Wheat Planting

Saturday, September 30 | 10:00–4:00

Children's Craft: Wheat Seed Porcupine (11:00–3:00)

Wheat planting is a delicate operation, and the soil has to be just right to plant on schedule...but the work of threshing, grinding, and milling wheat for flour or animal feed goes on rain or shine.

Join farmers in the barn to thresh wheat, by the woodshed—where you can lend a hand cutting firewood for the kitchen stove—and outside the farmhouse to help churn butter for whole wheat bread made with Howell Farm wheat. As a 'thank you' for your help, you’ll receive a sample of homemade bread, and a recipe to make your own at home!

Hands-On Learning

Wheat Planting

September – October

In this unique program, children learn farming from the ground up: starting in the field and ending in the kitchen! Participants begin by helping farmers prepare the ground for a crop of winter wheat: tilling the field, sowing seeds by “hand broadcasting”, and comparing this method to mechanical planting. Using Howell Farm wheat cut earlier this year, kids fast-forward to the next summer harvest – first learning how farmers bundle the stalks into sheaves, then stacking the sheaves into a free-standing “shock.”

The hands-on work continues, threshing the wheat with a flail and separating it from the chaff by winnowing with a hand-crank fanning mill. After learning how farmers would then store and process wheat – in the past and today – children finally pay a visit to the farmhouse kitchen to taste bread baked with flour ground from the same wheat grown on the farm.

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Corn Harvest

October – November

Children learn why our crop grows so high and what makes “open pollinated” kernels develop on the cob. Young harvesters will walk between the rows picking corn as they go – collecting the ears in a basket, pulling off the husks, and finally tossing them into a historic wagon. Next the group will walk up to the barnyard to find last year’s corn in the crib, before shelling and grinding it into buckets for animal feed. Finally, everyone visits the farmhouse kitchen to taste cornbread and learn why field corn is so important to people and animals alike!

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Saturday Events

September Events

2 40th Annual Horse Plowing Match

Horse Tail Ribbon