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Schools Need Reservations Now for Garfield Farm Museum's Student Harvest Days September 30

CAMPTON HILLS-    Garfield Farm Museum is currently taking reservations from school groups for its annual Student Harvest Days event on Friday, September 30 from 9 am-1:30 pm. During this event, children will have the opportunity to connect with their rural heritage through period demonstrations of common farm activities, such as candle dipping, flailing wheat, shelling and shocking corn, and making apple cider. Harvest Days provides children and adults an 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 captures the attention of young and old alike at the cider pressing demonstration.

    The demonstrations of 1840s household and farm skills at Harvest Days stimulate young minds to be creative in problem solving. Their imaginations are even 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.

    Tours of the 1846 brick inn will be ongoing. These tours often spark conversations between grandparent and child as grandparents recall their childhood visits to relatives‚ farms. Tours of the museum's prairie reconnect visitors to nature and its resilience, as the last prairie flowers bloom and go to seed.

    Visitors will have a chance to help screen soil for artifacts as part of the 5 Year Archaeological Investigation sponsored by Campton Historic Agricultural Lands.  Test pits will be dug in an effort to find the original well and other features that were on the farm when the Garfield family moved here from Vermont in 1841.

    Harvest Days for the general public will take place from 11:30am-4pm on Sunday, October 2nd. The Schools are invited to reserve space for their classes on Friday September 30th. The public is invited to attend on October 2nd when donations are $6 for adults and $3 for children under twelve. Organized youth groups are asked for a donation of $4 per person.

    The 370-acre Garfield Farm Museum is the only historically intact former 1840s farmstead and teamster inn being restored by donors and volunteers from 2800 households in 37 states 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.