Enjoy Harvest Days this weekend at 19th century Garfield Farm in Campton Hills
What was it like to live without technology and modern conveniences? Take a step back in time to the 1840s and find out at the 32nd annual Harvest Days Sunday at Garfield Farm, where visitors can experience day-to-day life on a 19th-century farm.
Farm hours are 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Garfield Farm and Inn Museum on Garfield Road in Campton Hills. Admission is $6 for adults and $3 for kids 12 and younger.
At the farm, guests can take a tour of the Garfield Inn and see where people used to sleep, eat and play.
The farm has more than 375 acres of land with original buildings, plus animals that would have been on the farm at that time. Presentations of corn husking, soap- and candle-making, working with animals and spinning will be given throughout the day.
Animals are always a popular attraction at Harvest Days, and there are plenty of sheep, oxen, black chickens, pigs, geese and turkeys for kids to admire. There will also be prairie tours given by guides who help people explore the gardens and inspect insects.
"The kids always love watching the animals, and the prairie tours and really fun for adults as well," said Garfield Farm Executive Director Jerome Johnson.
New this year is Georgiana Vitti and her stagecoach presentations. She will discuss what it was like to travel in the 1840s and she'll have a stagecoach replica to show.
Throughout the farm, interpreters will portray people who lived on the typical 1840s farm.
"Our goal is to be a working 1840s farm replica and be able to reflect upon the lives of the everyday person," Johnson said.
Reid Miller will tell stories typical of the storytelling done in the 1840s and also have musical performances.
More than 60 volunteers plus staff members coordinate Harvest Days, which starts Friday for school groups. Additionally, the people working at the farm are working on their latest project - restoring the farm's oldest building, the tavern.
"Coming to the farm this year might be the last chance to see the building with its original work before it is restored," Johnson pointed out.
At Harvest Days almost everything is authentic, from the buildings where corn and wheat is stored to the land where animals graze.
"Everyone works so hard to save the land and keep it the way it is," Johnson said.
For more information, call (630) 584-8485 or visit garfieldfarm.org.
If you go
What: Harvest Days at Garfield Farm Museum
When: 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 5
Where: Garfield Farm Museum, on Garfield Road, just north of Route 38 and about three miles west of Randall Road, Campton Hills
Admission: $6, $3 for kids 12 and younger
Details: <a href="http://www.garfieldfarm.org">garfieldfarm.org</a> or call (630) 584-8485