The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1925-01-01
Kitchen Contest

On January IL, all new entries for
the Kitchen Improvement Contest
will be scored and formally entered
in the State Kitchen Improvement
Contest by Gertrude Gage, county
club leader of Benton county. Appli-
cations for entrance will be accepted
until that date. The first scoring of
the kitchens will not be in the ma
ture of tour but just done privately
by the club agent and the owner of
the prize winning kitchens. Six coun-
ties in Washington are entering this
contest and in several of them the
leaders are having to refuse further
entries as they now have more than
they can handle. 1t is one of the fin
est opportunities that has ever been
offered to the farm women of the
west to decrease her work and in
crease her leisure and opportunity
for enjoyment. 1t also comes at the
slack time Of the year when the men
folks can give her the necessary help
to put it thru. Miss Gage will be
glad to advise and help in any way
possible at any time.
A series of articles of which the
following is the first will appear in
this paper from time to time.
The talk that is printed below was
delivered by Gertrude Gage and
broadcast over the radio at Pullman
at a recent convention held at that
place.
The kitchen is the workshop of
the home. In it are prepared approxi-
mately 1000 meals every year after
which at least twenty thousand dish
es must be washed and put away. The
welfare of the entire family depends
on the housekeeper. 1t is she who pra-
pares these meals, washes the dishes,
cleans the home, washes, irons, and
mends the clothes and cares for their
physical needs in health and in sick
ness. When these needs are accom-
plished she must turn her attention
to the social training of her family.
In order to do this she must have
some leisure time during each day for
study and personal contact, and sup
ervision of her children. She can not
do this if all of her time is spent in
the material work Of her home.
An efficient kitchen is one means
of obtaining this leisure time. 1t will
permit her to accomplish better re-
suits with greater saving of time
and energy and it will be pleasure
to direct the minds of her children
in work and in play.
An efficient kitchen depends large
ly in arrangement. Proper arrange
ment will reduce the time spent in
the kitchen, make the work less hard,
eliminate waste, and lower the cost
of light, heat, and cleaning.
Kitchens are of two types, the
small, compact, cabinet kind, COM
mon to the new bungalow, and the
city apartment, and the large roomy
kind used for kitchen and dining
room. The latter is most common
to the farm and it is this one we will
discuss at this time. First study the
room with the thought of the best
arrangement that will give small
kitchen, well lighted, and we'll ven-
tilated. In other words We will con-
fine the kitchen to one portion of
the room rather than scattering it all
about. If the housewife wishes to take
q walk she will find it much more re-
freshing and stimulating to take it
out of doors rather than from stove
to table. Stove, tables, cupboards and
sink should be within six foot ra-
dius of each other. In this way no
two of them will be more than twelve
feet apart.
Correct kitchen arrangement re-
quires articles used together should
be grouped together, and near the
place they are to be used, to prevent
cross tracking. The work of the kit
chen can be grouped into five steps.
First Collecting; second, preparing
third, the actual cooking; fourth
serving; fifth, clearing away and
washing the dishes. The collecting OF
food materials and utensils for pre-.
paration of the meal involves the
utensils cupboard and the storage
cellar or closet. These should be 50
arranged that one trip from the
utensil cupboard to the supply stor.
age will bring all the foods neces.
sary for the meal to the place where
they are to be prepared. The uten.
sils should be somewhere near the
work table. Most preparation of fooG
takes place at the sink and table
Have them as close together as pos