A Celebration Of The Farming Life At Morris Arboretum

By Phran Novelli

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - On Sunday, October 19th, from 12-3pm, you can celebrate rural life at Bloomfield Farm at the Morris Arboretum in Chestnut Hill.

No longer a working farm, the land now is part of the Arboretum's living collection and features meadows, gardens, research plots, nursery plants, as well as a Horticultural Center with a green roof. Sunday's events commemorate Bloomfield Farm's agricultural history and are free with your admission to the Morris Arboretum that day.

You can take a guided tour of the property and buildings including historic Springfield Mills, a grist mill where you can watch restored machinery lift and sift corn and see the one-ton stones grind corn into meal just as they did 160 years ago.

But beyond nostalgia, you'll learn about all kinds of arts and skills once vital to everyday life that you can still use today: from demonstrations of keeping bees for pollinating plants and producing honey, as well as spinning, weaving, quilting, welding, woodworking, and using a potter's wheel.

And these days, as more and more people living not in the country but also in suburbs and cities, are starting to keep animals for fun, food, and fertilizer, you can learn what it's like to have backyard chickens or even goats!

Plus there will be music to keep you entertained along with old-fashioned crafts and games for kids from the Springfield Historical Society.