Baking
In olden days baking your own bread was of great importance in order to put food on the table. Farmers’ wives would bake their bread in the oven houses, which were often owned by the local community. Larger farms would have their own oven house. Baking took place every two to three weeks. It took four hours work and a lot of firewood to fire up the oven. In general salt cakes, a sort of tarte flambée, came first, followed in turn by the actual baking of the bread loaf and then the tresses and fruit cakes. Sometimes the remaining heat was used to dry fruit. As with other tasks, baking was a social event.
Bread from the expert
Professional bakers were formerly a rarity in rural areas. Day labourers and artisans who had too little grain or flour to make their own bread bought it from the baker (then called the Pfister). The ‘Pfister‘ also supplied the taverns or vicarages and baked bread for special occasions. In the baking room of the Stöckli from Detligen/Radelfingen BE(333)the Museum’s bakers fire up the wood-burning oven every day in the early morning. Each year around 22,000 oven-baked loaves are produced, which are then sold in the nearby Museum Shop. Anyone passing by before midday can enjoy the fantastic smell of fresh oven-baked bread.
Freshly baked from the kitchen
On some days the pretzel iron comes into use in the farmhouse from Brülisau AI(911).
Ballenberg
Swiss Open-Air Museum
Museumsstrasse 100
CH-3858 Hofstetten bei Brienz
Opening hours
9 April to 1 November 2026
10 am to 5 pm daily
Opening hours Administration
8 am to 6 pm daily
