A juicy taste of the past

If you plan to drive through Marengo or Union Sunday morning, you may find yourself sharing the road with a convoy of tractors.

But those tractors won't be plowing any fields.

They're antiques, and they'll be parading as part of the McHenry County Historical Society's Cider Festival.

The 30th annual festival, which focuses on old-fashioned harvest activities, runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the museum, 6422 Main St., Union.

The McHenry County Antique Farm Equipment Association supplies the tractors, which help chronicle agricultural history.

This year the tractors will depart the Wilson Farm on River Road north of Marengo at 7 a.m. and arrive at 1 p.m. in Union. Tractors will compete in several contests in front of the museum on Main Street.

In 19th and early 20th-century McHenry County, barn-raising, cider-pressing, quilting and spinning would have filled the lives of the area rural families. The festival offers a glimpse into that earlier world.

The Society's 1895 West Harmony one-room school will be open -- complete with a schoolmarm. Stepping back even earlier, visitors can enter the 1843 Gannon log cabin.

From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Charlie B and Friends will entertain visitors with a variety of accordion music.

At noon volunteers plan to raise a timber frame barn, showing how huge timbers can fit together without hammer and nails. Audience participation will be encouraged and welcome.

Throughout the day the museum's antique apple press will create apple cider, second only to the apple itself in autumn's refreshments.

The society's award-winning local history museum, containing a new exhibit titled "Arrival: the 1920s," will be open free that day. Inside, visitors can watch quilting demonstrations and buy homemade baked goodies featuring apples.

The society will open its next-door annex for "white elephant," used book and antique clothing sales. Food will be available.

For more information on the society or membership, call (815) 923-2267 or visit the Web site, www.mchsonline.org.

If you go

What: McHenry County Historical Society's 30th annual Cider Festival

When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday

Where: The museum is at 6422 Main St., Union

How much? Free