Take Trip Back in Time
Hello Folks, Aunt Eunice here. I hope you are all doing well and are getting ready for summer. To some people, that means getting the blades on the lawn mower sharpened or hosing off the lawn furniture or getting more propane tanks for the grill. For Quiet Valley, it means gearing up for our summer tour season. On the third Saturday in June, we open our gates to the public for tours of the historic farm. It’s a chance to spend some time in the 19th century. Since we will be portraying family members living in the 1800s on our small family farm, we will ask you to use your imagination and pretend you have traveled back in time. No cars. No computers or cell phones. Just traditional chores and heritage crafts being done, animals being cared for as well as the growing and harvesting of crops. Quiet Valley is a small working farm as well as a living history museum. On the tour, you will learn what life was like for farming families who lived on a typical homestead between the 1820s and 1890s. A lot changed from the beginning of that century to Victorian times. The railroad came through, we went through the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution began.
Learning From History While Having Fun
We also hold events at Quiet Valley both large and small. Along with school programs, camps and workshops, we have many opportunities for entertaining and engaging educational experiences. In other words, having fun while learning something interesting. Events give us the opportunity to teach about the past while connecting it with a new way of doing something, making the past relevant for today.
Summer Garden Party
At our opening day of summer tours this year Saturday June 19th, we will also be holding our 13th annual Summer Garden Party. This event is covered by your farm tour admission and you will be able to enjoy a variety of garden-related activities. You may just learn something new you can use at home. If nothing else, there will be tasty treats to try made with recipes we will share using fresh herbs and vegetables. We will be showing how to make lawn art pieces, teaching about various greens grown in the garden, offering tours of the kitchen garden and sampling herb bread baked in the outdoor bake oven. We hold tours and events rain or shine, but I am hoping for shine so we can open up horse drawn wagon rides, too. A special learning opportunity that is also fun is our bake oven workshop on Saturday July 24th from 8:30am to 1:30pm. You will learn about the use of the oven and how to make bread from scratch.
Music in the Valley and More
Besides the Summer Garden Party, we also have Music in the Valley on July 17th where traditional music will be played around the farm. August brings three events, on August 7th we have the 103.1FM Bigfoot Birthday Bash for all you country music lovers, Heritage Craft Day on August 14th featuring a variety of traditional craft demonstrations and then on August 28 & 29 the wonderful Pocono State Craft Festival with lots of opportunities to shop for the beautiful art and handcrafts. Summer time is certainly a busy time at Quiet Valley. However, we do find time to relax by the end of the day as the cool evening air arrives. We enjoy glasses of lemonade and rocking in our rocking chairs while we ruminate on the busy day we just had.
Save some time for Quiet Valley this summer. You won’t be disappointed and we would appreciate your support for our special non-profit farm museum. Well, that’s all for now. Take care and hope to see you soon. Aunt Eunice