The National Colonial Farm imagines a fictional family—the Boltons—to reveal the realities of life for non-wealthy landowners and enslaved people in early America. How like a winter hath my absence been From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen! What old December’s bareness everywhere! - William Shakespeare The spring equinox is just days away, purple crocuses have emerged as small pools of color among the brown landscape, a

Their work on the tobacco barn and Laurel Branch — through the application of “witch’s brew” (turpentine, boiled linseed oil, and pine tar) — will help preserve our 18th century historic buildings from harsh winter weather. The signs they helped to paint and build will provide self-guided park visitors with directions and information about the site. The barnyard fencing they fixed and the sheep shelter roof they replaced will add to the success of our heritage livestock breed

Calling all homeschoolers! Join the Bolton family at the National Colonial Farm and spend the day learning about life on a small tobacco farm in the mid-18th Century. Children will learn about heritage breed farm animals, crops and gardens, and try their hands at colonial chores. This program is an open-house style activity for home school grades K-8. This event takes place rain or shine. Please be prepared in the event of rain or cold. Please email MaryAlice Bonomo for more

Volunteers meet on the second Saturday of every month from 1-4 pm, in addition to completing at-home volunteer projects between meetings. Each meeting is themed, and will focus on a particular task or step in the processing of wool from the foundation’s Hog Island sheep flock. Hog Island sheep are a critically endangered breed of sheep with Volunteers are expected to regularly attend monthly meetings and contribute to fiber processing to the best of their abilities. 2016 meet

This volunteer position is to assist with the interpretation of the National Colonial Farm through the belly (and the kitchen), as we explore, sample, and prepare the great regional dishes for which this state is known. The program focuses on educating participants about why we eat what we eat, and how what we eat has changed over time. Responsibilities may include: Cook colonial period foods in a variety of methods, to include but not limited to open hearth, beehive oven, sm

by Matt Mattingly During the winter of 2010, the National Colonial Farm began to reexamine what is known in the living history world as its “foodways” program.  Many living history museums offer this type of program, which at its core demonstrates how our ancestors prepared food.  Most living history sites develop programs that are consistent with their interpretation, which means that when you go to Mount Vernon you’ll see programs that discuss or demonstrate aspects of life

by Sally The haunted farm house--complete with frightening Jack-o-Lantern. Rocky and I have the best hog’s-eye view of our favorite event on the National Colonial Farm: Twilight Tales. The freak snowstorm that blew through Maryland last weekend postponed the annual event, which celebrates Halloween with a haunted farm house and frightening encounters with ghouls, ghosts, and otherwise lost souls from Colonial Maryland. But what a night it turned out to be! My finely tuned ear

After nearly 2 months of learning about colonial Maryland history, writing scripts, rehearsing, and braving the hot “Dog Days of Summer”, the Museum Theatre interns gave a stellar performance that was both entertaining and educational. This week’s pic features interns, Lindsey Mitchell as “Miss Nancy Marple Fletcher Drew” and Trey Thomas as “Mister Henry Waring Claggett” as they perform Murder on the Potomac. What great caption can you come up with to go along with this photo

Shanice Jones interprets "Cate Sharper" Shanice Jones, born in Washington DC, recently graduated from Salisbury University with a Bachelor’s in Theatre and minor in Music. Along with this internship, she was recently titled the Company Stage Manager of Artists’ Initiative Theatre Company and is currently acting in a show called “Language of Angels” at Bowie Community Theatre. Shanice also is attending school to earn a Masters in Business Administration, while working full-tim

How You Can Show Your Support for Museum Theatre at the National Colonial Farm Make an online donation today! Attend the show! WANTED: Annake "Baby Face" Higdon WANTED: Cate Sharper WANTED: Jemima Bolton WANTED: Charity Bolton View the photo slideshow from the Museum Theatre program at the National Colonial Farm. #colonial #SouthernMaryland #MuseumTheatre #MTIP #theatre #NationalColonialFarm #crimeandpunishment

It was a fairly warm Saturday on the National Colonial Farm but under the shade of a poplar tree the Accokeek Foundation held its monthly Foodways event. Our friends Peter and Stella Pino from the Zia Pueblo in New Mexico, along with our own Matt Mattingly, demonstrated to guests delicious ways to prepare venison, rabbit and muskrat. A long table situated close to the hearth was packed with various dishes, utensils and ingredients necessary for a colonial inspired feast. Gues

Each year, hundreds of visitors flock to the farm for this popular, annual event. This year, Children’s Day will be held on Saturday, May 14, 2011, at the National Colonial Farm. Guests are encouraged to come and participate in featured events surrounding the everyday tasks of a real colonial apprentice! Guests young and old are invited to learn how things were made in colonial times. Scheduled hands-on workshops include woodworking, blacksmithing, spinning, knitting, and cro

The Accokeek Foundation's Foodways program explores the foods that our colonial ancestors ate and the ways in which these foods were prepared. This month, the Accokeek Foundation will launch its newly developed Foodways program. The event, held at the National Colonial Farm on the third Saturday of each month from March through November, will explore the foods that our colonial ancestors ate and the various ways in which these foods were prepared. Of course, we would never ha

The eighteenth-century tobacco barn on the National Colonial Farm is filled with dry tobacco. Bundles of dried tobacco plants hang from a wooden tobacco stick. Cut and bundled in the fall, the once-green plants hang down from hand-split tobacco sticks, now brown and weathered. A 1770 spring would have found colonists preparing their tobacco fields for planting. Last season’s dried plants would have already been stripped and “prized” (or pressed) into hogsheads (or large

In March of this year the National Colonial Farm will premier its newly developed Foodways program.  Over the years this successful program has fascinated visitors as they witness firsthand what our colonial ancestors ate and how it was prepared.  This year we plan on taking the program and the visiting public even further into the culinary traditions of Maryland. Maryland Fried Chicken While we will still be cooking over the fire and using all the gizmos and gadgets of years