I moved my kitchen outside!

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I did it! I was getting sick from being stuck in the house preserving, so I set up the old parler stove, outside. It is wonderful! I am back out there where I belong! There is room for two large pans on the top of the stove, one for boiling jars and the other for the brew! Yesterday I did, 16 quarts of grape juice, and 8 jars of spiced peaches. It was fun! Now when I look up I see blue skies, green leaves, moss and bark. I love it! I have been rekindled! Love TRen

-- Anonymous, September 02, 2001

Answers

Oh, Tren you make it sound so beautiful! It gets so hot in my kitchen when I run the canner I wish I could do that too! Barefoot, my toes in the nice cool grass...and no worries about spilling and splooshing stuff outside!!!

-- Anonymous, September 02, 2001

Cass, Do it! Just find a little old stove, hey there are no walls to catch on fire outside so you don't have to worry about all that stuff, just find a little spot out from under trees and level,{ the level spot was hard to find in my hillbilly yard!grin}. Jim helped me position mine on bricks so that its legs won't be on the gound.

Mine is nearby our peach and apple trees and the apples swirl themselvess to the ground released from the apple tree,as the newly canned jars seal with pops and the August bugs trill.

It's great because I can see the grape vine, the vegetable garden, the apple and peach tree from my stove. I work on the ones that are ready and I am there where I can hear them. As I am peeling peaches, the apples plunking to the ground let me know when I should rake up them up for their turn in the pot.

The water hose from the back door will go as far as my stove and I put a kettle of water to boil first thing for washing and cleansing , and I set one to boiling for the jars, Wood is gathered and the ancient ritual of starting a fire is preformed, How I love the beautiful wrought iron design and curves of my little parlor stove, it's heat feels healing to me.

I have everything set up on a table just like I would inside, with jar lifters, and jars, and lids and rings all getting anoited in the boilng water.

I can See better outside too, and I feel that it will help me keep everything sterile, instead of being dirtyer as some people might think. I feel cleaner outside. Yesterday I did some spiced peaches, and they glowed back at the sun in shades of gold, yellow, tan and brown. I watched as grapes released their nector into a jarred sea of swirling purple.

Oh Gosh, I should just live in a Yurt!

-- Anonymous, September 02, 2001


That sounds wonderful!!!! I love doing just about anything outside much better, too! I'm planning on an overhead structure to keep the rain off where we can have a small firepit *someday*. It's not usually very cold here most of the year, but it sure is damp a lot.

Watching the sky and leaves is the perfect activity as starting into fall.

Have fun!

-- Anonymous, September 02, 2001


Oh Tren - I can just envision you out in your little paradise singing with the birds and canning away. It sounds so wonderful. And Farmer Shaw probably just wonders.....!

-- Anonymous, September 02, 2001

Sounds really great, Tren. I'd much rather be doing ANYTHING outside rather than in the house! But do you have any problem with birds roosting over your stove????

-- Anonymous, September 02, 2001


Growing up we had a screened in "canning kitchen" on one end of the patio complete with sink , range and a couple older refrigerators for keeping the produce from going through a heat before canning. It was also used for regular cooling also. When canning wasn't being done it was a great place to lounge away from the bugs and play cards (after all, we had two coolers for the beer:>)

-- Anonymous, September 02, 2001

No Marcia, No stove roosting yet. It shouldn't be a problem, usually have lids on things. The problem I think of is covering the stove up when it rains, I have some big tarps. I wouldn't want my stove to rust out! Sheepish has the right idea with a little shelter. Hm, I would have to get my Jim to help me on that one.

Dianne Willow, Farmer Shaw can't see me, I don't think anyone can, I am directly behind my house, and surrounded by trees on all but one side. My BreBee came out and looked at me for awhile yesterday, then she said,"Mom, I'm happy for you.", "What do you mean," I asked her. "Your so happy just to be outside, I'm glad you fixed this up," she said. Bless her heart. That was considerate of her wasn't it!

Love TRen

-- Anonymous, September 03, 2001


Tren, that sounds so wonderful! I often use my Victorio strainer outside since it's an older one that splatters a bit. Reading your post made me remember back to the last time I made apple butter inside - what a sticky mess!! I put Hubby to looking for our old camp stove - I'll set it up outside on the picnic table and do a big batch of applebutter outside this year!

This has always been my favorite time of the year; I think back to when our orchard was in production and this place was full of family - picking and hauling apples, washing and sorting them, setting up displays, pressing cider...Granny Julie Dean would always come down to stay for apple season to answer the phone for us. I remember her bringing her peck sack out to the shed and filling it up with nice cull Yellow Delicious apples that she would sit and peel and put in the freezer for the whole family. She always kept a big pot of soup on the stove - usually vegetable, and made up a big old pile of sandwiches to go with for when we could take a break and have a bite to eat. Mom and I would make up the crusts for apple pie and she would fill and bake them for the freezer while we were out working. In the winter, when it was time to prune the apple trees, we would take a milk carton of frozen veggie soup and an apple pie out of the freezer and set the soup in a dutch oven and the pie on a triver on top of the woodstove. When we would come in for lunch, it smelled just like harvest season all over again...

-- Anonymous, September 04, 2001


Oh Polly that sounds so beautiful . I wish that things could be like that again, with everyone getting together and helping, it would be so wonderful!

-- Anonymous, September 04, 2001

Oh, Trendle... you are using your head... My next house... is going to have a screen porch for preserving in... I'm tired of the house being damp, sticky and whatever from preserving...

a yurt??? did you say, yurt???.... I would love one... just my little kingdom.... away from everything and one...

course, I really want a round house.... but my partner said I would drive him crazy trying to find a corner!!!!! course, the kids would like not being sent to the corner... tee hee tee hee

-- Anonymous, September 06, 2001



Tren, what your daughter said to you was so very sweet! It must have really touched your heart to know how she sensed that you had found what you needed to pull you out of your doldrums.

It really sounds like somethin one of mine would say........sometimes I feel so lucky to have kids who are so sensitive to my feelings, who never give me any trouble, and wouldnt dream of treating me with disrespect, cuz they wouldnt want to hurt my feelings.

Aren't younguns wonderful?

-- Anonymous, September 11, 2001


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