Enjoying the bounties of the earth at the Second Annual
The year is 1917 and you are an American farmer. It’s harvest time and you have a healthy crop of sorghum to press and make molasses with. You are excited because this year you have a new sorghum press to help you with your labor. You also bought a team of oxen to power your press and you are sure that you are going to make a great profit selling the product you will make. After hooking the oxen up to your sorghum press, you put some of your crop into the machine and get the oxen to start walking. As the oxen up to your sorghum press, you put some of your crop into the machine and get the oxen to start walking. As the oxen walk, you watch as the sorghum juice drips into the bucket that later you will put in the fire and reduce down so that you can make molasses.
When the crop of sorghum is completely pressed, you boil all of the juice down, add all of the right ingredients and before you know it, you have the sweetest tasting molasses in town.
This Saturday, Oct. 15 from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. at the American West Heritage Center’s second-annual Fall Harvest Festival, you will get the chance to be that American farmer.
During the festival, participants will help harvest the garden, make candles, smoke meat, thresh and weave wheat and do everything else needed to get ready for the winter. Besides helping with the molasses, they will also get to help make corn syrup and taste their own creations so that they can compare them with today’s products. Because everyone will get a chance to help, everyone should go prepared to get dirty.
New to this year’s activities is the Bear River Heritage Fair. This will include 20 different demonstrators and business owners and will provide “a chance to delve into local culture,” as Elaine Thatcher, the program director of the Mountain West Center for Regional Studies, said.
Participants will be participating in Western culture as they watch a saddle maker, a cowboy boot maker, a potter and even American Indians from the Northwestern Shoshone tribe. Many of the products being made will be available to purchase.
Also new this year is live music and dancing provided by various groups. These include LaShars Dancers, Handcock Family Band, Willow Valley Band, Farrin Family Band, Sunshine Generation Singers, Bear River County Cloggers, Cinnamon Creek Folk Singers, Cranberry Jam and the 4-H Mexican Dancers. There will also be time where anyone who wants will be able to dance.
In addition to Crumb Bothers – an artisan bread bakery – and Aggie Ice Cream, Culinary Concepts will be catering the event and will provide a variety of food.
The cost for Saturday’s activities is $6 for adults, $5 for students, children and seniors and $4 for children 3-11. There are coupons for $1 off per person available in the value pack from area merchants and at the American West Heritage Center.
Matt Dahl, who is the executive director of the American West Heritage Center, summed up the Fall Harvest Festival when he said, “This is a beautiful area and time of year and this event allows us an opportunity to look back at our ancestors and allows us to gain an appreciation for their hard work, dedication and the ingenuity that it took for them to survive – all the while having fun and enjoying the entertainment.”
-emwhit@cc.usu.edu