Highlights Archives
It's Autumn on the Farms at Old World Wisconsin
The kitchens, fields and farmyards of Old World Wisconsin will be alive with activity on Saturday and Sunday, October 20-21, as the outdoor museum makes preparations for the upcoming winter months during Autumn on the Farms. Learn about the hardships and struggles our forebears faced, and marvel at the fortitude, ingenuity and perseverance they displayed in carving homes and farms out of forests and prairies.
In the 19th century the changing seasons dictated agricultural and domestic activities. Autumn was an especially busy time for families living in rural Wisconsin. They needed to cut wood, sew quilts, and prepare and preserve enough food to get them through the long, harsh winter season. And, as another October begins its slow segue into November, the farmers and housewives of Old World Wisconsin will be engaged in many of the same types of chores this weekend.
Both days on the Visitor Center Mall at the entrance to the site, during the Artisans and Farmers Market, visitors can see, taste and purchase some of the unique heirloom apples favored by 19th- and early 20th-century folks. Meet Ken Weston, heirloom apple grower and owner of Weston's Antique Apple Orchards in New Berlin. These are varieties that you can't purchase in stores. You'll want to taste them to believe the variety! A delicious variety of apple-baked goods will also be available.
From 2-5 p.m.on Saturday only, come out and meet Wisconsin Historical Society Press author Jerry Apps, who will be signing copies of his book, In a Pickle: A Family Farm Story, or any of his other excellent titles that are available in the museum store.
From stuffing a mattress tick at Caldwell Farmers' Club Hall to making apple jelly, pumpkin pies, candles and lye soap, the 1870s Crossroads Village will also be a busy place. The blacksmith's shop will be buzzing with activity, too, as the blacksmith forges red-hot metal into tools, hardware and utensils.
The outlying farmsteads will have their own unique fall farm chores to tend to. In the German and Polish areas, activities will range from meat processing, sausage making and smoking meat on the Schottler Farm and making sauerkraut from cabbage on the Schulz Farm to steam- and gasoline-powered sawmilling demonstrations in the field between the Schulz Farm and the Koepsell Farm. The sawmilling demonstrations will feature a Frick Steam Engine and a gasoline-powered McCormick-Deering 1020 operating a sawmill and edger.
Animal-powered farming operations will be featured as well. A yoke of oxen will be helping with farm chores in the German area while members of the Jefferson County Draft Horse Association and their horses will be plowing fields, skidding logs and pulling wagons. The sawmilling and animal-powered demonstrations will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. both days of the event.
Rounding out Autumn on the Farms activities will be the making of hogshead cheese on the Fossebrekke Farm, spinning and dyeing wool on the Kvaale Farm, rendering lard on the Pedersen Farm and quilting in the Ketola House.
For complete details, including location, admission fees, a map and contact information, visit Old World Wisconsin's visitor information page.
:: Posted October 15, 2007
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