Outdoor Kitchen

This is the story of our Outdoor Kitchen.

We begin in 2019 with needing a covered space to support the work of our Edible Schoolyard project. This gets children growing, harvesting and preparing food in the outdoors.

We needed an outdoor space that is rainproof and suitable for preparing and cooking food. We’d seen examples and we made our plans.

We identified an area at the top of the farm that isn’t good for growing due to afternoon shade from a large oak tree. We had been using it for free-ranging the chickens – here it is just after they’d moved on to another enclosure.

We knew we’d need some help with the costs. We looked into different ways to do this and decided to try our first Crowdfunder project. Here is the video we used to launch the appeal.

We were so encouraged by the response to the crowdfunded appeal. We started in March 2021, expecting to finish by the summer.

Construction the Outdoor Kitchen was harder, took longer and was more costly than we’d realised. But the result is wonderful and we are so glad we have done it. We look forward to many uses over the years to come.


View of our Outdoor Kitchen from the west.

The first workshop we ran in the Outdoor Kitchen – wreath making, December 2021

The story of how we made the concrete base, constructed the timber frame and fitted the roof is told on other pages.

Latest news on the progress of the project is here.