While researching places and things to do and see on our weekends, the Black Forest Open Air Museum (Schwarzwalder Freilichtmuseum Vogtsbauernhof) caught CM's eye. Farmhouses, cottages, crops, and livestock are all contained in this outdoor park that demonstrates how people lived in the Black Forest for the past 400 years. The reviews online used words like "fascinating", "informative", "culturally educational". It was also touted as the most popular and most visited open -air museum in Germany. Even with this info, I wasn't all that enthralled with the idea of this road trip, but I signed on when CM told me that we were also on the hunt for authentic Black Forest cake.
After a lovely car ride into the Black Forest we arrived at the Schwarzwalder Freilichtmuseum, paid our entrance fee and headed in to see what all of the hoopla was about. We spent an hour and a half walking around, checking out the way the farmers of the Black Forest lived. Frankly, it was really boring (how did these people endure this lifestyle?) However on the way in we spotted a refrigeration case filled with Black Forest cake; so with the prospect of the cake looming, I kept on truckin.
We ended up having a really nice lunch at the restaurant, although the Black Forest cake wasn't everything we had hoped it would be. German sweets aren't terribly sweet, so what looks like a cloyingly sweet cake was really kind of bland. We decided to call it a day and chalk it up to an experience.
I made quite the discovery on the way out. Between the corn and wheat, lay the answer to my question (how did these people endure this lifestyle?):
CM says it was used to make rope and clothing (yea, okay.)