On Utility

When did we stop having small cardboard boxes and brown paper bags for our root vegetables?

You used to find them in obscure dark corners. In utility spaces. Which in themselves is an interesting concept - to have a corner of one’s home or kitchen earmarked for pure utility - for no aesthetic or leisurely being.

For some reason, I find it funny to think of all these potatoes and carrots and onions spending all their days lounging about in old-fashioned utility rooms. Like the type my grandmother still has in Ireland with a large drop freezer, sacks of coal and an array of Wellington boots.

Perhaps it is more of a storage room. A boot room. A root room. Anyway, I think the boxes are quaint and comforting so I’ve placed one under the windowsill in our London kitchen-come-living-come-office-come-gym-come-dining-come-utility room.