Garfield Farm Museum's 24th Annual
Heirloom Garden Show August 25th
CAMPTON HILLS, IL — Garfield Farm Museum is holding its 24th Annual
Heirloom Garden Show on Sunday, August 25, from 11 am to 4 pm. During the
show, visitors can tour the museum’s heirloom gardens and interact with
Midwestern growers showing off their favorite heirloom flowers, herbs,
fruits, and vegetables.
The show highlights the importance of preserving
genetic diversity in the very plants that we rely on for food, medicine, and
enjoyment. Many of these heirloom fruits and vegetables have unique tastes,
cooking traits, appearances, and disease or insect resistance that may not
be found in the more common grocery store varieties.
The chance to meet backyard gardeners, many of whom
are members of the Seed Savers Exchange (SSE), a nonprofit organization that
has connected plant enthusiasts from around the world, is reason enough to
attend the show. SSE is a remarkable grass roots effort that began in
1975 and is based out of Decorah, Iowa. Seed Savers receives a portion of
the proceeds from the show.
This year, exhibitors from Illinois, Indiana, and
Iowa will be bringing a wide variety of heirlooms. As always for this show,
garlic, peppers, and tomatoes will be well represented.
Visitors, young and old, can also delight in the
museum‚s own historic gardens. The heirloom flower garden houses many old
time favorites, such as, “Love Lies Bleeding” or “Kiss Me Over the Garden
Gate” that hark back to simpler times. Hollyhocks, often remembered by those
that grew up in the country, bloom in various corners of the barnyard. The
heirloom vegetable garden is made up of varieties that the Garfields
themselves may have grown including rare pre-blight potatoes. The garden
offers children a chance to see where the food they eat originates.
The kitchen garden by the tavern contains herbs and
spices as well as some native flowers. Accounts of the time encouraged
transplanting prairie flowers to the garden as they were already
disappearing from the 1840s landscape. The Pottawatomie Garden Club of St.
Charles has provided monetary support for the museum’s gardens over the
years.
There are plenty of other things to see on the farm.
Visitors can check out the various animals in the barnyard, admire the
historic barns, and stroll through the restored prairie and savanna. There
will also be tours of the 1846 brick tavern.
During the show, there will be some garden seed and
plants for sale. Inglenook Pantry of Geneva will be offering refreshments
including homemade pie in the Atwell Burr House. The show is $6 for adults
and $3 for children under 13 years of age. For information, call 630
584-8485 or email info@garfieldfarm.org. The museum is located 5 miles west
of Geneva, IL off ILL Rt.38 on Garfield Road. This historically intact
former 1840s Illinois prairie farmstead is being restored as an 1840s
working farm museum by donors and volunteers from around the country.
For more information about Garfield Farm send an e-mail message to: info@garfieldfarm.org
or call 630/584-8485.
