Years ago, I think perhaps even before we'd built the house at this little place here (so, prior to 2003), DH's grandmother gave me a stainless steel vegetable peeler for Christmas. It was the best vegetable peeler in the world: it felt great in my hands and peeled like a charm, very sharp without taking too much good stuff on the underside of the peel.
I loved that peeler. (And I loved DH's grandmother, she was a very neat, tough, farmlady.)
DH's grandmother passed away in 2008. That fall, my beloved vegetable peeler came up missing. I searched and searched, but could not find it. I then thought that maybe it had gotten taken on our cross country trip to Oregon and was still in the camper.
Nope, not in the camper.
I searched the house again, even in the kids' bedrooms and the basement, thinking one of them had made off with it. Because kids tend to take dishes and cups and things into rooms they should not be taken to, and then leave them there. It's a quirk of children.
Nope, not in the house.
I was sick. My peeler was gone. DH's grandmother was gone. Not only did this MIA peeler drive home how much I missed her, I also could not ask her what brand it had been (it was unmarked with any type of logo or printing). I bought a series of peelers from stores, trying to find a match for my perfect peeler. All to no avail.
Finally, early this spring, I happened to get some of those junk mailing cards of things you can mail order. One was for Rada cutlery. It had a picture on it of something that looked eerily like my long lost peeler. I got on their website. I looked at pictures of peelers. I read descriptions of peelers. I got my hopes up! I ordered a peeler.
It came in the mail. I opened the box, to find a twin of my beloved perfect vegetable peeler. I picked it up, and felt it's weight in my hand. It was perfectly balanced, a natural extension of myself. I tested it on a potato, and a carrot. It worked perfectly, easily making thin peels onto my countertop.
Ahh, I had found where the perfect peeler had come from. I had, after more than two years of searching and longing, replaced my perfect peeler.
A month later, I decided to empty one of the compost bins, one that had been slowly composting for several years. I had a few 'chicken holes' (depressions made by ecstatically dust-bathing chickens) in my flower beds I wanted to fill in. The well-aged compost seemed the perfect soil solution for those holes. I employed DD2 to assist me in this endeavor.
On her third trip from the compost bin, where she was filling the garden cart with "homemade" soil, she approaches me with a smile instead of her normal 'Mom is making me work' scowl. In her hand is a dirty, slightly rusty, but very recognizable vegetable peeler!
My original perfect peeler, the one DH's grandmother gifted me many years ago, the one MIA since 2008, had been unearthed deep in the compost bin. And as a testimony to it's awesomeness, after I took it in, rinsed it off, scrubbed at the rusty spots with some steel wool, and gave it a wash, it works just as well as it ever did, and looks nearly identical to my brand new one.
Fronts
Old peeler on left, new on right.
They look identical, despite the old one having 'lived' in a compost heap for 2+ years
Backs.
Old on left, new on right.
Only blemish on old one is the whitish slightly bubbled spot near bottom of handle.
I know what company I will most certainly order peelers from in the future, peelers all my children will have in their future homes!!
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