Garfield Farm Museum's 23rd Annual Heirloom
Garden Show August 26
CAMPTON HILLS, IL- -Garfield Farm Museum is holding its 23rd Annual Heirloom
Garden Show on Sunday August 26 from 11 am - 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 garden 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.
Gardeners from LaPort, Chalmers, and Spencer IN will be comparing their
harvest with growers from around Illinois but they will all be on their toes
when Rolling Prairie Acres Farm of Sigourny, IA shows up with an entire
family of gardeners. Local honey from Campton Hills will be vying with
Rockford honey. Garlic and tomato lovers will especially be pleased with the
season's best. Additional items to be exhibited include various vegetable
seed, peppers, herbs in pots, homemade vinegars, various exotic species of
fruits & spices, flowers, pawpaw, persimmon, hot sauce for
tasting, beans, lima beans, cowpeas, cutting celery, California Giant
Petunias, and Asian long beans.
The museum's own historic gardens are a delight for many visitors both young
and old. 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 Garfield's themselves may have grown
including rare pre-blight potatoes. The garden offers children a chance to
see where the food they eat comes from.
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.
