Heirloom gardeners sought for show at Garfield Farm Museum

Backyard heirloom gardeners and local food farms are invited to exhibit from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Sunday, Aug. 26, Heirloom Garden Show at Garfield Farm Museum in Campton Hills.

This annual event features historic varieties of vegetables, fruits, and flowers that were passed down from one generation to the next.

The exhibit is to help make the public aware of the great diversity of plant varieties that were raised for generations but are now in danger of becoming extinct. These historic genes may be the very solution in this era of genetic engineering to help provide a more vigorous variety, overcome new diseases that arise, lower cost of production or most importantly provide good flavor and nutritious value.

There is no charge to the exhibitors and they may sell their historic produce. Local food farms and CSAs can also have exhibits.

Interested parties can contact the museum at (630) 584-8485, email info@garfieldfarm.org or visit www.garfieldfarm.org to find registration forms.

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 hearken back to simpler times. Hollyhocks, often remembered by those that 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.

Garfield Farm Museum is a historically intact former prairie farmstead and teamster inn being restored by volunteers as an 1840s working farm. The museum is five miles west of Geneva, off Route 38 on Garfield Road.