Kitchen Yard

Kitchen Yard. Ben Lomond. , A Busy Part of the Plantation , The empty yard that you see in front of you would once have been bustling with activity. This area of the plantation, called the kitchen yard, was used for food preparation primarily for the Chinn family., The small building to the left of the kitchen garden is the dairy. The dairy is a cool building where butter and cream were made. Milk was left in the dairy in pans until cream rose to the top. The cream was then churned into butter with either a hand butter churn or a crank butter churn. The butter would be stored there until it was needed., The small building immediately to the to the right of the dairy right of the dairy is the smokehouse. Outside dozens of hogs would be slaughtered for the up-coming year and the meat would be covered in salt and smoked over a smoldering fire to cure. The meat would then hang from the rafters until it was needed., A Long Day in the Kitchen , The outline that you see in front of you marks the location of the Antebellum or pre-Civil War Kitchen. Inside an enslaved cook prepared the meals for the white family. Mrs. Chinn would bring over a list of what she wanted cooked for the day and sometimes supervised while the enslaved cook worked. Typically the cook would work in the kitchen from before dawn until dinnertime. After she returned home she more than likely helped cook for the enslaved community., Food prepared in the kitchen would be removed to the warming kitchen in the basement of the house where it was kept warm until needed.