PINNACLE — Temperatures reaching the mid-90s on Saturday may have scared off a few from Horne Creek Living Historical Farm’s annual “Baa, Moo & Cock-A-Doodle-Do!” event.
But the 50 or so children and adults who attended enjoyed a taste of farm life, with the experience made perhaps even more authentic to bygone days when life went on despite the heat and without air conditioning.
“The kids that came had a really good time,” said Lisa Turney, site manager at the farm.
It is the mission of the Hauser Road, Pinnacle farm to recreate what everyday farm life was like in the northwestern Piedmont circa 1900.
The event Saturday, as suggested by its animal sounds title, featured the farm’s heritage breed animals that reflect those once common in rural North Carolina.
Staff member Will Stockfish took families around the farm and spoke of how – and why – each type of animal would have been used, and how they were cared for.
For example, visitors were introduced to “Promise,” a Jersey cow that lives on the farm.
Turney explained that Jersey cows were popular because of the high butter fat content of their milk.
“They weren’t eating a lot of beef at the turn of the century,” but the milk was used to make a variety of food products, she said.
The Gulf Coast Native Sheep on the farm are a breed that was brought to Florida by Spanish settlers and eventually replaced the more-disease prone “Tunis” breed that was regionally popular before the Civil War.
The chickens, Dominique and Rhode Island Reds, were also the first breed of chicken raised here, Turney said.
“We’re not a petting zoo,” Turney clarified. “Most children who come here today are not growing up on a farm. A lot are children living in an urban environment. Even those living in rural areas are not farming.”
Turney and Stockfish always ask visiting children where does food come from, she said.
“They say the refrigerator or the grocery store. One child rather indignantly told me ‘from McDonald’s, of course,’” Turney recalled. “We’re trying to educate the children about that and farm practices in general.”
In addition to learning about the farm animals, the children learned how to shell and grind corn to feed the animals.
The event wasn’t all about work, however.
The kids also participated in farm games such as sac races and tug-of-war, and worked on art projects.
“It’s a fun day for kids,” Turney said.
Tom Pace, a Horne Creek volunteer whose 7- and 9-year-old daughters also volunteer, said a highlight of the day was learning about quilting.
“The girls had seen quilts from their grandparents, but it was no big deal,” said Pace, of Pinnacle. “Seeing a dozen women sit together to make a quilt, with all that history, was really cool for them.”
Restoration of the farm’s feed barn, the oldest building on the property, begins this week, Turney said.
Preparations also well under way for the Oct. 15 corn shucking, the farm’s biggest event of the year.
More information can be found at the organizations Facebook page, Horne Creek Farm II.
