The Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums (ALHFAM) held its first ever “Farm School” workshop at Howell Farm this week. The aim of the program is to provide living history professionals with hands-on, down-and-dirty training in historical agricultural practices.
Starting Monday and continuing through today (Wednesday), the students at Howell Farm have been learning the finer points of using horse-drawn walking plows to complete fieldwork in the same way American farmers would have from 1890 to 1930.
Farm school instructors Pete Watson (of Howell Farm) and Ed Schultz (of Great Hopes Plantation at Colonial Williamsburg) designed the workshop to emphasize learning through the completion of real farm work. The students reported being tired on Monday evening after spending eight hours out in the field plowing and driving draft animals.
The inaugural class of farm school students is comprised of Sarah Rice of Longstreet Farm in Holmdel, New Jersey; Bob Sherman of Middleton Place Plantation in Charlestown, South Carolina; Darryl Wines of the Simcoe County Museum in Midhurst, Ontario; and Barbara Corson of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, co-chair of ALHFAM’s Farm Professional Interest Group.
To see some photos of farm school, follow this link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/JTFlesher/FARMSCHOOL#slideshow
