Kitchen cloths. www.bmstores.co.uk / flickr / 2019 / CC BY 2.0
Cloths are used in almost every aspect of feeding us.
They have applications in many aspects of cultivation including covering plants while growing to protect from insects and too-direct sun, as well as covering equipment, etc. Baskets of harvested food may be covered in cloth to protect them during transportation. Oiled cloths were used to help protect preserved foods in storage.
We use cloths to clean kitchens before and after food preparation.
We use cloths for food preparation: cheese cloths to hold food together, jelly cloths to strain.
We use cloths to cook in. Puddings were cooked wrapped up in cloth long before pudding bowls came around. Bread is often covered in a cloth while rising.
We use cloths to wipe our hands; we wrap cloths in the form of aprons around our waists to keep our clothes clean while cooking.
Cloths are now made from a variety of materials in a variety of ways. Some are meant to be single-use and then discarded; others are meant to be used almost forever until sheer use wears them out and it’s just time for a new one.
From growing our food to storing it to cooking it to keeping our food preparation work areas sanitary, cloths have always played and continue to play a vital role in keeping us fed.
