The Summer Kitchen
Cooking in an open fireplace in summer can cause the kitchen to become extremely hot, so in Early America it was common for people to build a separate building called a "Summer Kitchen" where much of the food would be prepared during the summer months. The summer kitchen would contain a large fireplace with an oven, and usually a large table which was used as a work surface.
We use the summer kitchen to demonstrate colonial cooking techniques on colonial Craft Day in September and at various times during the year. Here, one of our re-enactors is preparing apple pie in the beehive oven.