylvia France: Well, I understand that you need to do more research
16:13
on that one because it's a regional anomaly having a metal bar between
16:17
the barrels, ' so more clues for you
16:20
Nancy May: We're gonna have to dig that one out for sure.
16:23
But I bent it back just a little bit myself by gently slowing and
16:27
pushing on the end, and it's perfect.
16:30
Still has a little twist to it, but I think that's the charming of it.
16:34
It says somebody actually used it
16:36
Sylvia France: Well, when people try to take it apart because it doesn't work
16:39
how they think it should, sometimes that's when things just totally disappear
16:43
Nancy May: And they can never go back together again,
16:45
Sylvia France: No, never.
16:46
Not the same way
16:47
Nancy May: So yes, I left the flaw in on this one , and I love it just that way
16:51
Sylvia France: I can't wait to see it next time I'm at your place.
16:54
Now, the one thing that finally got me thinking about my grandma's
16:57
pin is asking, was it handmade or was it made by a factory?
17:02
Nancy May: Well, let's talk about how to tell about that one, because you
17:05
have to stand it up on one end, look straight down the barrel, then flip
17:09
it over and look at the other end
17:11
Sylvia France: Yes, it's dead center both times.
17:14
And mine don't match at all.
17:15
They're both different on each end
17:17
Nancy May: Oh, that's interesting.
17:18
And what do you think that means?
17:21
Sylvia France: Well, it means it shows how it was made.
17:23
So the one at one end was torn a bit, it was lifted wood, and there was a
17:27
dark hole on either side, a raised patch
17:30
Nancy May: And that's I'm gonna guess the lathe gripped
17:32
it when they were spinning it.
17:34
'Cause that's kind of what it sounds like
17:35
Sylvia France: You are a smart girl.
17:37
Nancy May: I know.
17:38
Sylvia France: The other end has a little smooth dent, a neat cone
17:42
pressed into the wood kind of upward
17:44
Nancy May: So it got spun and nobody bothered to even sand the two ends
17:48
down, just leaving the character like my bent rolling pin handle
17:52
Sylvia France: Which is what happens in a factory process is when they smooth it off
17:56
Nancy May: Every time I like the character,
17:58
, Sylvia France: So can you tell me a little bit more if it's not wood?
18:01
Nancy May: Well, if it's not wood, glass has a faint seam typically running right
18:05
down the side from where it's molded.
18:07
Marble hasn't gotten one of those because, well, marble gets cut, not poured
18:12
Sylvia France: And there's one more thing on my great grandma's pen.
18:15
-, a crack running out one handle and down the barrel.
18:18
I always figured it was just character too
18:21
Nancy May: So it's actually more than that.
18:23
Your pen started out as a full tree from what I understand.
18:27
It was cut and whittled down from the main piece of the tree, which
18:31
I learned from my friend Peanut up at the sawmill in Sumpter, is
18:35
where the heart of the tree is.
18:37
So your pin actually has a heart.
18:39
Those rings you see at the end tell you where the center of the tree is and how
18:43
old it was when the pins were made.
18:45
And those pins often split
18:47
Sylvia France: So it was interesting that the crack was settled
18:49
the day someone cut the blank.
18:51
It wasn't after years of use
18:53
Nancy May: Nope, it wasn't, and it likely didn't happen then, but it
18:56
did happen as the wood dried, and the collectors love hunting for those cracks.
19:01
Sylvia France: So describe hunting for them
19:03
Nancy May: Well, small cracks are how you know a wooden pin is
19:03
really old 'cause it takes time for
19:08
that wood just to sort of get to that point of where the crack is gonna go
19:13
Sylvia France: And in glass
19:14
Nancy May: Well, I think that's pretty obvious, Sylvia.
19:17
A crack in a glass totally wrecks the pin and the value.
19:20
Those get collected to look at, not to use.
