I know I have written about the Mountain Farm Museum before, but I wanted to show you some new pictures. As you know, the Mountain Farm Museum is located at the edge of the Great Smoky Mountain Park, next to the Cherokee Indian Reservation. The Farm was having their annual Fall Festival today and had people doing demonstrations of how they would have done it in the 1800’s. They had people making sorghum syrup, rocking chairs, apple butter, lye soap, corn husk dolls and rugs, quilts and brooms from broom corn.
This is where they squeezed the sorghum juice to make sorghum syrup.
Once the corn was harvested and shucked, they would store the corn cobs here.
This is where they would store the corn husks after the corn was shucked. Today though, they had a family showing how to make chair seats out of this wood strips.
The kids love to look into the barn stalls. While they used to hold horses and other farm animals, today they are holding old farm equipment that they used back then.
This sign is a sad reminder that some people are rude and will vandalize anything. Including their heritage.
This is where the Blacksmith would work. Notice the openings between the logs? That is so the Blacksmith could let some of the heat out of the building.
This is the gentleman that was showing everyone how to make brooms. Very cool!
Here are different brooms that would have been made during the 1800’s.
This little building is the Spring House. They would keep their butter, milk and any other items that needed cooling in this building.
I loved watching this little girl. They were teaching her how to make apple butter.
This lady was explaining to everyone the different types of plants and herbs that were used to help treat any ailments that families had at this time. She even brought some that she grows at her own home.
The front side of the homestead.
Once the corn was shucked, they would used the husks to make rugs and even dolls for the girls to play with. They would also sell the extras to make a little money.
The kitchen is located on the backside of the homestead.
The Ash Hopper is where they put the ashes at to make lye. You would pour water over the ashes and the liquid that is drained from that is the lye.
The smokehouse was a must for families to smoke meat. Several families would build one together and then go hunting together, come back to smoke the meat and then share it with each other.
I know there are a lot of pictures, but I just couldn’t choose a couple to show. I loved them all! Thanks for taking a tour with us on our field trip to the Mountain Farm Museum!