Summer Kitchen Idea

When I was a child, the Summer Kitchen was in the basement.  A stove.  A big zinc wash sink.  A big table.  Dark. Damp. Cool.  That summer Kitchen belonged to my Grandmother.  She also had a root cellar carved into the dark earth on one side of the basement.  My grandmother suffered thru the Great Depression and knew first hand what not having anything to eat meant. She canned and pickled anything she could get her hands on.

When we moved to "our own home" because family sharing wasn't in my mother's vocabulary--our Summer Kitchen was in the kitchen.  My mother didn't do more canning than a jar of (excellent) refrigerator pickles every week.  Lots of cold suppers.  My mother made a very good German Potato Salad with lots of pickled onions and crunchy bacon on top and a lovely lemon pie served ice cold.

Now my summer Kitchen is the regular kitchen.  Except it's very clean.  If you are canning or making jellies you need to clear off all the counters and scrub everything or else it all gets sticky.  Then get busy boiling a huge kettle of water.  Canning jars need to be boiled first then filled and then boiled a second time.  Then, when finished canning, you pour the boiling water down the sink drain--making it sparkling clean as well.

Then I do a big load of wash--all the kitchen cloths are usually pretty dirty or wet by the end of a day canning pickles.   And my clothing is pretty much covered in what ever I was canning.  Turmeric.  Stains all things. I wear a wipe clean oil cloth apron on canning days.  Red with white dots.

Then I sit in a cool dark room and rest and listen for the "pop" of the jar lids sealing tight.

Once upon a time I wanted a soapstone sink like the one above.  I think, now, a good solid stainless under mount is the one I want.

Zucchini are planted.  Peppers going in today.  We got the pepper bed weeded yesterday before it started to rain.  Then we went for ice cream.  I have three kinds.  New Ace.  Red Bells.  Japanese Sweet Pickling.   Yes, a lot of peppers.  And most are given away.  People are so happy when I show up with a fresh picked bag of peppers.  And I need red peppers for my many jars of zucchini bread and butter pickles.

Tomatoes--later this week.  I am waiting for some black plastic mulch sheeting.  Or I will just use composted leaves.  I have plenty of those.

Oh and we had homemade hamburgers yesterday.  With toasted buns, bacon and onions fried in the bacon fat.  Haven't had burgers in so long............ delish!!!