Our outdoor kitchen got a bit of a facelift recently, and we’ve been really pleased with its improved functionality and comfort. For the past two years, the outdoor kitchen looked like this:
The tarp did a great job protecting us from light rain, but the space was not big enough to both prepare meals and dine. As a result, our picnic table stood in the middle of our lawn, under a shade canopy. That worked fine, unless the sun was setting, in which case the shade was in a different location than the picnic table!
Brian loves to move earth and rock. It’s one of his homesteading superpowers. So he envisioned a terraced space in which we could place the picnic table and the full kitchen. Here’s how it looks now:
We seem to move in stages of impermanence. This outdoor kitchen will serve us very well for a few seasons, but our final design visions include more elegant terracing and a cob pizza/bread oven.
One of my favorite features of the new kitchen is this shelving unit. The shelf was salvaged years ago from a demolition job, and since it was made of cedar, and in great shape, we used it as a bookshelf for many years. But it’s simply too big for our current house. To the right of the shelf is a propane stove, as well as a rocket stove for cooking.
The sink still has running water (!!) piped in from our house water catchment, which makes dish washing so much easier.
And best of all, food preservation and canning is easy and cool, under the shade of the many oak trees that surround the outdoor kitchen!
is this the only kitchen you have, or is this a summer kitchen??
It is a summer kitchen. We have a propane burner, sink, and woodstove indoors.
So are you pressure canning on the propane stove?? Does it last long enough – we’ve be hashing out how to do our outdoor kitchen for which the main function needs to be for canning, preserving food, then for other things
We mainly use our rocket stove, or our campfire for canning these days (both water bath and pressure). It is just so much faster to bring a pot to boiling over the open flames, and our propane stove is fairly small. Years ago we owned a single burner propane stove that was large enough to can on, but these days I prefer our rocket stove!
Haven’t been to your blog lately, or many others for that matter, but ow winderful in your outdoor kitchen! Very inspiring and so i§ your attitude:) Keeping the ling term vision and yet improving all the way there.
Thanks Dianne! We’ve really enjoyed the outdoor kitchen this summer. It was so shady and breezy and well laid-out.
LOVE it all! What an inspiration. My husband just returned from a mission trip to Burma where they installed concrete stoves with similar purpose(efficient burning). Did you make your rocket stove? Could you share?? Thanks!
Thank you Juliett! We did not make our rocket stove, but rather purchased it from StoveTec. Our good friends work there and I really love what they are doing in the world!
I would love to have an outdoor kitchen! Do you only or primarily use it in the summer? Do you have an indoor kitchen too, for the winter? 🙂
Yes, we do have an indoor kitchen also, and we use the woodstove a lot for cooking. The outdoor kitchen is just for the summer. It’s more spacious, and keeps the heat out of the house. This was a relatively cool summer, but if it were really hot, there’d be no way I’d want to be cooking indoors!
Teri,
That’s a beautiful kitchen renovation, thank you for sharing with us. So lovely, especially compared to what a “modern” renovation might look like. I wish wish wish that someday I can have an outdoor kitchen, especially since I spend so much time in there.
Thank you! You know, it can start as simply as just moving a table out in the shade and doing your kitchen prep outside! I have a lot of resistance to moving outside each summer, but once I do it, it’s like heaven!
So this set up is there all winter? Or do you “break it down” and store it elsewhere during the winter and re- set it up for summer?
We don’t take anything down in the winter. It all stays there. The only thing we might do is move the rocket stove into a cabinet and make sure all everything is in plastic tubs.
Oh wow! This is so amazing! The thoughtfulness and ingenuity is inspiring. My family has been living in our garage for the past4 months while we remodel and I’m cooking on an old door on saw horses. Yeah…a little envious! Thank you for the blog I always love it.
Glad you like it, Mary! It’s really all my husband’s doing – he’s a great blend of artist and builder! Hope your remodel goes well!