Room 15 ~ Winona

We made hot chocolate.

First we pounded loaf sugar to break it into pieces.

Next the pieces of sugar were ground into powder.

Then we grated blocks of bitter chocolate into a powder.

The sugar and chocolate were added to hot milk.

We took turns twirling a wooden spoon between the palms of our hands to mix the sugar and chocolate into the milk. This was called milling.

Christina, our tour guide served the hot chocolate to everyone. It tasted great!

Spooky things we learned about Colborne Lodge…

Mrs. Howard’s ghost has been seen in her bedroom at night by many people.
The Ice House Murder happened by Grenadier Pond where the grounds keeper shot and killed a boy for fishing on the pond.

We learned that tea was kept under lock and key to keep it from being stolen. Most food that the Howard family ate was grown or hunted in High Park
Chocolate was expensive because it was imported like sugar and spices. Colborne Lodge was the Howards’ summer cottage. John Howard bequeathed the house and land of High Park to the city of Toronto.

We cooked in an 1860’s log cabin built by the Stong family.

The cabin had a wood burning stove for cooking and heat.

We learned how to make butter in an old butter churn.

Danielle lifted the lid and dasher.

Then she poured the cream into the churn.

We took turns churning the butter.

Here is a children’s churning chant:
Come butter come,
Johnny’s waiting at the gate,
Waiting for a butter cake,
Come butter come!

It took a long time for the cream to turn into butter.

When the cream separated into butter and buttermilk, Danielle scooped the butter into a bowl.

Next she pressed the buttermilk out of the butter.

She washed the butter with cold water.

Then she pressed out all of the water.

We made a pumpkin loaf…

and cornmeal muffins.

We measured ingredients into the bowl.

We used a tool called a spurtle to stir the batter.

Instead of cooking on a hearth, we baked in the oven of a wood burning stove.

Things we learned:
It took a long time to make butter and it was hard work. Once you start, you can’t stop until the cream turns to butter. Butter was one of the first products sold by pioneer families. The 1860’s house was heated by the wood stove, not by a fireplace. Cooking was easier with a wood stove.