Smoke Houses

In Raritan Township, there is a large farm now preserved with a beautiful stone building with two doors, side by side.  Visible from the road, I’ve seen this farm outbuilding many times a day for many years, always wondering what it was.

There is also a wooden compartment between the two doors, external to the stone structure.  See the crank on the front?

I drove by the other day and noticed the farmer on his riding tractor and stopped to chat with him about his outbuildings.  He said it was a smoke house and asked if I wanted to see inside.  Well, I said absolutely yes, and that I wanted to take some pictures if that would be ok.  He said sure, and that is what I did.

The wooden box is a working well.  The crank on the wide of the wooden enclosure is for the bucket to draw up water.  The well is deep and the water very cool.  It is immaculately maintained.

The smoke house has two doors because the smoke house is divided – one half for the fire pit and the second half for the smoking of the meats.  There is a vent on the side of the smoke house.

The walls remaining on this farm of the barn are beautiful and shown below