19:23
It's just too dangerous, especially in the ceramic ones, , which can have
19:27
lead in the paint in the ceramics
19:28
Sylvia France: See, I would actually think about it could be chunks
19:31
in the dough, which is not good.
19:33
So it's same flaw, different verdict, and it all depends
19:36
entirely on what they're made of
19:38
Nancy May: Yes, but now we're gonna look to see if we can find a name on your pin.
19:43
There are only three places to really look for those
19:45
Sylvia France: Which three?
19:46
Nancy May: Well, first the middle of the barrel, then the
19:49
flat end, and then the handle
19:51
Sylvia France: Nobody actually looks at the handle, which is a huge miss
19:55
Nancy May: I agree.
19:56
And .. because that's where your hand is, and take it to
19:59
a window and turn it slowly.
20:01
Usually there's a worn stamp, well, probably 'cause of years of use.
20:06
If it's more than the 40% of the people who were not using them, or were using
20:10
them, I can't remember that number at the
20:12
Sylvia France: It was only 14% of
20:13
the 17%.
20:15
Nancy May: 14%.
20:16
So typically it only shows at an angle though because of the age and the wear
20:20
Sylvia France: Most wooden pins have nothing at all.
20:22
If you do find something, write it down as you see it
20:27
Nancy May: So, and yours, does yours have a name on the pin?
20:30
Sylvia France: Yes, my French pin does.
20:32
Mine says JK Adams with a little arrow, and I understand
20:36
they are in Dorset, Vermont
20:38
Nancy May: Hmm.
20:39
So French Pen, Dorset, Vermont.
20:41
it's a family company that started in a garage in 1944 and is still
20:45
running, and I have another secret about Vermont and Dorset
20:49
I was wondering there had to be a story about Dorset
20:52
Of course.
20:54
Bob and I actually honeymooned at the Little Inn in Dorset
20:57
Sylvia France: So that pin has a name, a town, and a date on it.
21:00
My great-grandmother's had nothing whatsoever except for a Post-it Note
21:05
Nancy May: And although it's the same basic purpose, it's a rolling pin
21:08
crafted purposely to have a brand name or a slogan on it the entire length.
21:13
These are the Victorian ones, the ceramic printed one with smallish kind of letters,
21:18
usually blue or black on a white barrel.
21:20
I've seen those at a place called Washed and Worn down here.
21:23
I love that shop
21:25
Sylvia France: So you're telling me they had advertising on a
21:28
rolling pin, but it does kinda make sense, especially with flour
21:31
Nancy May: absolutely.
21:32
- And it was used predominantly when you added lard to pastry because the pin, the
21:36
ceramic, was cool and kept that lard cool.
21:39
And you'd get them from your local grocer who handed them out to his
21:43
customers probably like, I don't know, sample crackers at Costco.
21:48
Although I would've, I, think I would've liked the rolling
21:50
pin over the sample crackers.
21:52
But then the plastic came along, and the same thing, although the brand
21:56
name , was on the plastic pin's end cap, and it was molded into the end of those
22:01
Sylvia France: So did you find any of those clues on your pins?
22:05
Nancy May: Nope, I don't have plastic, I don't have glass,
22:07
and I don't have ceramic.
22:08
Not on any four of them.
22:11
But the big heavy one that I just recently got has kind of a half circle
22:15
burnt into it on the end, and it looks like it might just even be a mistake
22:20
Sylvia France: Or a mark, a clue, our Kitchen Sleuth clue
22:24
Nancy May: I'm gonna let you do the k- kitchen sleuth on that one.
22:26
I don't know which, but I'd rather say I don't know and then,
22:29
well, just let it be a mystery.
22:31
Our kitchen mystery
22:32
. Sylvia France: All right.
22:32
The argument you told me to hold on
22:35
Nancy May: Yep, here we go, the handles
22:37
Sylvia France: Everywhere you look, you'll read that turning handles
22:40
arrived with the invention in the 1800s.
22:42
So if yours doesn't turn, it must be older than that
22:46
Nancy May: I don't know, but here's something else that I
22:48
heard that I just absolutely love.
