Sears and Roebuck Oat Sprouter...

My Grandmother Mabel Brooks lost her husband, my Grandfather Leroy Brown, in 1937. When she remarried she married Oscar Brooks. Oscar, my step grandfather, was the only grandfather I knew growing up, as my Dad's father died in 1949. Oscar had two sisters in which one lived in Chicago and the other, Iva Horton lived south of us in the country about 5 miles. Iva and her husband John were very close to my family even though we were step family. I still write to one of their son's who has long retired and lives in Iowa City. I want to blog about them later on about where they lived and how they lived. They were true pioneers in many ways. It was like visiting the Waltons on the tv show both in country setting and family.

When you visited them, you never entered by the front door, as it was facing the road and that was far from the driveway.  At the back of the house was a shady yard and their back door was inside on  a porch. The porch was a work space for them and storage space and the floor tilted down hill in case the rain would come in. It was a screened porch and I suspect they used it as a summer kitchen area for canning and other cooking needs.

As you entered the back porch and walked toward the back door of the kitchen, one could always see this cupboard. It was typical styling with a glass door of two lights over two. It had one door at the bottom. For all the years that I visited there, I never asked about it and just admired it. When John and Iva moved to town while I was in college, I helped with the other neighbors in the move and I never again thought about that cupboard.

Through the years I noticed it in my dad's garage and he was storing his rocks in it. I had never made the connection that it was the same piece until I notice the gray patterned paper that was taped in the window glass of the door. It was the same paper that I saw at John and Iva's and it hit me that was the same cupboard and Dad had it. I never knew the drawer was in it as I could never see in it. I was very excited. I knew one day that it would be mine.

I like old furniture and the history of it. I talked to my Dad about it and he said John told him it was an oat sprouter. The sprouter was lined, I am assuming with zinc sheeting at the top area where you see the glass door. The lining is just like the metal you see in old wooden refrigerators that were cooled by blocks of ice. It had shelves in there and I am presume they put trays of dirt with oat seed planted in the dirt. The drawer built in at the bottom of that section was probably made by John as the turned it into a storage cupboard. I do know Sears made it as on the bottom of the front is a metal name plate, very deteriated, that says Sears and Roebuck. I assume it was ordered from the catalog.



At the bottom is the door with the hole in it. I would think that it was for a light bulb to warm the whole unit to cause the oats to sprout. If not electricity it could of been where they put steaming hot water to warm the unit. Who knows? The holes on the side are air vents so the plants can be kept from rotting with too much moisture.

Now some of you non-farmers are wondering why oats. The oats, once sprouted, would be taken out to the chicken house and fed to the chickens. Chickens love fresh greens in the spring. This way they could get better eggs during the winter by feeding them forced oat seed.

The sponged finish on the cupboard was a freak mood that I was in as I thought it would make it look like a novelty piece which you see sold in stores today. I also attacked it with some decals to give it a more craft look. It is a novelty but some day I will probably strip it back down to the red brown stained wood. As you can see the cupboard is filled with collections of war soldiers, water fowl ceramics, my wife's toy dishes and other things. That will be another long blog. Sorry to go on and on. Thanks for reading