Build a Kitchen Worth Cooking In: The Bougie Homestead Starter Guide

Posted by Trickett's | Elkins, WV | tricketthardware.com

There's a certain kind of kitchen that's having a moment right now.

You've seen it. Stone countertops, worn smooth at the edges. Brass fixtures that catch the morning light. A cast iron skillet that looks like it's been in the family for generations. A sourdough loaf cooling on a thick maple board. Mushrooms drying on a rack. A jar of something local and golden on the counter. It looks effortless. It looks like the kind of kitchen where real things get made.

Here's what nobody tells you: that kitchen isn't built in a weekend at a big box store. It's built piece by piece, with things that are actually good. And a surprising number of them — the real ones, not the decorative ones — you can find right here in Elkins.

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What Materials Actually Belong in a Homestead Kitchen?

Stone. Wood. Brass. Cast iron. These aren't trends — they're the things that looked good a hundred years ago and will look good a hundred years from now.

We carry both wood and marble cutting boards, and they're not just for show. A thick end-grain maple board is a working surface — it protects your knife edge, it's gentle on your wrists, and it develops a patina over years of use that no synthetic board ever will. A marble slab is perfect for pastry work, stays cool naturally, and looks stunning under a loaf of sourdough.

We also carry the cast iron. A good cast iron skillet is arguably the single most important pan in a homestead kitchen. It goes from stovetop to oven to campfire without complaint. It sears, it bakes, it fries, it braises. Properly seasoned, it's as non-stick as anything with a chemical coating — and it gets better with every use rather than worse.

Which brings us to maintenance. This is where most people drop the ball.

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How Do You Take Care of Cast Iron and Wood Cutting Boards?

We carry everything you need to properly maintain the natural materials in your kitchen — and it matters more than people realize.

Cast iron care: the right oil for seasoning (flaxseed or food-grade mineral oil, applied thin and baked in), a chainmail scrubber that cleans without stripping your seasoning, and a good stiff brush. Never dish soap, never the dishwasher, never soaking. Dry it on the burner, oil it warm, put it away. Twenty minutes of attention over a lifetime and you have something your grandchildren will fight over.

Wood cutting board care: food-grade mineral oil and beeswax conditioner, applied regularly, keep your boards from drying, cracking, and harboring bacteria. A properly maintained maple board is actually more sanitary than plastic — the wood's natural properties do work that synthetics can't. We carry both. It's a five-dollar investment that protects a fifty-dollar board.

And if you're refreshing your kitchen hardware — swapping out builder-grade fixtures for brass, adding a pot filler, or upgrading your sink faucet — we carry brass fittings and can help you get the job done right, not just make it look right.

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Your Knives (And Keeping Them Sharp)

Every serious kitchen runs on knives. Not a block of twelve with three you've never touched — two or three knives that are genuinely good, that you reach for every day, that you keep sharp.

We carry Rada knives — American made, sharpened seriously, and priced like they actually want you to buy them. The Chicken & Fish Knife, the Granny Paring Knife, the Slicer. Start there and see how much of your cooking you can handle with just two blades.

If you want to go a step up, we carry Opinel — French made, carbon or stainless, with that iconic rotating collar lock. The No. 8 is one of the best all-purpose knives ever made at any price. It looks gorgeous on a cutting board. It also happens to work beautifully.

Rada also makes a sharpener that puts an edge on either brand in about six seconds. Use it. A dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp one — it slips where a sharp blade bites clean.

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The Sourdough Setup

If you're not already baking sourdough, you're about to be. It starts with a starter — flour, water, and time — and ends with a loaf that tastes like something your great-grandmother would have recognized.

We carry the supplies to get you going. A bench scraper is the unsung hero of bread baking — it portions, shapes, and cleans your board in one motion. A linen proofing cloth keeps your dough structured and gives it that bakery crust. A sharp scoring knife lets the loaf bloom in the oven rather than burst where it wants to.

Pull it out, set it on your maple board, and let it cool. Your whole house will smell like a European bakery. It is absolutely worth learning.

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What Local and Specialty Food Products Does Trickett Hardware Carry?

This is where Trickett's gets interesting — because we've gone out of our way to carry the kind of pantry staples that the lifestyle blogs talk about but most hardware stores never thought to stock. Here's what's on our shelves:

- Maple syrup. Real maple syrup, not the stuff in the plastic bottle shaped like a woman. The kind that tastes like the tree it came from.

- Highland Fungi fresh mushrooms, grow kits, and fungi salts. If you've never cooked with freshly harvested mushrooms rather than the pale, flavorless things from a grocery bag, you're in for a revelation. The grow kits mean you can have them year-round, right on your kitchen counter. The fungi salts are a finishing touch that will quietly transform everything you put them on — eggs, roasted vegetables, a good steak.

- Local honey. Raw, unfiltered, from bees that live near here. It goes on sourdough toast, into salad dressings, into tea, and into anything you're braising that needs a hint of sweetness. It looks beautiful on a counter in a good jar.

- Roots & Leaves elderberry tonic and fire cider. Small-batch, thoughtfully sourced, and made by people who care what goes into the bottle. The fire cider especially has become one of those things our customers come back for regularly once they've tried it.

- Locally roasted coffee. High-end, genuinely fresh, from a local roaster. If you've been grinding stale grocery store coffee, this will change your morning.

- Raw milk and eggs from chickens that are actually healthy. Not cage-free. Not even organic — organic can't touch what happens when a chicken lives outside, eats what chickens are supposed to eat, and sees the sun. The eggs have yolks so orange they look like something out of a European cooking video. Because they are.

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The Hardware Nobody Talks About

Here's what the lifestyle blogs skip: the most important things in a working kitchen aren't always the beautiful ones.

Whether you're hanging open shelving that needs to hold cast iron without pulling out of the wall, running a pot filler, swapping out fixtures for brass, or just getting your farmhouse sink plumbed right — that's where we live. We have the fasteners, the fittings, the anchors, and the know-how to make the beautiful kitchen actually function.

The bougie homestead kitchen is only bougie if it works. Come see us and we'll make sure yours does.

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Trickett's | Trickett Hardware

209 Davis Ave | Elkins, WV 26241

Open Monday–Saturday

tricketthardware.com

Serving Elkins since 1905. We carry pieces that will last a lifetime — and look good too.