Family Farm Fest Set to Return to Old Sturbridge Village

Monday, April 01, 2019

GoLocalWorcester Lifestyle Team

Family Farm Fest returns to Old Sturbridge Village

Old Sturbridge Village is set to host Family Farm Fest for the 5th season.

“Meeting newborn lambs at Old Sturbridge Village is a sure sign of spring, and has become an annual tradition for thousands of families during Family Farm Fest, now in its fifth year. This year's little lambs, more than a dozen just born, will be joined by calves, pigs, and chicks,” said Old Sturbridge Village in their press release.

The festival will take place from April 13 to April 14, and April 20th to 21st, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.

Family Farm Festival

Highlights include live music, hay rides, plowing with the Village oxen, youth "barnyard games," and portrayals of famed Little House on the Prairie author Laura Ingalls Wilder by historian Melanie Stringer.

The Village's horticulture staff will present talks and tours about gardening, with special emphasis on the Parsonage Garden and Freeman Farm, and offer instruction on creating and using a "hot frame" for tender fruit and vegetable seedlings. Costumed farm interpreters will give talks about the antique instruments on display in the Fitch Barn and other topics. Families and couples will also enjoy a horse-drawn ride through the Village.

Historical re-enactor Melanie Stringer will portray author Laura Ingalls Wilder, of Little House on the Prairie fame.

Stringer will enthrall audiences with Wilder's stories about growing up on the frontier, and what it was like for a young woman to raise a family and have a career in the 19th century. Stringer provides research-based, factual information about Laura, her husband, Almanzo, daughter Rose, and their family and friends.

Stringer's in-character answers to questions from the audience will reflect Wilder's known activities, tastes, opinions, experiences, beliefs, and manners.