Festival brings 19th-century farm life to Midland’s Chippewa Nature Center

Chippewa Nature Center (CNC) will host its annual Fall Harvest Festival on Saturday, Oct. 4, offering visitors of all ages a chance to celebrate the season and explore 19th-century farm life through demonstrations, hands-on activities, and music.

The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the nature center, 400 S. Badour Road. Admission is free for children under 18 and CNC members. Non-member adult admission is $7.

At the Homestead Farm, guests can ride a wagon to see apple butter cooking over an open fire and apple cider being pressed. The Timber Frame Barn will feature the Midland FiberArts Guild’s “Sheep to Shawl” demonstration, where visitors can learn how wool is processed into yarn for spinning and weaving. Historic woodworking tools from CNC’s collection will be put to use, showing how farmers once made their own furniture and farm equipment.

Hands-on activities throughout the grounds include quarter-scale timber frame barn building, rope making, candle dipping, corn grinding, a children’s loom, sachet making, and a wool sheep craft. Guests can also explore the Homestead Cabin, watch a chair caning demonstration, and enjoy live music by The Swollen Fingers String Band. Seasonal photo backdrops will be available for keepsake photos.

Visitors can stop by the heirloom garden to learn about crops grown by early settlers and food storage in the root cellar, or visit the farm animals and see how 5Heart Earthworm Farm turns food scraps into compost. At the Children’s Garden, families can take part in scarecrow dressing and fall gardening projects.

The one-room Log Schoolhouse will offer lessons from the late 1800s, including penmanship on slate boards, tongue twisters to sharpen elocution, and outdoor games such as stilts and graces. Guests can also try pretend cow milking and take part in farm and harvest crafts. Beekeeping demonstrations, honey tastings, and bee crafts will highlight the importance of honeybees in the harvest, with an antique threshing machine and mechanical reaper on display nearby.

Near the Sugarhouse, blacksmiths from the Max Carey Blacksmith Guild will give demonstrations, while the Oxbow Archeologists will display artifacts and share findings from archaeological work at CNC. Food concessions will be available from Sawadee Midland and Lou’s Donut Co.

Chippewa Nature Center is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to connect people to nature through educational, recreational, and cultural experiences. Its 19 miles of trails are open free of charge from dawn to dusk every day of the year. For more information, visit CNC online.