Tour the heirloom gardens at Garfield Farm Museum
Submitted by Garfield Farm Museum
Garfield Farm Museum’s 24th annual Heirloom Garden Show will be from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 25, at Garfield Farm Museum in Campton Hills. Costs are $6 and $3. Call (630) 584-8485 or email info@garfieldfarm.org
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 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, a nonprofit organization that has connected plant enthusiasts from around the world, is reason enough to attend the show.
SSE is a 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.
This year, exhibitors from Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa will be bringing a variety of heirlooms. As always for this show, garlic, peppers, and tomatoes will be well represented.
Visitors, young and old, can also delight in the museum’s own historic gardens. 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 who grew up in the country, bloom in various corners of the barnyard.
The heirloom vegetable garden is made up of varieties that the Garfields themselves may have grown, including rare pre-blight potatoes. The garden offers children a chance to see where the food they eat originates.
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 also will 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 younger than 13. For information, call (630) 584-8485 or email info@garfieldfarm.org.
The museum is five miles west of Geneva, off Route 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.