Page 16 - Guide_EN

Kitchen/Smoke Room The split door takes us into the kitchen, which with its open fire, was the focus of farm life. It is the best preserved room here. The stone hearth with its open fire and ash pit was used to process the dairy products and also to prepare the daily meals for the family and the farmhands. The copper pan was hung from the “Reibsäule”, the rotating wooden column which enabled the pan to be swung into and away from the heat of the fire. The objects on display are a selection of the utensils used in the past. The three legged fire tripod was used to hold the large cast iron cookwa- re over the fire. Wooden bowls, copper and iron pans, cooking & dining utensils as well as butter churns, lard pot and the painted wooden water container provide an overview of the kitchen apparatus available. The wooden pole, hung from the soot and smoked stained ceiling was used to hang the meat from in order to smoke or cure it. The inhabitants were obviously quite nosy - the windows in the kitchen are located at various levels so that it was possible to see who was pas- sing by whilst both sitting and standing! The windows were opened to ventilate and air the rooms and would originally have had a total surface area of less than one square meter per room. There was no glass at all in the windows of the earliest farm- houses. The windows on the side wall are sliding wooden windows which could be closed. The skills of the farmer’s wife played a deciding role in the health and pros- 14