One of the highlights of our trip to Germany in October was a trip to the Black Forest Open-air Museum Vogtsbauernhof at Gutach.  This museum encompasses one originally located building and numerous other historical homes that have been moved to the site to represent how people have lived in the Southern, Central, and Northern Black Forest over time. Most of the homes were from large farmsteads which would have been fairly isolated. They had to be self-sufficient so most included their own grist mill, saw mill, vegetable gardens, medicinal gardens, bakehouse, distillery, and orchards.

As we drove up, we were impressed with the size of the homes. We soon learned that one of the reasons they were so large is that the animals were kept on the first floor and the human occupants on the floors up above.  The gardens and granaries were close to the houses.  The medicinal garden there had eight sections with plants gathered together to treat specific ailments. There were beds for treating nerves, rheumatism, common cold, injury, the skin, circulation, drainage, and digestion.

There were working gardens and orchards.  While we were there the apples were being washed off in a trough and pressed in a screw press to make wonderful sweet apple juice. The museum also had animals and on various days had demonstrations of the grist mill and sawmill. As you can imagine this was a perfect spot for school field trips.

The farm houses ranged from late 1500 to the mid -1800s.  The grist mill had a wooden beam with 1601 carved into it. It just amazed us that we were able to wander about and through structures this old. At least one of the homes had been used as a residence into the 1970s. We spent 2 hours there, we could easily have spent 2 more, but we had to get back to Stuttgart.