Need a harvest processing kitchen - any ideas???

This autumn, I spent loooooots of time in my tiny kitchen cooking fruit, pureeing them, brewing juices, bottling, canning, dehydrating and whatever. It was a disaster.

It was hot and there was too little space. I kept moving things around because a hot pot needed to be put somewhere and to make space something else had to be transferred elsewhere and some others had to moved to make space for that... You get the point. Utter chaos.

If I had observed myself from outside, I would have declared myself like a hopeless unorganised idiot. Now I would like to eliminate the word "hopeless" 😄

I need a harvest-processing plant. Something with a roof and a couple of walls, a huge rocket mass stove, a solar hydrator and lots of counters. My orchard was planted last year, but in about four years it will start bearing fruit and berries. I will be overwhelmed without a well-planned processing kitchen!

Harvest processing goes on for at least three months. You do it most of the summer, dehydrating herbs and mushrooms, sun-drying tomatoes, making jams and juices. This is one of the most important spaces on the farm.

I cannot find any ideas. Everything in the net is very grand and planned for pompous entertaining. I need a functioning work station.

I am attaching pictures of what the reality was.

disaster maybe, but very cool to a beginner (me). you probably just need more arms and eyes in the back of your head. and a clone army.

Many of us would love to have that abundance 'problem'

Back when we were cooking on a woodstove and no utilities including no solar other than direct from the sky, we carried our little cook stove out into the yard every summer to cook and can on.  Eventually we got an old clunker cookstove permanently set up in the yard.  And added a tarp for shade (and the rare summer rain) as I was getting sunburned canning on it.....the set up was pretty crude but served it's purpose and kept the cabin from heating up and overcrowding as there were two of us plus two little ones at the time in a one room cabin with a loft.

A solar dehydrater could be an enormous help and as most things don't benifit from sun drying except mushrooms would shade your bounty as it drys.

You've done well...beautiful harvest!

I've been thinking about these issues now that we've moved and am also trying to plan some long term solutions. Luckily, I should have a year or 2 to get ready as production ramps up.
For now, I've been: stockpiling canning supplies, working on organizing properly sized storage spaces for filled jars and stuff in the cold room, thrifting good prep and storage equipment and doing recipe testing.

Early next year I want to get a big solar dehydrator built. Probably will use the plans available here, on the site.

Next, also hopefully next year but possibly 2025, is to build a covered gazebo just outside our basement walkout. There is 16'x16' , southfacing area that already has garden pavers laid down and a solid, roof over it would not only give us a great seating area for us and guests but I can put out tables in the season and do a chunk of processing there. I'm watching for cheap bug curtains as well, to make it even better.
Once the gazebo is up, I may go for a pizza oven build in it that could have an additional section with an option to woodfire heat a large, deep metal tray. That would let me do maple sugar reduction as well as hot water canning outside too.

One can never have too much space in the kitchen.  We have a 14 x 24 kitchen, and it is crammed full.   My wife and I have been looking at the back deck for a 3 season kitchen.  In fact, we have 3 gas burners and a sink on it now. I am working on enclosing it better.

Hi Karina, I'm also in awe of your marvellous harvest! You're lucky to get enough warmth to dry in the sun. Maybe a solar dehydrator would make things quicker for you, although it is more stuff of course.
I remember you have a tiny home, so organisation is the key. I'm wondering how many options you have for making use of the vertical space? Above the stove for example, there is a wall that could perhaps hold food temporarily while it is cooling or drying. I'm thinking shelves a bit like these:

source
Maybe so that they could be pushed up out of the way when not required?
There seems to be some cunning ideas out there -  I quite like this one: a bit like a loft ladder it folds up when not in use.

source

My dream is to one day have an outdoor kitchen.

Mine ould be something simple like this:



A big sink with running water a a place to drain the water.

A perfect place to wash veggies, especially greens.

And a long countertop or table to process the veggies, to do canning, etc

This thread is all about how that kitchen was made:

https://permies.com/t/15342/Outdoor-kitchen

Here are some other threads about outdoor kitchens:

https://permies.com/t/10555/outdoor-kitchen

https://permies.com/t/74718/Outdoor-Kitchens

https://permies.com/t/192352/Outdoor-kitchen

"Outdoor kitchen" doesn't have to be too fancy.

I have a friend who built an outdoor pavaillion for this. (The rest of the time they use it for hosting educational events, parties, etc) It's open on all sides - just a roof on poles really. Only utility it has is power.

For their canning they set up single-burner propane units.

Nancy Reading wrote:Hi Karina, I'm also in awe of your marvellous harvest!

Thanks, Nancy ❤️ Really beautiful the first one. And I love storage systems, open shelves are always a mess, as my shed attests.

In Finland, there are sauna fires all the time, when people dry laundry arfer attending the sauna, and it falls on the hot stones. It has become a national joke: everybody has been warned incessantly never to hang anything above a hot heater, so where do all the idiots emerge from?

That has been part of the reason I have not used the airspace above the wood stove. It would have to be foolproof, and often things are not.

Anne Miller wrote:
Here are some other threads about outdoor kitchens

Hi Anne,
I always admire how you manage to find threads and information that others try and fail to locate ❤️. Thanks a million for these!

There are car port kits you can convert into a kitchen, or make a simple pergola out of 4*4s with a metal roof. You can fill in the walls with pallets or straw bails. Windows and other building supplies can often be had for free at remodels or online, even tables are found on the side of the road. People often get rid of there turkey fryers after thanksgiving and they make decent burners. Greenhouse rated plastic is fairly cheap and can make a good roof (don’t use plastic drop cloths for painting, they will disintegrate in the sun after a year). Sometimes people will give sheds away for free if you take them down and remove them.

Thank you for this thread. I like the idea of a kitchen that is indoors with the potential to expand outdoors when the harvest comes in. Is there anyone who has actual plans? The foldback shelves is a great option.

Hi Kaarina!

Did you see this new video by Paul? It's about a Rocket Cooktop with a Lorena option!

The Rocket Cooktop with Lorena Option Redefines Outdoor Wood-Fueled Cooking

The Lorena option means that the stove basicly has a hole on top of the riser for a huge pot that can be used for water bath canning.
I think it's really cool how they repurposed the old glass cooktop.. I'm bummed that I didn't realise that was an option, we just replaced our old glass cooktop with a new one that had broken (the electronics, not the glass) and the electrician took the old cooktop with him to recycling.