Saturday afternoon, while in Pennsylvania, we ended up at the annual Harvest Festival at Quiet Valley Living Historical Farm. Quiet Valley is vintage America, a “non-profit, educational corporation dedicated to the preservation and presentation of Pennsylvania’s agricultural heritage… a living museum.” On this weekend, they had a multitude of booths set up showing demonstrations of a plethora of skills and crafts from yesteryear, including butter churning, yarn dyeing, basket making (using straw and split oak), rope making, an outdoor brick oven, preparing sauerkraut, apple butter churning, a smokehouse, and many resident farm animals. Pretty much everything I want to learn how to do. Does it make me weird that I couldn’t give a hoot about the latest iPhone, but a vintage cider press sets my heart racing?
We didn’t get here until a bit later in the afternoon, otherwise we could have spent a lot more time walking around. Very informative and enlightening, and I picked up a few ideas along the way. If we lived in the area, I’m pretty sure I would find a part-time job here.
Cider press. Anyone looking to be rid of one?
Blacksmithing.
Lots of cast iron cookware around.
Candle dipping.
Yarn dyeing – amazingly, using all natural products.
The gardens were mostly fallow this time of year, but there were a few things left.
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