Outdoor or Summer Kitchens

Homesteading & Country Living Forum

Help Support Homesteading & Country Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Patchouli

Patchouli

Gatekeeper
Staff member
Moderator
Neighbor
HCL Supporter
Joined
Dec 20, 2017
Messages
12,783
There is a difference in the two but I scanned the forum and found outdoor or summer kitchens mentioned in a lot of places but I did not see any here in the home construction, etc boards. Sorry if I missed it.

Old homes from the 1800s may have had summer kitchens, the thick stone walls under large shady trees, maybe near a spring or stream, adding to the coolness.
Here in Texas some like to add on to the outdoor ambiance with cooking areas, barbecues, grills, a roofed area, stone or brick for ground surface.
I don't have an outdoor or summer kitchen but wondered if anyone else leans into this kind of thinking. Worth considering if we're without electricity in the heat of the summer.
Country Living magazine had this one
1709178305766.png
 
My husband is going to expand our deck this summer with the plan to have an outdoor kitchen for my canning. We have enormous sycamore trees that shade the whole area. Our inside kitchen is in a corner of where we are looking to do this and we have easy access to expand natural gas and water for summer use. I am currently collecting stainless units secondhand, I have a long counter one and am looking for a sink unit with two or three basins I also have been keeping an eye on the Restores over the hill for a natural gas range top that we can install outside and not be terribly worried about it deteriorating. Hubby will build a cover for it and we will fashion some kind of winter cover for it also. A bucket for waste water will work for the sinks, most of what I’d be using them for is washing veggies from the garden, so reuse in the garden would be good. We already have a smoker and a really nice fire pit that we can use our Dutch ovens on adjacent to the deck.
 
Patchouli said:
There is a difference in the two but I scanned the forum and found outdoor or summer kitchens mentioned in a lot of places but I did not see any here in the home construction, etc boards. Sorry if I missed it.

Old homes from the 1800s may have had summer kitchens, the thick stone walls under large shady trees, maybe near a spring or stream, adding to the coolness.
Here in Texas some like to add on to the outdoor ambiance with cooking areas, barbecues, grills, a roofed area, stone or brick for ground surface.
I don't have an outdoor or summer kitchen but wondered if anyone else leans into this kind of thinking. Worth considering if we're without electricity in the heat of the summer.
Country Living magazine had this one
View attachment 125296
Click to expand...
What is this "Cooking" you speak of, is it a place for the Uber and Doordash people to park while they deliver "food"

Sorry, I will go stand in the corner :p

Nope, I have NEVER ubered or doordashed fuds :)
 
I love my summer kitchen. It's changed up since this pix was taken but I still use it a ton especially during summer/autumn. It does not have water so I have to be creative and treat that sink like a dry sink - bucket under the drain and use jugs of water.
1709226757812.png
 
I have an outdoor cooking area which in the summer, is my go-to place to cook. I also keep a Blackstone griddle, that runs on a 5 gallon propane tank, under the BBQ, so between the BBQ and the griddle, I can make a feast, without getting the house smelly or hot. I added granite for the countertop, so it is as close to my outdoor kitchen as possible.
20180531_164145_resized.jpg
 
When a windstorm took out our BBQ I used the opportunity to upgrade to a propane BBQ with a burner on the side. It sits next to the kitchen window near the patio table. It is a functional work area though if I put a counter under the sliding window one person could work it. This is not the summer kitchen I’ve been dreaming of but it works, for now.
 
Post Grid they will become a necessity if you have to heat and with wood. A good project to think about, I have always wanted to build one, but life got in the way. the beauty is you can start with a shelter and grow it from there, things would probably happen fairly fast if it was used several months of the year.
 
Tirediron said:
Post Grid they will become a necessity if you have to heat and with wood. A good project to think about, I have always wanted to build one, but life got in the way. the beauty is you can start with a shelter and grow it from there, things would probably happen fairly fast if it was used several months of the year.
Click to expand...
Funny you should mention this. The BBQ can easily be converted to wood burning by simply removing the the "slip in" gas valves, and throwing firewood into the firebox, them placing the iron grills back on it. If worst goes to worse, my stick built house can easily be dissected for quick firewood.
 
We have an old wood stove in the barn that has the good surfaces for cooking on. In the event we needed to go wood cooking only, it would be pretty easy to set up. Handy to have a husband that does chimney sweeps as a side hustle, we always have parts for wood burning appliances. I have decades of cooking with cast iron Dutch ovens out in the woods and we have about a dozen of them. Any kind of off grid baking would be an easy conversion for us also.
 
My outdoor cooking setup isn't nearly as nice as what y'all have but I get by.
I have 2 propane grills that get used frequently.
If I want to cook with wood or charcoal, I have:
Several "hobo pie" irons
Hibachi grill
Camp Chef Mountain man grill (griddle & grate)
A couple smokers
...

I keep the non-propane cooking items inside to avoid weather related damage.
 
It's not really a "summer kitchen" but I will be looking for a 3 season cover for the patio area. Fireplace, Grill, etc etc. Not much good in the winter, but it's a SUMMER kitchen.

Winter cooking is inside, keeps the place warm :)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top