Anne of Green Gables pantry
The Green Gables pantry is almost as memorable as Anne, the heroine of L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables books.
In the Anne of Green Gables books, Marilla and Matthew of Prince Edward Island have a neat and tidy pantry filled with useful things. Anne, a newcomer to the family, manages to turn the household on its ear with her impulsive remarks, mishap adventures, and endless imagination. We never get a detailed description of the Green Gables pantry but it is mentioned throughout the book series.
Did you know you can visit the Green Gables pantry?
As it turns out, you can visit the Green Gables pantry, pictured below. Green Gables is a Canadian National Historic site, open to visitors from May through October.
“Raspberry Cordial” scrape
Many readers may recall Anne’s adventure with raspberry cordial fetched from the top shelf? She thought it was raspberry cordial, and gave some (as any good hostess would) to her best friend Diane by the tumbler-full. Unfortunately for Anne and Diane, it wasn’t raspberry cordial at all and Diane became quite tipsy. Marilla asks what Anne gave Diane and Anne replies: “Not a thing but raspberry cordial,” sobbed Anne. “I never thought raspberry cordial would set people drunk, Marilla — not even if they drank three big tumblerfuls as Diana did. Oh, it sounds so — so — like Mrs. Thomas’s husband! But I didn’t mean to set her drunk.” “Drunk fiddlesticks!” said Marilla, marching to the sitting room pantry. There on the shelf was a bottle which she at once recognized as one containing some of her three-year-old homemade currant wine for which she was celebrated in Avonlea, although certain of the stricter sort, Mrs. Barry among them, disapproved strongly of it.”
Anodyne liniment cake mishap
In a similar vein at another part of the book, Anne prepares a completely awful and inedible cake for an honored guest with some mislabeled liniment instead of vanilla (another entirely the wrong ingredient) from the pantry. Marilla again: “Mercy on us, Anne, you’ve flavored that cake with ANODYNE LINIMENT. I broke the liniment bottle last week and poured what was left into an old empty vanilla bottle.”
Anne peeks in a pantry window
Anne also gets stuck looking in a pantry window going after a replacement blue willow platter. “Lean on the window sill,” advised Diana, and Anne accordingly leaned. Much to her delight, she saw, as she peered through the pane, a willow-ware platter, exactly such as she was in quest of, on the shelf in front of the window. So much she saw before the catastrophe came. In her joy Anne forgot the precarious nature of her footing, incautiously ceased to lean on the window sill, gave an impulsive little hop of pleasure … and the next moment she had crashed through the roof up to her armpits, and there she hung, quite unable to extricate herself.” The homeowner, Miss Sarah Copp, has to free Anne with an axe. Seriously!
Miss Lavandar Lewis pantry
And there is some more pantry in Anne of Avonlea, in the following exchange during a visit with Miss Lavendar Lewis:
“So we’ll just make a raid on the pantry. Fortunately, it’s lovely and full. I had a presentiment that I was going to have company today and Charlotta the Fourth and I prepared.”
“I think you are one of the people who always have nice things in their pantry,” declared Paul. “Grandma’s like that too. But she doesn’t approve of snacks between meals. I wonder,” he added meditatively, “if I OUGHT to eat them away from home when I know she doesn’t approve.”
“Oh, I don’t think she would disapprove after you have had a long walk. That makes a difference,” said Miss Lavendar, exchanging amused glances with Anne over Paul’s brown curls. “I suppose that snacks ARE extremely unwholesome. That is why we have them so often at Echo Lodge.”
Some more pictures of the Green Gables pantry, from Trip Advisor:
This photo of Green Gables is courtesy of TripAdvisor
Photo of Green Gables is courtesy of TripAdvisor
Photo of Green Gables is courtesy of TripAdvisor
Want to re-read Anne of Green Gables?
The Anne books
To plan a Green Gables visit, check out Parks Canada.
What’s your favorite Anne mishap? Let us know in the comments below!
