Festival demonstrates farm life in 1800s
Saturday’s Labor Day Folk Life Festival at Jarrell Plantation will give visitors a chance to see the daily chores needed to run a Middle Georgia farm in the late 1800s.
“Kids will be allowed to play with some of the old-fashioned toys. Demonstrations include quilting, spinning and woodstove cooking. We’ll have a blacksmith on site, and the antique steam engine will be demonstrated as well,” said interpretive ranger Christina Orr.
Visitors can play games and enjoy live music, including a dulcimer group. This year’s event has added vendors such as a quilter’s guild, leather crafters and honey, and local animal shelters also will be on hand teaching about the importance of spaying and neutering pets. Concessions will be available.
Built in 1847 by John Fitz Jarrell, the plantation’s heart pine house will be open for tours. The plantation “survived Gen. Sherman’s ‘March to the Sea,’ typhoid fever, the cotton boll weevil, the advent of steam power and a transition from farming to forestry,” according to its website. It remained under ownership of the family for more than 140 years.
Folk Life Festival
When: 10:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Sept. 3
Where: Jarrell Plantation, 711 Jarrell Plantation Road, Juliette
Cost: $4-$6.50
Information: gastateparks.org/JarrellPlantation
This story was originally published September 1, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Festival demonstrates farm life in 1800s."