Join us this week to stock up on the season's freshest food and meet the farmers and folks who bring it straight to you. We are honored this week to welcome as our special guests two of Durham's finest groups: The Durham Farm Museum and The Durham Garden Club.
The Durham Fair Farm Museum was started in the 1970s. They have quite a collection of old farm tractors, sleighs and buggies, a portable steam power rig, equipment, implements, tools, milk bottles, etc. They also have an operating blacksmith shop, a farm kitchen area, a farm mechanic's shop, a carpenter's shop, ice cutting tools, and areas that are expressly used for displays of chicken and egg farming, dairy and milk production, water supply, logging equipment, and harvesting equipment (fanning mills, corn choppers, wheat combine, horse drawn rakes, etc.), Along with their collection of DVDs portraying old farming methods and equipment, the Museum also has quite a collection of pictures and written history of the original, as well as present, farms of Durham that are on display at fair time. The year is spent maintaining, repairing, and renovating the museum's tractors and equipment. So far, the Museum members have completely restored 3 tractors from top to bottom and are getting close to the completion of the restoration of a 1932 John Deere D that was donated by the White's Farm to the Durham Fair Farm Museum many years ago. They have spent the past three years working on it.
The Farm Museum will be bringing an old McCormick Deering tractor to the green for the Farmers' Market this week. Kids will be allowed to climb on it and parents can take their picture. Other items on display will be some other old tractors and other farm-related items.
The Durham Garden Club mission is to provide interest and activity in all forms of gardening; to encourage education that will lead to keener appreciation of the advantages of garden development, and, when possible, to use this knowledge for the betterment of our homes and community.
Several club members, who are also University of Connecticut Extension Master Gardeners, will be on hand to answer gardening questions. The award-winning club will also display photographs of recent civic beautification projects and will have on hand displays of in-club projects, such as hypertufa planters and living wreaths.
See you on the green!
