Keene’s Lang Pioneer Village Museum is celebrating the summer harvest season in settler style with an old-fashioned Corn Roast from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday (August 18), featuring a day of family fun including historic demonstrations, live music, and plenty of fire-cooked corn.
You can discover the many different ways 19th-century settlers used corn and learn about the history of bourbon as well as candy corn and how it got its shape — hint: it was invented in Philadelphia in the late 19th century to celebrate farmers and was originally called “chicken feed.”
There will be a variety of harvest-related demonstrations including threshing, bagging, fanning mill, corn husk braiding, and corn grinding, and historic demonstrations including natural dyeing using native plants with a focus on gold and yellows, flop mattress repairing and stuffing, stitching with the Northumberland Hills Stitchery Guild, and weaving on the Jacquard loom.
You can hop aboard a free horse-drawn wagon ride to tour the historic village and listen to harvest songs performed by the Peterborough Concert Band in the morning and traditional music performed by Appalachian Celtic in the afternoon on the Weaver Shop porch.
Visit the Peterborough County Agricultural Heritage Building to see the Peterborough Agricultural Society’s Homecraft Show (also running on August 16 and 17), stop by Rabbit and Cavy Show, and view the Kawartha Truth and Reconciliation quilt on display.
At the Ayotte Cabin, make a corn craft to take home with you and try your hand at some cornhole —so named because the bean bags used in the game were originally filled with corn.
Enjoy fire-cooked corn smothered in butter at the fire pit and, if you’re feeling adventurous, enter the afternoon corn-on-the-cob eating contest taking place on the Village Green. There will also be hot dogs for sale in the Peterborough County Agricultural Heritage Building courtyard, sweet treats and refreshments available for purchase in the Keene Hotel for an additional fee, fresh kettle corn for sale by Ben’s Kettle Corn, and Empire Cheese curd and bread for purchase in the Cheese Factory.
There will also be old-fashioned schoolyard games, a corn photo booth, harvest songs played on the organ in the Glen Alda Church, and performances by the Scottish Country Dancers.
Admission costs $15 for adults, $10 for students and seniors 60 and older, and $7 for children and youth ages five to 14, with free admission for children under five. Family admission is also available for $40 and includes two adults and up to four children and youth.
Visitors may purchase admission at the gates or in advance online. To purchase advance admission or for more information, visit langpioneervillage.ca.
This is the final special event for the summer at Lang Pioneer Village Museum. Special events for the fall include Applefest on Sunday, October 6th and Spooky All Hallows’ Eve on Friday and Saturday, October 25th and 26th.
Lang Pioneer Village Museum’s summer hours of operation of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays to Sundays continue until September 1. From September 2 to November 15, outside of the special events mentioned above, the museum will be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays to Fridays.
