This week on the farm we had our first lambs of the season born. Molly, who has never given birth to twins, gave birth to two little boys on Easter Sunday. Which prompted this week’s post about sheep. Sheep are ruminants meaning that they have 4 chambers in their stomach to assist with digestion. This […]
All About Sheep: Wool, Food, Behavior & Intelligence Read More »
Easter is right around the corner. Most of our Easter celebration comes from the Germans and traveled overseas with them to America. The Easter Bunny, Easter Eggs, and Easter candy all have their roots in German traditions. Like Santa Claus or the Christ Child, The Easter Bunny would traditionally come the night before the holiday
Easter, A Year of Pennsylvania German Holidays Read More »
One of the things I’ve always found interesting about the Pennsylvania Germans is their folk art such as hex signs on barns and frakturs. Scherenschnitte (pronounced something like Sharon-Sh-knit-a) is the German and Pennsylvania German tradition of cutting paper. Traditionally, these paper designs were done by folding the paper and cutting to make a continuous
Scherenschnitte, German Folk Art of Intricate Paper Cutting Read More »
A little over three weeks ago we had piglets born on the farm. Squeakers, the proud mama, timed it just right and gave birth on March 1st, which is National Pig Day! We even made the front page of the local paper, the Pocono Record. (Finally some good news on the front page.) Coming into
The Story of Pigs: Quick Facts, Domestication, Pop Culture Read More »
Reenactors, historians, and the general public often marvel at the creativity of our historic counterparts. They were able to make from simple tools and equipment ingenious solutions to everyday problems. Imagine us trying to do the same things without Google! Recently, I learned about bandboxes during a training activity. Bandboxes are a catch-all term for
Bandboxes, a Historic Craft of the Victorian Era Read More »
Each Spring, Quiet Valley makes its own maple sugar. We all love the sweet, sticky sap that comes from these types of trees for our pancakes and for adding to all sorts of recipes, such as maple ginger salmon. This past week we started tapping the trees around the farm. A good tap tree is
Gathering Maple Sugar, Tree Tapping, Syrup Processing Read More »
Quiet Valley Living Historical Farm primarily uses first person interpretation for its tours and programs. That means all the interpreters, for better or worse, are in a particular time period and relate to someone working on the farm during that time. (In other words, they portray an original family member of the farm or one
Researching My Role: Quiet Valley Historical Interpreter Read More »
This week I had a chance to learn about Pennsylvania Dutch holidays throughout the year. Each year, Quiet Valley school tour staff participate in workshops to stay up to date on the most recent research and learn new items to incorporate into their interpretation. Our first training of the year focused on the traditions and
Pennsylvania German Holiday: Fastnacht Day, Doughnuts Read More »
Let’s talk chicken today. Yesterday I was given a couple of the Quiet Valley eggs to take home. Among the brown and white eggs was a blue one! As I looked closely I noticed that some of the brown ones weren’t truly brown either; some were speckled and others were almost pink. While this may
Variety in Egg Colors: Chicken Breed & Genetic Factors Read More »
On Wednesday, I tagged along with one of our Farm Hand Adventure programs. This program is designed to allow students to gain a deeper understanding of the farm and history through a hands-on project. This participating class was unique in another way too. All the participants were actually future teachers! They were students going to
Working Wheat: Harvest, Hand Milled Flour, Baking Bread Read More »