Potato Planting

Saturday, April 20| 10:00–4:00

Children's Craft: Potato Printing (11:00–3:00)

Visitors of all ages can join workhorses Bill and Jesse to help plant a field of potatoes that will yield over 2,000 pounds of food for local soup kitchens. While farmers drive the horses and steer the plow to open up the rows, helpers will follow behind with baskets of seeds and place them in the furrows. Over the next 4 months the field will be weeded and hilled by interns and volunteers...before visitors again help to harvest the crop in mid-August.

Hands-On Learning

Sheep Shearing (March–April)

Watch up close as a farmer shears a sheep by hand. Meet ewes and lambs in the barn and find out why special pens are sometimes needed for a mother sheep and her newborn. Learn how raw wool is cleaned, and prepare clean wool for spinning using cards to straighten the fibers. Try your hand at spinning yarn and weave a souvenir to take home.

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Spring Farm Animals (April – June)

Springtime means new life in the fields and in the barnyard. Meet the recent arrivals, make feed for the hungry pigs, and learn how the farmer makes sure that the basic needs of each animal are met.

In a 90-minute sampler of the Howell Farm morning chores, children meet horses, sheep, pigs, and chickens, learning how a farmer’s family works to keep the animals healthy, warm, and productive during the coming winter. Participants help shell and grind corn for animal feed, look for eggs in the henhouse, and help the farmer with other work around the farm.

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