Texel farmer's wives were their weight wordt in gold. They made cheese and butter, earning about half of the farm's income. In addition, they fattened the pigs, fed chickens and young cattle, processed the slaughter and canning in the fall, baked bread and cooked food.

They sewed and mended clothes and bedding, knitted, kept the farm clean, whitewashed the walls in the spring, and helped with the hay harvest in the summer.

Maternity bed

Until the 19th century, women sometimes died in childbirth. A farmer then remarried as soon as possible, because a housekeeper, then called a maid, cost money and could run away. A good cheese wife brought in money, she stayed and together they took care of offspring, so continuity of the company.