Tag Archives: Outdoor Kitchen

Apple Pressing

First we cut the apples in quarters. Then they go into the scratter. Then into the press. Then we have amazing fresh apple juice to enjoy.

We have all the equipment – maybe you have all the apples?

We have sessions where you can book the equipment in our Outdoor Kitchen and come along and use it to make your apple juice. We support you with instruction.

What you need:

  • lots of apples. About 3 carrier bags full is the minimum to make it worthwhile.
  • clean containers to put the juice in. If you don’t have glass bottles with lids, how about milk cartons, fizzy drink bottles.

We will show you how to clean up afterward. There is no charge for hire, but we would appreciated whatever you can afford to support the development of the Outdoor Kitchen.

The juice needs to be enjoyed in a few days – it starts to ferment quite quickly. Or you can freeze it for a few months. Or you can bottle it and heat it to 75 degrees C for 25 mins  – then it will last in the bottle for about a year.

DATES for 2023
Please phone the shop during opening hours to book a slot:

  • Saturday 16 September: 10.00am; 11.30am; 1.30pm; 3.00pm
  • HARVEST FESTIVAL!!! Saturday 23 September: 10.00am; 11.30am; 1.30pm; 3.00pm

Outdoor Kitchen – January 2022

This is a project update for our Outdoor Kitchen, January 2022.

We are so pleased to let you know that the construction phase is finished!

We had no idea it would take so long and we feel the pressure of our unfulfilled pledges, but we have news on all that here.

First a message from Farm Manager, Richard Pitt

During the 2021 growing season Louiza (our Edible Schoolyard Project Lead) was engaged to run Edible Schoolyard sessions at the New Forest Small School and has developed resources and ideas for the sessions that will be run at Aldermoor Community Farm. However, as mentioned in the above video, there won’t be any Edible Schoolyard sessions in 2022 as Louiza is going to be on maternity leave. We remain committed to the project, but it will have to wait until Louiza has capacity.

In the meantime have an exciting 2022 ahead of us. We will be using the space for workshops, social activities and hopefully a Saturday morning pop-up coffee shop.

Now here is a look around the finished Outdoor Kitchen structure:

Elsewhere on our website you can see more detail of the construction phases. We have photos and details of making the concrete base, putting up the timber frame, and covering the roof.

We remain indebted to our supporters – this is something we all have a part in.

We will continue to send out updates as we prototype the worktops and units we will be making to kit out the space.

Outdoor Kitchen – A great space

Here are a few pictures of our Outdoor Kitchen the first few times we used it.

You can follow the story of its construction on other pages.

Even before it was finished the volunteers liked to eat lunch here.
Our wreath-making workshop in December was a very happy time
Everyone seemed to really enjoy being in the space.
That’s a lot of wreaths!
This panorama shot makes it look a bit round!

Outdoor Kitchen – Roof

We had originally planned to create the roof from some steel sheeting we salvaged from a falling down pig sty that was on site when we first arrived 7 years ago.

However when it came to it, we realised it was not such a good idea. It was not very true (a bit wonky). It had fixing holes from previous uses that we would have to fill. It would need a lot of cutting to shape – noisy and potentially sharp edges. And it was heavy to lift up in place.

So we bit the bullet and bought new sheets made of onduline. This is a bitumen based product, much lighter and easier to work with. This cost us extra, but we knew we just had to do the roof properly – being rainproof was the whole point.

This was also now a specialist job – it was stretching our skillset and we were also getting very busy expanding our shop ready for Christmas. Knowing this, one of the farm community came forward with a new donation that completely covered the labour costs for our carpenter Sam to come and finish the roof. What a relief. And what a result.

We don’t seem to have any other pictures of the roof in progress, but here are two from Sam’s instagram:

And this is the (nearly) finished article.

Outdoor Kitchen – Timber frame

This is page 2 of our Outdoor Kitchen story.

We had finished the concrete base in April, but our volunteer carpenter who was designing the timber farm had to take some time off as his wife gave birth to their third child in mid April.

We had to wait for his expert help, and we were also very busy with our summer programme of vegetables. We continued to landscape around the outdoor kitchen as we waited.

We were able to carry on in August. This page tells the story of how we got the timber frame up.

We had a lot of long pieces of timber to walk over to the site.
It was quite technical, making the beams and fixing them to the posts.
Celebrating the first big milestone in the timber frame.
It was good to have a large team to get the heavy posts and wall plates up.

Here is a time-lapse run through of putting up the posts. Watch for the chickens to the right of the picture too.

We missed a few picture opportunities when we put the roof up, but here is an early shot of the joists.
We had to work at the top of the ladder for some of it!
Big thanks to Sam Pitt (Brothers Carpentry and Joinery) who volunteered several Saturdays to lead on the timber frame construction. We couldn’t have done it without him. (And thanks to his family who gave him up for the day those times)
Finally, by mid-October the timber frame was finished.

Outdoor Kitchen – Foundations

This is the beginning of the story of the construction of our Outdoor Kitchen.

On this page is how we made the concrete base. Other pages tell the story of the timber frame, the roof, and the first few events in it.

First we had to dig out the 7m x 4m footings for the foundations…
…the team from the Rotoract Club of Winchester did most of the digging!
Next we made the timber formwork and laid a sub-base from hardcore and scalpings.
We had a lot of ballast and scalpings delivered.
We got good at mixing – we did just over 90 loads in the end!
The pad was so big we split it into 3 sections, taking a day to do each one.
We helped each other pour the cement.
And we learnt to get it level.
It built our confidence (and our muscles) to learn new skills.
Lots of different volunteers enjoyed the learning process.
Finally, by mid-April the base was finished.

Follow the story with a look at how we built the timber frame and the roof.