22:50
It was a dough invention that I learned about and was patented in 1884
22:55
Sylvia France: I think it was a dough kneader, a machine,
22:58
two grooved rollers in a box.
23:00
It's not a rolling pin at all.
23:02
Let's add the story of the women who invented this
23:05
Nancy May: Well, it was one woman, and I love this because it was the idea
23:09
of the rolling pins and the handles and the grandmas that really were
23:12
used and connected to the patent, and that's how they get those dates.
23:15
But some people are just dating it back on their own antique pins
23:19
as it connected to this woman who created the bowling pin machine,
23:24
Sylvia France: Well, no one can really fully attest to when
23:27
the handles were added, so the argument is still pretty open
23:31
Nancy May: Okay, now , let's go look at the last thing to inspect
23:33
on our own old rolling pins first.
23:36
This is the thing most people don't even think about, , or even why some of us
23:40
just toss it out, , and don't save them.
23:42
And that's where it's worn
23:44
Sylvia France: Warren
23:45
Nancy May: Well, , like where one handle might be slightly thinner than the other,
23:48
a spot on the barrel that's a little paler or darker, or smoother under the thumb.
23:53
you know that somebody loved it and used it quite frequently.
23:57
Mine came from my mom's, and it's the one that feels just right in my hand.
24:02
It makes this clacking sound.
24:04
I have no idea why, but honestly, it just feels that Mom's right
24:08
there with me every time I use it
24:10
Sylvia France: Aw, I really love that, Nancy
24:12
Nancy May: I do too, which is why I never really got rid of it.
24:15
It's not fancy.
24:17
It's probably from the '60s or so when she got it.
24:20
But eventually, it'll get worn around the same way that everybody else's, which
24:24
tells you it got used and washed the same way time after time, year after year,
24:29
there's that smoothness to it
24:30
Sylvia France: See, mine's the opposite.
24:32
The barrel's been scrubbed and pale and both handles have gone dark
24:36
. Nancy May: So with yours, your grandmother likely washed and held one
24:39
end and washed it with the other hand
24:41
Sylvia France: And some pins have no wear on them at all, and they
24:44
would also belong to my mother
24:46
Nancy May: Because they never really got used, right?
24:49
And in England, they hung them in parlor walls, and the story goes
24:54
that they came right down to the exactly once that they were used.
24:58
They rolled out pastry for these fancy ones, for a wedding or a funeral
25:02
Sylvia France: Is that true?
25:04
Nancy May: Well, that's what the collectors say at least.
25:06
I'd add this one to another folklore list because, uh, well,
25:09
I'll just leave it right there.
25:10
It seems kind of strange that somebody would hang , a rolling pin
25:12
up on their parlor and not use it
25:14
Sylvia France: So I'm gonna tell you about one more pen that I actually don't have.
25:19
It was the one my mom had.
25:20
It was hollow plastic, kind of this mustard yellow, and you
25:24
had to unscrew it on the end
25:26
Nancy May: Ah, marigold yellow I'm gonna guess, likely Tupperware
25:31
Sylvia France: That's it.
25:32
And I cannot see her using it, not once.
25:35
Nancy May: Well, she didn't bake as I understand, right?
25:38
Not
25:38
Sylvia France: know what happens when she bakes.
25:40
Nope, nope, nope,
25:41
Nancy May: Just that one birthday cake and a catastrophe, and you
25:43
usually don't need a rolling pin for a birthday cake, Sylvia, right?
25:48
Sylvia France: No, she just needed a box of toothpicks and
25:51
a carousel to hide everything.
25:53
So , she'll tell you herself she doesn't cook.
25:56
She made pecan pies though, but store-bought crust
26:00
Nancy May: well, so her rolling pin sat in the cabinet, that mustard yellow one
26:04
Sylvia France: It was ugly.
26:06
I'm going to bet at least one of our listeners has
26:08
Nancy May: did you say?
