Simmering Summer Sauna
As the heat and humidity of this summer and the canning season collides, I can understand why many old-time farms and homesteads had a summer kitchen. Our forefathers found it necessary to erect outbuildings to meet their needs. The spring house was necessary to house the water source covering the natural spring. This building allowed the farmer’s wife to keep things like milk, butter, and cream cool to prevent spoilage. The smoke house was created to hang meat inside to cure meats for preservation. Refrigeration wasn’t invented yet and there had to be a way to preserve food for later use.
The summerhouse was another necessity. In the oppressive heat of the summer, women would find the house where the family lived become unbearable when they had to keep a fire in the fireplace. A lack of circulating air to cool the cabin made the inside intolerable to cook or heat water. Glass windows, if they had any, only allowed light to illuminate the house. Many were fixed in place and did not open. The interior of the house became a sweat box. Eating, sleeping, and any other inside activities became nearly unbearable.
A summerhouse was an answer. A small building that was separate or separated by an open breezeway helped to solve the problem. Heating water to wash clothing and cooking or any other chore that required a fire to be burning in the fireplace or if the family was wealthy enough on a cook stove. It kept the heat out of the main house. It made eating meals and sleeping inside a much cooler environment.
I believe helping to can vegetables in the heat and humidity this year makes me wish my friend had a summerhouse. The sweltering heat from a propane stove intensified the heat that hovered oppressively outside of the house. There is no air conditioning, so from the instant the flame is lit to cook the vegetables or to thicken sauce from tomatoes to the time it takes to either “cold pack,” “water bath,” or to pressure can the jars to get them to seal, the heat inside increases exponentially as does the humidity.
Constant movement cutting and preparing the vegetables for the canning process becomes more strenuous as the heat increases. It becomes just shy of the inside of a sauna bath. Fans do help a bit, but the trial becomes bearable when compared to the enjoyment of opening a jar of sauce, corn, beans, beets, applesauce, peppers, pickles, peaches, or pears when the snow flies and we can cling to memories of those hot summer days.