The
focus of A Brookside Harvest is to develop an understanding of life
in 19th century Saratoga County, specifically as related to the
harvest and harvest related activities.
This is done through our living history celebration of harvest
traditions, including demonstrations and hands-on activities in gathering
the harvest, preserving and cooking the harvest, keep warm through the
fall and winter, and leisure-time activities and having fun.
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I. Setting the Stage
In
19th century Saratoga County the family farm was very
important. More and more people were moving
to the towns and cities, and the farmer had to produce foodstuffs to feed
those people. Late summer and
fall were very busy times for the farm family.
All members of the family took part in the fall harvest of crops
such as corn, hay, oats, as well as fruits such as apples and pear, and
vegetables like tomatoes, squash, and beans.
In addition, fall was a time to bring in the winter’s wood supply
and to get out the warm quilts and long underwear.
There was still a bit of time for “having fun” by playing with
handmade wooden toys or wood hoops and graces.
In order to bring this time to life,
entries from Delia Denison Diary, April 1883 to August
1885, are included below:
| “The
Diary of Delia Salsbury Denison paints the life of a
seventy-year-old farm wife in rural Upstate New York in the 1880s.
She lived on a farm near the Village of Galway in Saratoga
County. Her days were
filled with chores: making
butter and soap, tending a wood fire, baking bread.
And there were constant struggles:
keeping warm in winter, fighting
the hen lice, nursing the sick.
Certainly not the “good old days. Delia made a daily
entry in the diary from April 22, 1883, to August 31, 1885,
some-times writing just a few words.
The diary is made of lined notebook paper with covers
fashioned from heavy, brown paper bags, sewed at the top with
yarn. It measures 41/2 inches by 71/4 inches. With the exception of two entries penned in ink, the diary is
written in pencil.” |
| [Note to teachers: Delia
Denison’s diary is a great first hand account of life in 19th
century Saratoga County.
Even though your students are young, they would benefit
from using this material.
I encourage you to read the diary entries with your
students and show them the written word. At A Brookside Harvest I plan to have the original or
reproduction of the diary on display so that the students can see
Delia’s own words.] |
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Diary Entry |
Notes |
Friday
August 17 1883
Rice. Mowed &
raked hay here afternoon the 2 Mrs
Pettits came, put on a
quilt & worked till
they rooled it once |
put on a quilt: a quilt,
ready to be tied off or quilted was
put on a frame which
was either suspended from the ceiling
or rested on a frame or
on backs of chairs. It
was
rolled up as the outside
edges were finished. Usually
the
neighbor ladies came to help, hence a “quilting bee.”
Rice:
name
of a son of a neighbor |
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Monday
August
19 1883
I made a cake, H call’d on our friends
to
invite to quilt
Tues the
two Mrs Pettits & two Mrs Halls
& Girtie came & quilted & finely got it off,
I rocked the dear babe & got tea.
Weds I hemed part of my quilt
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