Farm Fest crowd enjoys food, games from 1850s
KINGSPORT — The 27th installation of Hamlett-Dobson Farm Fest on Sunday afternoon included many of the original rustic 1850s farm games, food, crafts and demonstrations, but it was a recent addition to the event that drew the biggest crowd and the longest line.
If you let your cucumbers or squash become overgrown, the seeds get too big, and eating them becomes almost more trouble than it’s worth.
Apparently old-timers found a fun way of disposing of their overgrown gourds. They were cut in half, hulled like a canoe and the interior was decorated with an assortment of wildflowers before being cast afloat in a wash tub.
“That came from one of our volunteers saying that when they were kids they used to take the cucumbers that were too big to eat and make boats out of them,” said Farm Fest committee chairperson Joy Moore. “We started doing that and kids get to decorate them too. It’s really become one of the favorite activities for children.”
Farm Fest is held every year at The Exchange Place, a preserved and operating 1850s living history farm with several original buildings on Orebank Road.
Read the expanded version of this report in the print edition or the enhanced electronic version of the Kingsport Times-News.
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