Harvest Home rings in the season

by Mike Robinson

ABOYNE

When fall is in the air, it is time for Harvest Home at the Wellington County Museum and Archives.

While it may seem much is the same, the museum is moving towards a new chapter in the expansion of exhibit space in a familiar location.

Activity programmer Libby Walker said the 1877 bank barn (next to the museum) was built at the time the poor house was constructed.

The museum itself was once the county poorhouse - now a national historic site.

The official recognition refers to the cultural landscape including the farmlands, barn and outbuildings and the residential building.

“What is exciting is that from the fall of 2012 into 2013, the barn is going to be developed as exhibit space,” Walker said.

“We’re going to have a permanent space where we can showcase a lot of our agricultural past.”

We’re going to have some farm equipment, implements, displays, and possibly interactive video exhibits”

The redevelopment also means a new floor and the building will become fully accessible.

“It’s going to be really exciting,” Walker said.

The venue will be seasonal,  open to the public seven days a week from roughly May to the Harvest Home Festival or Thanksgiving.

She noted the Harvest Home Festival was actually moved forward a week this year in hopes of better weather for those on the tractors and for drier grain.

That helps with the festival threshing, which Walker described as “our marquee event.”

“We have five wagon loads  of grain grown on the museum property.

“The guys volunteer to cut, bind, and thresh it. It is an important day for us to have that connection with our community, and with our agricultural past.”

Walker believed this marks the 35th year of the Harvest Home Festival.

“This is a great legacy to have remembering our past.”

She said events were set for the day.

“I like to call this the sights and sounds of our rural heritage.”

She pointed to the blacksmith offering demonstrations on site showing how metalwork was done.

Sheep shearer Tom Redpath offered demonstrations of techniques using both antique and modern equipment.

The Elora Grand Squares were in the Aboyne Hall to showcase their steps.

Inside the exhibit hall, the Backstage Boys performed with a backdrop of the Death: Rituals and Traditions exhibit.

That in itself offered a unique experience watching musicians perform in front of an antique hearse to the sounds of Midnight Special.

Of lighter note, youngsters had the chance to create a take home a bit of rope, while on the front lawn displays showcased both antique and lawn tractors. Walker noted a number of individuals out for the threshing bring their tractors along with them for the event.

“We have a little bit of everything. We never know what we are going to have until it shows up.”

“We’re really thrilled this year to have Anita Stewart, an Elora resident, and a food guru in Canada. She is going to talk about the flavours of Canada.”

September 28, 2012