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Frontier Culture Museum, Stauton, VirginiaOct 3, 2007
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German Farm
German Dining Room
American Farm
| If any of you are ever in the vicinity of Stauton, Virginia, please stop by this museum. You will not be sorry! This is one living history museum that has the most wonderful interpreters you could ever imagine. They have studied the era they are representing and can answer any and all questions! We spent several hours there and if anyone knows me, you know I could go back again and again! This museum has reconstructed five working farms from Germany 1710, Northern Ireland 1730, England 1690, Virginia 1850 and Virginia 1773. All of the buildings are original. They were all dismantled, numbered, packed and sent to Stauton and reconstructed on the site. It took about ten years to complete the process and the results are second to none! We stopped at the German farm first and were met by a wonderful woman who gave us a very informative history/farm lesson about what life was like in a German farm/village. This particular farm grows flax to use for making linen. She showed us how to dry the flax, separate the fibers, beat them into the material that is spun into thread. What a process that is! Very time consuming, not to mention tedious. The children are taught how to do this work as soon as they are able. Most of the farmers of that era were considered peasants and didn't own land. Multiple family members lived under one roof and it wasn't unusual to have up to 20 people living in close quarters. The English farm was a surprise, as the house was huge! The particular owners of this farmhouse were well off, as they owned their own land and were able to hire help when needed. The upstairs had two great big bedrooms, as you can see in the pictures. This house was used up until the 1950's in England as an apartment. It was bought by this organization and brought to Virginia for the museum. The interpreter was chopping ginger root and drying it in the wood fired ovens. He said it was commonly used as a spice for the "pippen tarts" they loved........translation.....apple tarts. My absolute favorite farm experience was the Irish farm. There were two interpreters there and one showed us the linen making process on the loom. It looked way too complicated for me. She said a good loom worker could make about 1 1/2 yards of linen in four hours. She said you would get into a rhythm and time would fly by. After making the linen it had to be bleached, which was another process that took a couple weeks. The linen had to literally be beaten and pounded to make it soft. When it was soft enough it was staked out on the lawn, over grass and kept moist. Something about the chlorophyll in the grass creating a chemical reaction and turning the linen white. When it was bleached enough it was sold. Children were taught this trade as it was a lucrative business and something that they could leave home and make a living at. The other gal was in the kitchen hearth area making the noon meal which was the big meal of the day. She made meatballs with sausage, bread and spices and deep fried them over the hearth in lard. Served them up with hard boiled eggs. It actually smelled and looked tasty. The bedroom was a bed next to the hearth with pillows that allowed you to sleep in the sitting position. During those years in Ireland, there were lung problems and if you slept on your backs you couldn't breathe well. The cat was a necessity as a mouser to keep the house free of rodents. The bottom of the bed was straw and the top was feathers. Again, I would recommend this living history museum to everyone! The interpreters are incredible and there is so much to be learned. They have educational events all through the year....this weekend is Octoberfest, which looks like it is going to be fun. Maybe we will get back here and be able to become volunteers. That would be great! Tomorrow we head out again. We will be spending the night just over the border of Virginia into the town of Bristol, Tennessee. I wonder what awaits us there...........we shall see. |
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