26:09
I didn't hear that one.
26:10
Did you say it was ugly?
26:12
Sylvia France: it was ugly.
26:13
But you know, now it's worth a lot of money.
26:15
I wish I'd have kept it.
26:16
I'm sure one of our listeners has one of those Tupperware pins, and I'm jealous.
26:21
, Or just a rolling pin that no one ever used.
26:24
That counts.
26:24
It means somebody thought a kitchen was supposed to have one
26:28
Nancy May: And the store-bought crust tells you which part of the pie she
26:31
really cared about, I guess, the most
26:33
Sylvia France: Yes, the pecans, 'cause we lived in a pecan grove.
26:36
And so , that was, um, forced labor.
26:38
We'd have to go pick up pecans when we were little.
26:41
Nancy May: Lucky you.
26:42
Sylvia France: I wouldn't describe it that way.
26:43
Nancy May: So what's the story your pin?
26:45
Finally gave up?
26:46
Sylvia France: It was the one my dad gave me
26:47
Nancy May: And whose was that?
26:49
Sylvia France: Well, when I saw it, I originally thought it was my Grandma
26:52
Spivey, and I realized it was his Grandma Spivey, so that would be my great-grandma,
26:58
' .. i don't know what the glass was, but the glass was Mom, and that's how
27:02
I kind of put the puzzle together.
27:05
Nancy May: That's kind of interesting.
27:06
So that's the Post-it Note at the beginning of the show that we talked about
27:10
Sylvia France: Yes, it is.
27:11
And her name was actually Willie Mae Marie Spears, born 1888 in Georgia
27:18
Nancy May: And Spivey is your maiden name
27:21
Sylvia France: Which is how I knew what side of the family came from
27:24
Nancy May: Well, so now your pen has provenance as well
27:27
as a little flower on it.
27:28
And everything we talked about and shared, the sticky note, and well, that kind
27:32
of proves it too with your dad's story.
27:35
I love it
27:35
Sylvia France: I know.
27:36
I still don't know what Glass means, but I know- who his mom was, so,
27:40
you know, at least I can kind of get a little bit of information
27:43
Nancy May: Well, I love that story
27:44
Sylvia France: Yes.
27:45
But before we go, tell me about your mother's pen and a
27:48
memory that you have from it.
27:49
You speak of it so fondly
27:51
Nancy May: yeah.
27:52
That clack, clack, clack on that rolling pin.
27:54
I'll have to record that and share that in our Facebook group.
27:57
But we made sheep cookies together with that rolling pin
28:01
Sylvia France: Sheep cookies, really?
28:03
Nancy May: Yes.
28:04
No, it wasn't sheep meat or mutton.
28:06
But one year I was down visiting them.
28:09
And we found a picture… You know how at Christmastime you buy all these
28:12
magazines and you look at the recipes and the pictures and the decorations
28:15
that you're never gonna do, right?
28:17
Sylvia France: So what did you do?
28:20
Nancy May: Well, we found this picture that had these cute sheep cookies.
28:23
They were big and fat, about the size of your hand, and they were all lined up on
28:28
ribbons on somebody's fireplace ledge
28:31
So we didn't have a recipe, we didn't have a cookie cutter, but I had a picture.
28:35
And I figured plain sugar cookies, so we got the recipe for that,
28:39
and no sheep cookie cookie cutter.
28:41
So you know what I did?
28:42
Sylvia France: Let me guess, you made a template
28:45
Nancy May: I did, with cardboard.
28:47
So we made a cardboard template, cut each of those cookies out with a sharp
28:51
knife, and , rolled them out, cooked them, put raisins in for eyes, a
28:55
little red ribbon from some icing, and then hung them with a hole on the top
29:00
of each cookie off their fireplace.
29:02
It looked perfect, just like the picture
29:04
Sylvia France: Oh, I wish I could have seen it.
29:06
I hope you have pictures
29:07
Nancy May: Well, it became a tradition,
29:09
And Bob calls them not sheep cookies, he calls them sheep pig cookies.
