Landis Valley Museum event brings gardening and history together
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Scott LaMar
Airdate: May 11th, 2023
The Herb and Garden Faire at Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum is one of the most popular events in Lancaster County and the region for gardeners and history buffs.
Actually, it’s where gardening and history meet, because there are heirloom seeds of plants that have grown throughout the Pennsylvania Dutch region since the 1700s on sale. That’s along with many other plants and flowers and vendors.
On The Spark Thursday were David Blackburn, Landis Valley Village Museum site administrator, Ellyn Holt, Heirloom Seed Project Manager, and Joe Schott, Master Gardner, Landis Valley Village Museum.
Blackburn talked about why the Herb and Garden Faire is unique,”The story here is that not all but many of the Pennsylvania Germans that emigrated to this corner of Pennsylvania in the 18th, the 19th century, were agriculturalists. So they are long associated with agriculture and horticulture. It’s an important part of the story. It’s also a really important part of our collection. The founders of the museum, George and Henry Landis, collected many things associated with Pennsylvania Germans, but a very important part of that collection then and today are agricultural and horticultural implements that were used by Pennsylvania farmers and agriculturalists across across time. Additionally, for 35 years, we’ve supported the Heirloom Seed project, which is unique to the Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum and is something that supports the preservation of. Vegetables, beans and other plants that were. Hybridized and developed by Pennsylvania German farmers in our region.”
Holt spoke about the heirloom seed collection and seeds that are sale,”The collection was built by donations, so people took plants that they had been growing in their gardens that their mothers had given them or gotten from their grandmother or a neighbor that’s been passed down through the generations. So when the project first started in the eighties, that was how all of the seeds were acquired and we still get donations. I was just recently contacted by a farmer down in Whitehorse that had some lima beans and some edible soybeans that they’ve been passing down for generations and wondered if that was something that we would want to look into. So we try whenever possible, to get as much of the story behind the seeds, the history as far back as we can go and have that information along with the seeds, because that education component is part of what we really enjoy being able to pass along as well as things that people have been eating for generations.”
Schott told us visitors will see more than seeds and plants on sale, but see how they were planted and worked throughout history,”When they come here, I mean will stop. If we’re out in the field, we’ll stop and talk to people and tell them exactly what we’re doing and how it was done then and how it’s done now.”
