The Rural Voice, 2000-08, Page 40EXCUSE ME,
MAY I SEE
YOUR BACK
KITCHEN?
What have people done with their back
kitchens which were once the centre of farm
activity during the hot summer months?
By Barbara Weiler
When we drive through the
Ontario countryside, as we
did through Bruce County
recently, I cast curious eyes at the
vintage farmhouses. More precisely, I
study the addition at the back of the
farmhouse traditionally referred to as
the "back kitchen" or the "summer
36 THE RURAL VOICE
kitchen." I would love to stop and say
to the owners "Excuse me, but may I
see your back kitchen?"
It is my understanding that the
original purpose of the summer
kitchen was to provide a place to
prepare meals in summer without
heating up the main part of the house.
In my earliest remembrances, Dad
dismantled our cook stove and re-
assembled it in the back kitchen when
the warm weather arrived in May.
The centre of our lives was
transferred from the large room
where we congregated in the winter
to the summer kitchen and the back