Corn Harvest offers taste of farm life

Visitors are invited to 1890s fun in the fields this weekend during Corn Harvest, when they can experience what it was like to bring in the crops and prepare a farm for winter.

The Corn Harvest is 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 15 and 16, at Kline Creek Farm, 1N600 County Farm Road, West Chicago.

Visitors can start their visit at "corn college," where they will see how corn grows and hear the history of this valuable crop. Then they can hit the fields at the living history farm and pick some of the corn that will feed the cows and sheep over the winter. Visitors will load wagons and may help store the harvest in the corn crib once the wagons in the field are full.

Throughout each day there will be additional activities, including horse-drawn hayrides for $5 per person.

At the farmhouse, visitors can make corn-husk dolls and tour the 19th-century home. They can also visit the barn, chicken coop, sheep fold and other buildings on the 200-acre farmstead.

Volunteer beekeepers will be on hand to answer questions in the honey house, and a blacksmith will demonstrate the tools and techniques of the trade in the wagon shed from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

The program is free and registration is not required. Visitors should wear sturdy shoes for walking in the fields and bring work gloves, if available, for handling the corn and stalks.

For information about the Corn Harvest, call the farm at (630) 876-5900.