This building was a kitchen and residence. Built of brick in 1882, this was also the location if the village apiary. For those of you new to this term, an apiary is a place where bees are kept. Every village had an apiary. There were several reasons for this. With as many gardens and fruit trees in a village, bees played an integral role in the pollination of these important food sources. Another reason for having an apiary was to assure good bounty from the orchard (which every village had as well). Another reason for keeping bees is that they produce honey. Honey had a variety of uses. My favorite is honey cookies! YUMMY! It is also very good in some types of tea!
As was mentioned in some of the other pages about kitchens, they were named after the bosses that ran them. They also usually housed the boss and her family. This building was no exception.
There were many jobs associated with working in the kitchen. There was generally a boss, her assistant, and three to four younger women that served as cooks. These three had rotating jobs on a weekly basis. One would cook, one would do dishes, and one would set and clean the tables. Depending on the time of year, there may be more help added as necessary. Other duties would include working in the kitchen garden, tending to food preparation (pulling onions, shelling peas, etc...) and also taking care of the kitchen chickens. Every kitchen had a chickenhouse and small fenced in area that the chickens could move about in. These provided chicken to eat as well as eggs. The fryers, or young roosters were eaten, and the hens provided eggs. The chickens were fed well on leftovers from the kitchen and oats. My father still has chickens. They can be seen from the east parking lot of Ackerman's Winery.
The apiary had 20 or more hives. Willie Zuber is said to have been a beekeeper in South. There are still some hives in the colonies. Charles Hoehnle in Homestead keeps bees. This honey is available at the Homestead Meat Market and at local HyVee food stores. This is one of the "Amana" products that is made in instead of made for the Amana Colonies!
This is a picture of the inside of a kitchen. Note the tinware and brick oven. Can you identify the items on the wall along with their uses? Picture courtesy of the Amana Heritage Society.