Cooking

As guest in a farmhouse

A vegetable soup is simmering on the stove; it smells delicious. Museum staff regularly demonstrate what everyday life was once like for the farmers’ wives, and how they had to manage without running water in the kitchen, without electricity and usually with very little light. “Lighting this stove is a challenge”, says Margrit Mäder, pointing to the small lighting hole. A small paraffin lamp flickers above the stove; Margrit Mäder has recourse to a modern aid and shines a torch on to the pan. The washing-up is done in a sink at the window; a drain leads straight out into the open air under the glass window pane. This is the origin of the notion of a kitchen sink in German – “Schütttstein”, the “pouring-away-stone basin”.

Laborious everyday tasks

Nowadays the idea of sitting at table in a huge kitchen and eating out of an old soup bowl, as guest in great-grandmother’s kitchen, might have a romantic air about it. However, it quickly becomes clear how laborious everyday tasks were in the old days, not to mention where the food ingredients came from, or the monotony of the diet and the distress a crop failure could bring. Those who wish can sample the food cooked at the museum. It is also possible for groups to try their hand at cooking themselves in one of these historical kitchens.