Everyone has them. Kitchen towels. Some like pretty towels hanging from the stove handle just to be pretty. Some like towels that are used daily and get grungy quickly. I’m kind of in both camps. I like my pretty towels, but they inevitably get used for hand-drying, or grabbed to clean up a mess, so my pretty towels don’t stay pretty for long.
I also have utility towels. We all have them…the towels that never get hung up anywhere, but they are the ones we grab when we know we will need to clean up a mess. They work great for wiping off the stove, or wiping off a baby’s face after messy food. They get tossed on the floor to clean up that egg that you dropped, if the dogs don’t get to it first!
I don’t like paper towels, myself, so I always have a stack of kitchen towels and my favorites are known as Farmhouse Towels. I usually buy mine in the biggest packs at the lowest price I can find them. I use them for everything!
They are great for wiping up spills, drying dishes, or wetting down to wipe off the counters or table when needed. I also use them to filter the raw milk our neighbor gives us. I drape one over a pot with a strainer and the towel removes any grass that might have wandered into the milk machine. After I make cheese or butter, I also use one to strain out the solids from the whey. For cheese, I wrap the towel tightly around the curds and squeeze all the water out, then use a hair tie to hang the cheese up to finish draining.
These are the same towels that everyone seems to be putting fun sayings on these days, so they are pretty easy to find. My favorite thing about them, though, is how easy the flour sack towels are to clean. I stack mine up in a bowl as I use them, then soak them in warm, soapy water for about an hour, agitating them to remove anything that might be stuck. Once they have soaked, I wring mine out, rinse with hot water, and hang them to dry over my sink. I usually use seven or eight towels in the course of the day if I’m making cheese and butter, plus receiving milk, so I go through a lot of them, but they aren’t really enough to make a full load in the washer. I put them all in the kitchen laundry at least once a week, just for my own peace of mind. Actual cheese makers, though, recommend just using a cold water rinse on cloths used for making cheese, so I think I’m fine with my method.
