Perhaps, unless one is upgrading or repairing a kitchen, your photo albums don’t have kitchen photos in them. It’s more likely someone was capturing who was in the kitchen, rather than the room itself. We’ve taken a few over the years and find ourselves amazed at two extremes: how much can be done by one Handmaid in one kitchen, and how many Handmaids can simultaneously work in the kitchen without collisions. (There have been collisions, but generally mild and polite.) Cooking is one feat. Clean up is quite another.
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- Kitchen Sisters Mary Gertrude and de Chantal cooking up a storm at the priory in England in 1967.
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- This one wins the contest for “Most Surprised by Photographer.” Notice the size of the kitchen.
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- Sister Catherine tackles some industrial size kitchen equipment. During our years of semi-active apostolates some Handmaids served as cooks for seminaries and bishops.
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- Postulant (later Sister Carmela) baking.
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- Another from Merry Old England Handmaids adapt to UK appliances. Notice the handy frying baskets.
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- Another surprise shot during a baking session. This time in Vermont.
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- A look at the industrial stove and oven that kept the Sisters fed in Jemez Springs…and just one of the Sisters who cooked.
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- Kitchen chaos: 2 scrapers, 3 washers, 4 dryers plus dishpans and dryers in the refectory in New Mexico.
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- Newly moved into the new Cor Jesu in New Market TN, Mother Marietta lends a hand with dishes.