(upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to The Journal, I'm Steve Kendall.

Among the many gems in the Wood County Park District is the Carter Historic Farm, both a working farm and a living history center.

We're going to take a step back into our agricultural past today on Journal.

Our guest is Anna Cotterman, historic farm specialist with the Wood County Park District.

Anna, welcome to Journal, thank you for being here.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- Yeah, and as I mentioned, historic Carter Farm, it is a working farm now, but it does take us back to kind of our cultural heritage back into the mid-20th century, the way things, the way people lived in Wood County and Northwest Ohio.

So talk a little about what historic Carter Farm is and then we, there's obviously got a lot of events to talk about, but let's kind of set the background for maybe people who've never been there, don't know what it is, haven't been by it even.

- Yeah, so Carter Historic Farm is a part of your Wood County Park District.

So we're a park like any of the other parks, we're open from 8:30 until sundown and we are a living history farm and actively farming living history farm.

So on any given day, you could come out and we could be doing anything from care of our sheep, doing hoves, moving pastures with them to harvesting.

Coming up soon, we'll be harvesting our, about two to three acres of corn that we've grown that are heritage varieties.

And we also have a big emphasis on programming.

We spend a lot of time teaching the public different skills from the depression era, including canning, knitting, sewing, and we're really just existing to educate the Wood County residents and other Ohio residents about the history in Wood County specifically.

- Yeah, and when you look online, you look at those, and we've got a couple of the photos you'll see behind us, it very much is a farm with multiple buildings.

You look at some of the ideas, there's like a loafing shed, a farrowing barn, a livestock barn, a milk house.

So all of the things, because farms in those eras were pretty much self-sufficient.

They raised their own grain, they raised their own vegetables, they had livestock, as you said, you mentioned sheep, goats, whatever.

And when you go out there, you do see the fact that this is sort of like stepping back to that era and you see how different it was to live in those times.

Now, this farm has electricity, which was a big thing to get back in the day.

We take it for granted now.

Is there anything, when people come out there, is there anything that really they find really intriguing that so far in your experience when you've been out there, when people just stroll in and say, oh my gosh, what is this about?

What's going on?

Anything that they really focus on?

- The big focus for the majority of people coming in is the nostalgia.

We have large groups of people come in and especially walking through the house, it's, oh, my grandma had this, and my grandpa had this, and oh, I just inherited this from my great aunt and I had no idea what it was.

So that's always a lot of fun.

And then of course you get your ag enthusiasts who walk out to our machine shops and the tractors are a big hit because we still have historically accurate equipment that we're using day to day.

So having the opportunity to see this equipment going out into the field, functioning, our phenomenal agricultural specialist, Chris Dower is amazing at taking care of all these implements that maybe haven't run for 60 to 70 years.

- And now he's using them every day or whenever.

- Yes, and you just come out and, oh look, we just harvested all of our wheat with a 1949 Massey combine, which was pretty cool to see functioning in the field.

- And back in the day, that was state of the art technology.

Now we look at it and go, my gosh, how did they ever get that done using that kind of thing?

But that's what they had.

And I say, as you look at some of the photos and you go out there, you can see here, obviously gardens, lots of raising of vegetables and probably pumpkins, watermelons, all that sort of thing.

As I said, it's a self-sufficient people couldn't just run to a store and buy things as conveniently as we do now.

They raised everything on the farm.

And as you said, canned, put things up, preserves up, made jam, all of those sorts of things.

- Yes, everything that we grow gets utilized or donated to the Brown Bag Food Project.

Friday, we actually surpassed our 2,000 pound of produce donated to the Brown Bag Food Project this year.

- That's really good.

And as you mentioned, there is a, the gentleman you mentioned is actually there working the farm when people show up doing those things that typically would have gone on.

And for a lot of people, it's like, what is he doing?

Oh, well, that's this.

They never, because they didn't know really how things moved from the farm to, for instance, like a grocery store or a meat market, that kind of thing.

- Yeah, and I would say that's one of our biggest connects out on the farm is having kids come in who maybe haven't had a garden or haven't had livestock.

And they come and they see this wheat and they're like, what is this?

And we can walk them through the process all the way to, we have flour that has been made from the wheat grown on the farm that the public can receive if they give a donation and showing these kids, this is the plant, this is the flour, this is the bread, is an amazing connection.

