The Harvest.

Nothing says fall like going to a farm for a true harvest.
The sun.  The soil.  The corn.  The hand-churned ice cream.
And yes... the sweat.  The lines.  The husk cuts on the hands from shucking.
We love it all...cuz it's real.
No costumes, no candy, no spooky stuff, and nothin' to buy.

We packed up the troops and headed out to Ardenwood Historic Farm again this year.  This is actually our MAIN fall event each season.  It highlights the changing of the seasons with brilliant foliage and teaches the true pioneer spirit of an active working farm.  A perfect Montessori outing for little ones seeing the cycle of farming from soil to table.

I got a POPCORN one, mama!

Two varieties of maize for public harvest:  Popcorn & Indian Corn.  The popcorn was to be dried for a month, and can actually be popped on the cobb directly in the microwave or on the stove.  What?  Doesn't popcorn come out of the waxy bag from the microwave?  The Indian corn was for decorative purpose only with it's beautiful kernels ranging from indigo blue, deep variations of plum, and glorious oranges & golds.  The only rule was that you give back 50% of your harvest to the farm as payment for taking the other half home.  A pretty good deal for the pure adventure of it all.

Ok, I guess there was ONE spooky thing on the farm...

Besides the crops, we met lots of nice bugs today...

This guy greeted us on the tractor train.

This little wormie said "Hello" when we peeled his home open.

At the farmhouse, we made our own husk doll, scrap quilt, and sampled hand churned ice cream and yummy homemade cookies & popcorn...

My choo-choo quilt.

Alot of muscle to make ice cream!

A nice BIG smooch for mama for a fun harvest day!

See you next year Ardenwood!