Johnny Appleseed Festival
Johnny Appleseed was a little over a week ago and I've finally gotten around to getting the pictures uploaded. It was gorgeous weather this year - sunny and warm.
The spinning ladies. I've always wanted to try this. It seems like the kind of thing you could do mindlessly as you watch tv...but then, I don't usually watch tv.
This guy was really into history - very ethusiastic. He showed my sister and I how they used to make linen thread out of flax. This is actually the last step.
It actually starts by taking the harvested plant and soaking it in some kind of solution to break down the outer part of the stalk. You can see the flax on the ground on the left side of the picture. After that, you use this gadget to beat up the outer stalk so that it falls off and leaves behind the spinable fibers.
This nasty looking comb removes any remaining outer fibers. See the date on this thing? That's awesome!
It's the man of the hour...in children's game form. Wonder what John Chapman would have thought if he had known he'd one day be portrayed like this.
Soldiers' encampment.
This woman was teaching festival goers about period dress. And oohh, isn't her dress lovely? Did you know little girls dresses would be made larger than the girl could wear and then hemmed to fit so they didn't have to make dresses as often? Since the dress would fade out a bit while it it's smaller form, when the hems were let out, the cloth would be mismatched. That's one reason they would put lace at the edges. To hid where the old seam was! Clever.
This guy was an 1812 reinactor. He was pretty interesting. One of the reinactments he often goes to has a day just for students. During one of these days, a kid told him that he thought it was okay for the whites to take the land from the indians because, "they didn't own it." This guy then picked up his ax went over to the kid and told him he couldn't sit where he was sitting because he didn't have the right piece of paper. Of course, the kid protested, "that's not fair!" Lesson learned, I hope.
This display shows standard rations. The candle would last only 4 or 5 hours but they were only given one a week. The contents of the bottles from left to right are salt, vinegar, whiskey.
Can't have a reinactment without a cannon.
President Lincoln gets in a photo op.
These alpacas were sooo cute! <3 Too bad everyone seemed to think they were llamas. There were even some girls trying to feed the poor things straw. TT Uhhh, that's their bedding, not their food.
This old bagpipper was pretty awesome. He's got that stereotypical old man posture going on, but he's still out there marching with the group.
I don't usually find a lot that I want to buy but I did this year. I lo~ve this reproduction redware dish - with historically accurate motif. Seen here with my lemonade bottle for scale. There was a slighly larger plate that I really liked too. It had a bird on the face of the plate that reminded me of a henna tattoo pattern. I'm kind of wishing I had bought that as well...
This soap is all natural and made by a woman that lives only about 10 minutes away from my house. It smells great too. Again this year, I wanted to buy some yarn like I did two years ago. No luck with actual yarn, but I did get this stuff. Not sure what exactly to call it, and I have no idea what I'm going to do with it, but I thought it was pretty and it was only $1, so I bought it.
All in all, it was a great day. I'm happy with my lovely purchases and I got to eat some yummy food including "indian bread". It's a lot like an elephant ear only instead of flattening it out the dough into a thin circle, it's left in a fist sized ball and fried that way. Then is slathered with butter and doused with a cinnamon and sugar mixture.
Next up, Street Fair. Which was actually this past week. Now let's see how long it takes me to upload the pictures.
The spinning ladies. I've always wanted to try this. It seems like the kind of thing you could do mindlessly as you watch tv...but then, I don't usually watch tv.
This guy was really into history - very ethusiastic. He showed my sister and I how they used to make linen thread out of flax. This is actually the last step.
It actually starts by taking the harvested plant and soaking it in some kind of solution to break down the outer part of the stalk. You can see the flax on the ground on the left side of the picture. After that, you use this gadget to beat up the outer stalk so that it falls off and leaves behind the spinable fibers.
This nasty looking comb removes any remaining outer fibers. See the date on this thing? That's awesome!
It's the man of the hour...in children's game form. Wonder what John Chapman would have thought if he had known he'd one day be portrayed like this.
Soldiers' encampment.
This woman was teaching festival goers about period dress. And oohh, isn't her dress lovely? Did you know little girls dresses would be made larger than the girl could wear and then hemmed to fit so they didn't have to make dresses as often? Since the dress would fade out a bit while it it's smaller form, when the hems were let out, the cloth would be mismatched. That's one reason they would put lace at the edges. To hid where the old seam was! Clever.
This guy was an 1812 reinactor. He was pretty interesting. One of the reinactments he often goes to has a day just for students. During one of these days, a kid told him that he thought it was okay for the whites to take the land from the indians because, "they didn't own it." This guy then picked up his ax went over to the kid and told him he couldn't sit where he was sitting because he didn't have the right piece of paper. Of course, the kid protested, "that's not fair!" Lesson learned, I hope.
This display shows standard rations. The candle would last only 4 or 5 hours but they were only given one a week. The contents of the bottles from left to right are salt, vinegar, whiskey.
Can't have a reinactment without a cannon.
President Lincoln gets in a photo op.
These alpacas were sooo cute! <3 Too bad everyone seemed to think they were llamas. There were even some girls trying to feed the poor things straw. TT Uhhh, that's their bedding, not their food.
This old bagpipper was pretty awesome. He's got that stereotypical old man posture going on, but he's still out there marching with the group.
I don't usually find a lot that I want to buy but I did this year. I lo~ve this reproduction redware dish - with historically accurate motif. Seen here with my lemonade bottle for scale. There was a slighly larger plate that I really liked too. It had a bird on the face of the plate that reminded me of a henna tattoo pattern. I'm kind of wishing I had bought that as well...
This soap is all natural and made by a woman that lives only about 10 minutes away from my house. It smells great too. Again this year, I wanted to buy some yarn like I did two years ago. No luck with actual yarn, but I did get this stuff. Not sure what exactly to call it, and I have no idea what I'm going to do with it, but I thought it was pretty and it was only $1, so I bought it.
All in all, it was a great day. I'm happy with my lovely purchases and I got to eat some yummy food including "indian bread". It's a lot like an elephant ear only instead of flattening it out the dough into a thin circle, it's left in a fist sized ball and fried that way. Then is slathered with butter and doused with a cinnamon and sugar mixture.
Next up, Street Fair. Which was actually this past week. Now let's see how long it takes me to upload the pictures.