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Sunday, May 5, 2013

Summer Kitchen



There's a rural tradition. People had summer kitchens. They were located away from the main house, in a shed or under a partial shelter. That was one way to help keep the main house cool in the days before air conditioning. When I was a kid, even though my grandparents lived in town, they had a summer kitchen in a big shed. They also had a big table in the shed that sat a lot of people. It seems there were always extra mouths to feed.

I was tempted to buy a propane grill, but decided to repurpose my old kitchen stove instead. It's an old wood/propane stove. For now, I'm going to just hook up the propane burners and oven.


The deck under the stoves has been reinforced. Soon I'll stretch a fabric roof over the stove to keep the weather off. This is going to be a lot of fun and I'm not buying anything new.

By the way, there's no air conditioning in my house either, so this will help it stay cool.

-Sixbears

13 comments:

  1. Now that sounds like a good plan to me. Keep the heat from cooking outside.

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  2. Love it. Food always tastes different when cooked outdoors. I do it whenever possible...

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  3. We had one in the house where I lived as a kid. Makes sense to me.

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    1. Sometimes the old solutions are still good.

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  4. My Uncles old hunting cabin, designed during the Great Depression, had the same design. Actually, the kitchen was separated from living quarters, same roof. No dining room, the kitchen had the gas refrigerator facing the the stove (about 3' apart iirc). which had a scullery sink (cold water only) adjacent to it. A wall cabinet with open shelves above.

    Not much storage said I - he said wasn't a whole lot of food to store, really. Had to be canned good because critters would get into bagged stuff regularly (this occurred even inside the sleeping quarters as well).

    Across the kitchen was a porch about 7' wide. To the right was the door to living quarters (about 16' square, open plan). The other side was a tool room. Shower was adjacent to outhouse in back, 3 sided pallet stall with open front.

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    1. Sounds like my kind of place. The sort of place good memories are made.

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  5. I bet that was fun to move again!

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    1. Somehow it got heavier over the winter.

      Jeff gave me a hand. We slid it on a pad most of the way.

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