A Summer Kitchen

When I was bear hunting in the Maine Northwoods I came across a summer kitchen. Near the guide camp, one of the guys from The Mountain Man show has a cabin. The guide told me the guy likes having visitors so we stopped by. He had a outdoor kitchen that was basically a roof, sink, counters, able and wood cookstove.

I thought that was a great idea for summer and harvest time.

 

Good morning Randy,

Real good.

On my list of "things to do" ("Heaven: the place to do the things you didn't have time to do." Anon) was to build one of these summer kitchens. At an Interstate rest area near here is a picnic section with tables under a shed. The whole thing is a cement slab, 2 vertical poles and a prefab room. (New Kent County, Virginia Welcome Center).

It's still on my list.

A couple of tarps with a Mr Buddy space heater and also can work for some other seasons.

 

On the outside of my house I have a wood cook stove and oven under a railroad crosstie walled cook house . That is where I occasionally cook for fun and practice and make char cloth for my flint and steel fire starting kit . There I don't have to worry about smoke smoking my house up . Also I built a small rock walled shelter for a propane cook stove and oven . Actually I got this idea when one of my neighbors showed me his outdoor cooking shed for a S.H.T.F. situation . That neighbor is not what I consider part of my prepper group but like many of the Ozark population they do prep for any S.H.T.F. situation .

 

I built a log cabin in the backwoods of Kentucky. All I had for cooking was a wood cookstove in the cabin. It was hot during the summer. I was a kid so it didn't seem like a big deal then. Now it would seem sweltering.

 

("Heaven: the place to do the things you didn't have time to do." Anon) is that the same as retirement?

 

Good afternoon Randy,

In my retirement, I'm ultra busy, supersaturated with projects I didn't accomplish when working.

Although not enroute to Heaven, I'm still going to be backlogged !

 

or the energy

 

That's actually a good idea. We built one near our cabin that's still work in progress. Plan to dry and grow herbs here, also do the canning (so it doesn't heat the house up in the summer). Meat dryer is on the list.

 

It sounds like an interesting concept, and many here have already done it. If you were bear hunting wouldn't an outdoor kitchen like that attract some unwanted visitors? Like the bears you were hunting? Just wondering?

 

we weren't visiting during the hunt, the hunt was out deep in the Main North Woods, early in he morning. It was during the off times.

 

The easy thing to do is to get a second wood stove. The cost effective thing to do would be to set up your summer kitchen, move the stove outside in the summer and back inside in the fall.

 

ya know that is where the old saying "pa stove his back up" came from, moving that darn stove in and out the house.

 

it's a thing in Texas. I've seen nice, newer homes with a big patio, fireplace, grill, sink, cabinets, etc., but have also seen older properties with it all too, on a very functional scale.
Some of the old properties in the east (think 1800s and earlier) have actual little house-type set ups that they called a summer kitchen and they cooked and canned, prepped the food there. Edited to add: these were usually on properties where the main house was pretty large.
The little spring houses are pretty cool too. They'd build them over top of a spring or creek to be able to fetch water from and to keep foods cool or cold.