A celebration of Goodell Gardens' agricultural heritage.
Goodell Gardens and Homestead is gearing up for its 3 rd Annual Homegrown Harvest Festival. This last major event of the Gardens' 2008 season will take place on Sunday, September 21 st from noon until 5 PM and will feature free admission, a presentation on collecting heirloom seeds, and a barn dance.
The featured presentation, entitled
Growing Yesterday's Gardens: Heirloom Seeds and the Pennsylvania German Tradition, will be given by Commonwealth Speaker Dr. Irwin Richman from 1:00-2:30 PM in the newly restored Goodell Sheep Barn. The presentation will highlight how the conservation of antique varieties and the processing and distribution of high-quality seed preserves an important part of Pennsylvanian German cultural heritage. It will also describe the use of heirloom flowers and vegetables in traditional gardens and how they can be adapted to modern use. Dr. Richman is a Professor Emeritus of American Studies and History at Penn State - Harrisburg and is Director of Research and Development for the Heirloom Seed Project of the Landis Valley Museum. He has spent 10 years as a speaker for the PA Humanities Council, a private non-profit organization that represents Pennsylvania in the Federal-State Partnership of the National Endowment of the Humanities. This presentation, as part of the PHC's Commonwealth Speakers program, is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. More information about their programs can be found at
www.pahumanities.org.
The festival will also bring the first, but hopefully not the last,
Barn Dance in the restored Goodell barn from 3:00 -5:00 PM. Everyone is encouraged to join in, with music provided by Conneaut Creek String Band, who specialize in contra-style folk dance music. Lovers of country called dances should not sit this one out.
The 2008 Harvest Festival will also include a number of other attractions such as crafts, a quilt display, food, kid's paint-a-pumpkin activity, garden tours, and a Farmer's Market with pumpkins, organic produce, honey & maple products and cotton candy, Goat milk products/demos, baked goods, plant and spring bulb sale. Visitors can also purchase raffle tickets to win great prizes donated by the Festival vendors and the Gardens, including a beautiful hand-painted cherry side table worth over $150. Raffle and bulb sale proceeds will help support the Gardens' 2009 programs and events.
This family-friendly event is free to the general public and will be held rain or shine. Goodell Gardens and Homestead is located at 221 Waterford Street (Route 6N), just 2.8 miles east of the I-79 Edinboro exit #166. Contact (814)734-6699, ggh_info@velocity.net, or visit our web site at www.goodellgardens.org for more information.
Goodell Gardens & Homestead is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to create an education-oriented botanical garden and arboretum on the 78-acre Goodell family farm along Pennsylvania's scenic Route 6 by emulating the Goodell family passion for gardening, history and horticulture. Goodell Gardens provides for the care of a significant collection of both botanical specimens and local historical archives.