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33rd
Heirloom Garden Show
August
24th
On Sunday August 24, from 11 am - 4 pm, the 33rd Heirloom Garden Show will be held at Garfield Farm & Tavern Museum.
The show features the gardens and prairie of the museum and growers of historic varieties of produce. Rolling Prairie Acres of Sigourney, IA managed to harvest their historic garlics just before heavy rains visited Iowa in July that drowned out many a garden. The cool late spring impacted germination rates for the museum's garden yet seeds from previous years plants in the antique flower garden sprang forth as the heat returned.
A favorite of attendees to the show, Jimmy's Chilis will return from Tinely Park. His home-grown chili peppers have been a key ingredient of his Flames of the Holy Spirit Hot Sauce. Indiana weather was not much better for the Saberniaks who come to the show with their favorite heirloom varieties. Any heirloom garden enthusiast is welcome to come and exhibit, sell or talk about their favorites by contacting the museum in advance.
As the museum works towards its goal of being an 1840s working farm and inn museum, appropriate varieties of domestic plants and animals from the 1840s are needed. Although most modern varieties of crops and vegetables trace their genetics back hundreds of years to historic types, those historic cultivars are now rare because of change over time. Yet their genetics might provide the very solution to disease, yield, climate tolerance, market forces, etc. that inevitable change over time. The show aims to increase awareness in this important issue.
Tours of the 1846 restored brick inn will be offered from 12 noon – 4 pm led by interpreters in period clothing. The prairie plot just west of the museum gardens will also be interpreted by museum volunteers.
Last minute exhibitors are welcome and should contact the museum. There is no fee for exhibitors as the event is an educational show.
There is an $8 donation for adults and $3 for children under 13 years of age. Garfield Farm and Tavern Museum is Illinois’ only historically intact 366-acre former 1840s prairie farm and teamster inn being interpreted as an 1840s living history farm museum by volunteers and donors from over 37 states. |