Harvest and Horses Festival at the John R. Park Homestead

by Alice Hewitt

Visitors got a rare look at early pioneer life when the John R. Park Homestead held its first annual Horses and Harvest Festival Sunday October 6.
The event combined two of the Homestead’s popular annual festivals to provide visitors with a complete look at what farm life would have been like for pioneers in the 1850s during fall.

Families were encouraged to visit different areas of the home and grounds where they could witness costumed volunteers baking cider doughnuts, forging iron or building old-fashioned toys. As with all Homestead events, families were encouraged to try walking across the Homestead garden on homemade wooden stilts.

Claire Renaud has been a volunteer at the Homestead for a year. She said events like this are usually held to support the park.
“We don’t want to close, of course. We want to raise money to help support the park and show the history of the place,” said Renaud.

The event also showcased a number of horse breeds from ponies to larger draft breeds. Children had the opportunity to take pony rides offered by Sarah Parks Horsemanship. Those brave enough to listen were invited to enter into the home’s attic for a ghost story or two.

Kaitlyn Dwyer, a graduate of the disability studies program at the University of Windsor, said she first came to the Homestead on a class trip in elementary school about 10 years ago. Dwyer said she found the festival fun.

“We learnt a lot. There were lots of different stories that we heard from many different people so that was really interesting,” said Dwyer. “A gentleman actually taught us how they made sausages back in the pioneer days using pig’s intestines. There was this pig’s head on the table so that was pretty surprising to me, but that was cool.”

The Homestead is open throughout the remainder of the year and will be holding more events in the near future.