Travel Back in Time at Garfield Farm Museum’s
Harvest Days
CAMPTON HILLS- On Sunday, October 7th from 11:30am-4:00pm,
visitors can step back in time and discover life before modern technology at
Garfield Farm Museum’ 31st annual Harvest Days.
Harvest Days provides children and adults alike
with the opportunity to learn about the realities of our rural heritage. The
historic demonstrations remind us of the incredible amount of effort it took
to survive in a non-mechanized world. As wheat is run through the fanning
mill, children can see firsthand how the grain that made the mid-west so
important, was processed in the 19th century. Fall was the time to harvest
the bounty of the orchard, and apples were a versatile and important crop.
The flash of red and clatter of gears, the sweet fragrance that arises as
the apples are crushed, and the golden brown cider flowing into the bucket
capture the attention of young and old alike at the cider pressing
demonstration.
The demonstrations of 1840s household and farm
skills at Harvest Days stimulate the minds of the young and the old. Their
imaginations are catered to by the words and tall tales of Reid Miller,
Teller of Tall Tales, whose traditional yarns and songs fit the historic
setting of Garfield Farm.
Visitors can watch an archaeological excavation
near the site of the original log cabin built in 1835 and help screen the
soil for evidence of the Culbertson and Garfield families that once lived
there. The excavation will be conducted by Jim Yingst from the Heartland
Archaeological Research Program.
Tours of the 1846 brick inn will be ongoing. Tavern
tours often spark conversations between grandparent and child as
grandparents recall their childhood visits to family farms. Children will
delight in seeing the museum’s farm animals. These include mostly rare
heritage breeds of chickens, turkeys, sheep, hogs, and oxen. Tours of the
museum’s prairie reconnect visitors to nature and its resilience, as the
last prairie flowers bloom and go to seed.
A bake sale will be held and refreshments offered
in the museum’s visitor’s center, the Atwell Burr House. Donations for
Harvest Days are $6 for adults and $3 for children under twelve.
Garfield Farm Museum is the only historically
intact former 1840s Illinois prairie farmstead and teamster inn being
restored by donors and volunteers as an 1840s working farm museum. Garfield
Farm Museum is located 5 miles west of Geneva, IL off ILL Rt.38 on Garfield
Road. For information, call (630) 584-8485 or email info@garfieldfarm.org.
For more information about Garfield Farm send an e-mail message to: info@garfieldfarm.org
or call 630/584-8485.
