Coloma Colander

The golden glow of our special colander, the Coloma Colander, brings warmth, beauty, and envy to those who are lucky enough to have the opportunity to partake of its gifts. This collander, or strainer, is the gift of giving for those special families like yours the best possible way of preparing your treasured meals. We, at www.jacobbromwell.com invite you to sit back in your favorite, comfy chair with your snack or drink while enjoying this literary journey…a story that may very well take you back in time when strainers were coming into their own as a proud kitchen item while being sought after for a variety of creative uses.

The colander, a rather unusual yet most useful kitchen tool, is perhaps one of the least understood. So, we thought it would be best to define it followed by a set of examples on how it may and have been used. A collander is a bowl-shaped kitchen tool with holes in it used for draining food such as pasta or rice, its two biggest uses in modern-day times. The nature of the strainer allows liquid to drain through while keeping the solids, such as mentioned, inside. This handy tool is often known as a kitchen sieve, as well. As a rule, strainers are made of a light metal, such as aluminum or thinly rolled stainless steel, like ours. Some colanders are even made of plastic or silicone. The word, colander, comes from the Latin colum meaning sieve, which may have been thought of in the late 1300s according to the Online Etymology Dictionary, 2010 edition. The collander, or sieve, in the form of what is often considered a pasta strainer was recognized by Austrians as a religious headgear known to the people of this European country as Pastafarianism.

The term, strainer, has two meanings found in the dictionary, Archive. The first is a tool for straining, filtering, or sifting that dates back to the early 1600s. Often, a specific use was shown by a description as in ‘fish strainer’, ‘soup strainer’, and ‘tea strainer’. Because such strainers were difficult to clean and would easily have passed taste and odor from one type of food to another, there was a great variety of strainers for sale, particularly in the 18th century as standards for collanders were very specific. Examples were a ‘gruel strainer’, ‘wine strainer’, and a ‘punch strainer’. Believe it or not, strainers were even used for straining or stretching fabrics like leather that needed to be tightly pulled for making horse collars or horse saddles. This would make the rider more comfortable. Why, even making harnesses and saddles for the horseback rider required strainers such as a ‘cantle strainer’, ‘point strainer’, and a ‘side strainer’. It is said that in a wealthy American household in 1871, a “prudent and generous mistress” would supply her cook “…with ample provision of all such things as her important department requires…”. This included such items as tables, rolling pins, trays, pots, pans, and colanders.

The history of the collander goes back to a very exciting time, a time when Jacob Bromwell and his supportive family were well into promoting and successfully selling the family’s very special colander. This was the 1830s. On June 9, 1837, a Maine newspaper announcement read, “A gold mine was lately discovered in Albion, Maine, the gold of which was imported from Mexico, especially for the purpose. The land sold at a very high rate in consequence of this discovery; but is not so valuable now.” Bromwell was apparently well aware of these exciting times and thereby took advantage of this opportunity with his collander known mostly for gold panning. As a result, he was able to make a wonderful profit, selling his treasured tool throughout Maine, and eventually beyond once ‘word got out’ about his collander!

Why, even in our times, Bromwell’s Coloma Colander continues to be used in kitchens from coast to coast as well as in the gold-mining fields of yesterday.