29:13
They are enormous
29:14
Sylvia France: And that's exactly where all of this stops working.
29:17
Nancy May: Meaning?
29:18
Sylvia France: I can tell you how that wood was cut and
29:21
where the machine held it.
29:23
I could never get a cardboard sheep out of it.. That only exists because you said
29:27
you could do it together with your mom
29:29
Nancy May: Yeah, well mom watched and I did it which is okay.
29:32
Sylvia France: Isn't that how that always goes?
29:35
Nancy May: But we had fun and that was part of the memory.
29:37
And yes, those cookies became a Christmas tradition in our house.
29:41
. Although I haven't done them in a few years, so now is the time to do
29:45
it and start that tradition up again
29:47
Sylvia France: Well, you said I was invited to your Christmas party,
29:51
so I, expect to see them hung up with care when I get there.
29:54
Nancy May: And if you listeners are in Florida and you wanna come
29:57
to a Christmas party, just give me a little warning in advance.
30:00
So now let's wrap up this Rolling Pin show because we've got five things that
30:04
you can take with you about rolling pins
30:06
Sylvia France: One, if the handle turns, there's a rod through the middle.
30:10
If they don't, it's one piece of wood and it's older
30:13
Nancy May: Two, look where the handle meets the barrel.
30:15
Plastic means modern.
30:16
Metal or bare wood usually means they're a little older
30:20
Sylvia France: Three, look at the ends dead center.
30:22
Marks that don't match mean somebody made it by hand and never finished it
30:26
Nancy May: Four, hunt for a name.
30:28
It's either in the middle, the end, or on the handles.
30:31
A name and a town is the only thing that they'll typically identify
30:35
your rolling pin in 100 years or so.
30:37
Think Dorset, Vermont, although they're not 100 years old
30:40
Sylvia France: But five, the pin will tell you how it was made.
30:43
It will not tell you who owned it
30:45
Nancy May: so write that part down.
30:47
What you find, keep it in a note with an object next to the cabinet
30:51
wherever you keep your rolling pins, or ideally in the My Family Tree Food and
30:55
Stories book with your recipes, right?
30:58
And in a cabinet.
30:59
Tape it inside the door, because it's got a story
31:03
Sylvia France: And if you don't have any of those, you can
31:05
always write it on a crinkled old Post-it Note and hope it sticks.
31:10
Nancy May: Yes.
31:11
So on that note, glasses up
31:14
Sylvia France: To Willie Marie Sears Spivey and to ever cut a piece of tree
31:18
into a rolling pin and never signed it
31:21
Nancy May: All right, that's where the heart of your rolling
31:22
pin is, just like the tree.
31:24
And if somebody you know has a kitchen mystery that they've been meaning to
31:27
get to the bottom of, send it to us
31:30
Sylvia France: And send us a photograph of the end of your rolling pin, just the end
31:34
Nancy May: And , somebody wrote that a good rolling pin is on
31:37
par with a cast iron skillet
31:39
Sylvia France: I will second that.
31:41
Two tools, no moving parts, and they outlast everybody
31:44
who owns them most of the time
31:46
Nancy May: W- most of the times, right?
31:48
Which brings us to next Thursday, cast iron, not one piece.
31:52
The skillet, the griddle, the Dutch oven, the bread pans.
31:55
There's a lot more about cast iron than I ever even thought ever existed
31:59
Sylvia France: And it's also one of my favorite stories my
32:02
great-grandmother's cast iron pan.
32:05
Nancy May: Ooh
32:05
Sylvia France: On many cast iron pans, there's a mark on the bottom
32:09
that most people read as damage.
32:11
It isn't damage,
32:12
Nancy May: Find it all out next week
32:14
Sylvia France: Happy cooking, happy experimenting, and happy kitchen sleuthing
32:17
Nancy May: Yes.
32:18
And rolling.
32:19
Bye-bye