Finding a hot niche in a cold place
Cooking on a wood-fired stove is not just a thing of the past. In fact my shop neighbour, Pete, has carved a successful business in this very niche market. I want to show you what he does. It is cool. He isn't a chef. He is a preserver of a historic trade. He restores vintage stoves and wood heaters.
Winter in the Sunshine State
I live in the sunshine tropical state of Queensland in Australia. Believe it or not, these relics of a bygone kitchen are still fairly common here. Probably not in most of Queensland, but here where I live, we are about 900 metres above sea level. Perched up high in The Great Dividing Range, winter is cold enough to warrant a wood heater and the old fashioned wood stove is pretty popular too!
The wood heater in our house has been burning for a few months now. When I drive into town, on a frosty morning, little chimneys puffing with smoke, sit on top of almost every home. Selling firewood is big business here in winter.
Last winter it snowed, and snowed impressively. It was awesome. The last time that happened though was 34 years prior. I have only lived here for a few years and locals always tell me about the snow fall of 1984 and how even on Christmas Day in this part of the world, the wood fire has been lit.
Finding a niche with wood stoves
What Pete does is very niche. There is loads of wonderful modern wood heaters available and plenty of places that sell them. Pete works with the vintage kind. Plus what makes his work particularly unique, is his specialization in restoring vintage wood stoves. I think they are beautiful!
I remember as a child, we had a wood stove in our kitchen. Mum used it to cook on it. I used to sit in the kitchen on cold nights with my feet resting in a little enclave on the stove. It was so toasty and warm. Eventually Mum got sick of chopping wood and the difficulty baking with such variant temperatures, so they replaced it with an electric oven. But I remember the wood-fired one.
Where I live now, many original homes still have a vintage wood heater in them and kitchens have the recess where a wood stove once sat (or still does). Further out of the townships, where access to power is not a given, little homesteads use wood stoves for cooking and heating. Then there is the trendy homes with large entertaining decks and people looking for a statement piece – a pizza oven. Vintage wood-fired stoves sure do cook a great pizza!
Pete's business is in the right place and with not many other people doing the same thing (in all of Australia), he is on to a winner. These days most of his vintage stoves, sell before he has even finished the restoration job.
The first time I saw Pete's workshop, I was in awe. Years of collecting old rusty stoves has resulted in an extensive collection of parts. I love the intricate details on the stoves, the embossed marks, embellishments and pastel colours.
Pete knows his product well and over time, through experience has accumulated extensive knowledge of the various models out there. It is awesome to see a rusty old thing restored to its former glory.
I love that businesses like Pete's exist. Keeping alive a part of our history. I love that people still want them in their kitchen. If I ever decided to explore the art of wood-fired baking, I know where to get a beautiful mean green crown number 1 for my kitchen.
Gosh, how good does wood-fired bread and pizza taste!
Until next time,
xx Isabella
Cook pics and cool post. You can still buy brand new wood stoves like what you have posted above here in Chile. They are very common, even the Chilean version of Walmart sells them.
Wow - that is cool to know. So interesting! I guess here in Australia, the wood-fired heater fazed out many years ago with the introduction of electric and gas ones. I think there is still a place for them though and I guess Chile is a shining example :) I bet your food tastes pretty amazing because of it too! Thanks so much for telling me that. I kinda figured other countries would still use them, but I didn't realise brand new ones are still being made. Hopefully the temperature control has improved! It is an art in our old ones to get the heat level just perfect and maintain it long enough to bake anything.
wood is the primary fuel source here. I can't really put a percentage on it, but I'd bet it is above 70% of all homes use wood as their main source. The house we live in does not have one of these stoves, unfortunately, so unless we move to another house with one, you won't be seeing any posts with one of these in it. Too bad, because that would be a cool post, no doubt.
And yes, we have lots of smoke in the cities here as a result.
Where do you find the wood to burn? When I think of Australia I think of a big deserted outback.
It is mostly desert, but there is so much more than desert here! Wood is available to buy, and there is plenty around. Around these parts Iron Bark is the favourite.
"Iron" bark? I thought that trees were made of wood. Truly you come from a land down-under.
Steemon
Interesting article. These stoves remind me of my grandmother's and the wonderful smells coming from the kitchen.
Lovely! I can just imagine @team101. I don't really remember my Mums cooking in the stove, just keeping my feet warm :)
Maybe take that large, white cast iron stove, and some of the random smaller stuff, and work it into an outdoor kitchen design. Use the smaller stuff to dress up the modern day bbq grill part.
Then invite the whole neighbourhood over for pizza!
sometimes what we have cravings for could be different,i guess that what we call hobby . and you do find great outcomes for what you have hobby for
That turquoise, cream and black 'patchwork' one is gorgeous.
Isn't it just :) I want one like that too! Although we burn enough wood each winter just with the heater.
Some of them look like works of art, don't they?
Exquisite creations indeed. Makes my wood heater look incredibly boring!
Very cool! (your last picture didn't show up so hopefully you can fix that).
I have fond memories of my Grandma's wood burning stove. In Buffalo we had a terrible storm and lost power for over a week. Guess where we cooked our food :) right on top of the wood burning stove. It's also amazing to see how reliant we are on cell phones and electricity when power is lost and new forms of entertainment are essential. (My sister actually got engaged during that storm, but that is a different story.)
I also put far too many logs in the stove in an attempt to warm the house and we had to wind up opening every door and and window and spending a bit of time outside. Those stoves are very efficient.
I like what your friend does and love when people find niche markets doing something they love that may not be found in many places. He has definitely made some work that can generate nostalgia and start some fun conversations.
Thank for sharing @brigetbunchy you always have very interesting posts :)
What a great story @benjmiller! I sometimes boil a kettle on top of our wood heater, most of the time I forget that I can even do that! Thanks heaps for thinking my posts are interesting, very kind. Also will look into the photo issue.
Thanks for fixing that last picture, it was a great final picture. If he doesn't mind I'd love to know what a custom stove would go for that he has created (a ballpark price).
He doesn't create them as such, but rather restores originals. They vary in price depending on the model, age and rarity. An average would be around the $1,500- $5000 mark, but it can be considerably more for older ones plus there is installation costs and usually a new flu kit is required.
Very cool and to me that sounds quite reasonable. It's nice to see creative people doing things they enjoy. That's really what people need to find. No matter how much money you make, if you don't love the work, it really doesn't matter.
Making less money and enjoying work more can be a great thing for many people.
These are beautiful. The Crown in the first picture and the turquoise Crown below are just amazing. There is nothing like using a wood stove. Great post again!