Welcome to the Stillroom Journal

The Stillroom Journal is where we explore the household knowledge that came before us and ask what may still be useful today. Drawing from historical cookery books, household manuals, herbals, gardening texts, receipt books, almanacs, and other primary sources, the Journal looks at the skills, practices, ingredients, and rhythms that once shaped everyday domestic life.

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You’ll find articles on seasonal foodways, herbs and gardens, preservation, household crafts, practical home skills, historical recipes, old terminology, and the tools and methods people used to keep a household running. Whenever possible, we return to the original sources, explain what they actually say, and place them in their historical context rather than polishing the past into something it wasn’t.

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But this isn’t history kept behind glass.

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The Journal also asks the very Stillroom question: Can we use any of this now? Historical practices may be adapted for a modern kitchen, garden, pantry, or home, with a clear distinction between the original source and our present-day interpretation. Sometimes the answer is a useful recipe or technique. Sometimes it is simply a better understanding of how people solved ordinary problems with the resources they had.

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Along the way, you may also find seasonal notes, experiments from the Stillroom, recipes, garden observations, source discoveries, and the occasional rabbit hole we simply couldn’t resist following.

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Useful knowledge. Beautiful things. Living history.