So many of these kids just don't think about.

So that's awesome.

- Yeah, because most people now don't grow up in rural setting or at least on a farm because it used to be every family who lived in the country probably was farming.

So they knew that.

Now farms are bigger.

They're more commercialized, more industrialized because of that's just the way that business works now.

So for people to actually see, oh, this is where that actually comes from is probably pretty incredible.

And you mentioned too the fact that people come in and say, oh, that's what that is because they inherit something.

They go to an antique show or something and say, oh, that looks really cute.

And they don't actually know what it is, but they go, oh, that's what that's for.

I just thought it was a, it looked really cute kind of a thing, but it actually had a function.

And I guess that's the one thing you see there is everything on that farm has a reason to be there.

There's no frills, no just extra luxury items.

Everything there is utilized in some way.

- Yes, probably one of my favorite stories in relation to that is my own dad came to visit and he's always had a bed with a very large headboard and he thought it just looked cool.

Well, we have one and being up in the swamp area, Carter Farm used to be part of the black swamp and through drainage became farmable, but there's still mosquitoes.

So those large headboards exist to be able to put a mosquito net down.

- Is that right?

- Yes.

So even my own father who is, you know, inherited that bed and had no idea that that was the reason that his headboard was so tall.

- And that's one of those things, yeah, it just looked nice.

It's like, that's why it was there.

- [Anna] And you have no idea.

- And it's one of the things too, when you look at the farm, you can see the pictures that we have.

You know, everything is painted red.

You get typical red barn, all the buildings, you got the fences.

I know when we were out there a year ago for this event, you've got chickens out there and the chickens, everything is, you know, they have their fenced in, but they also have things from overhead because obviously once you have livestock, you get chicken hogs, you get predators, you get birds of prey that come in.

And I thought, yeah, that's what you had to do.

And I'd forgotten how much you had to protect the livestock and especially chickens, ducks, things like that from the various predators that are around.

And that's one of the things people probably don't understand too, that those animals are subject to an out in the wild like that are basically available or subject to that sort of thing.

When people come out there, I know we're going to go through some of the events too.

Basically the other part of it is too, you have a schoolhouse out there.

Now it's not right, it's on the same property.

So the little sort of distant from the farm, it's not like right next to the barn.

It's a little bit of a walk, but not terrible.

So how did that take place?

I think the Zimmerman School, is that what it's called?

- The Zimmerman School was previously down Carter Road from the farm.

And it is actually where Sally Carter Loomis attended school.

It shut down, its last school year was the 1923-24 school year, I believe.

- So it's coming up on a hundred years now.

Being for now for basically education in a different way.

- Yes, yes.

And eventually a group of folks got together and decided to revamp it and move it over to be part of the park because we were already utilizing the schoolhouse for our school programs.

So children would come to the farm, they would talk to Sally and then they would go to the schoolhouse.

But now since they're all on the same property, it's easier, it's safer.

And it's just an awesome experience for the kids too.

- Well, good.

When we come back, we can talk more about some of the other events that are going on.

And obviously we want to talk about the Heritage Farm Fest comes up October 7th.

Back in just a moment with Anna Cotterman, historic farm specialist with the Wood County Park District.

Back in just a moment here on The Journal.

Thank you for staying with us on The Journal.

Our guest is Anna Cotterman, historic farm specialist for the Wood County Park District and specifically for Carter Historic Farm, which is located on Carter Road, strangely enough, here in Wood County.

One of the big events, and it's an annual event coming up in the next week or so, is Heritage Farm Fest.

It's October 7th.

So talk about the things that are going to go on there because it really is, it takes you through some of the things we've talked about, but lots of cool events that are going to go on that day specifically.

- Yes.

So our Heritage Farm Fest is October 7th, as you said, 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

The big draw of the event is that it is a free farm to table meal.

Everything that you'll be enjoying at this meal, it has been grown on the farm and associated with the farm.

All of our bratwurst, where our sweet hogs that you saw two months ago on the farm and all of even our cornbread is made with cornmeal and flour from the grains we've grown on the farm.

Yes, so that's free food plus free good, healthy, nutrient-dense food.

But other than that part, there is a lot else going on at Heritage Farm Fest.

As you walk in, you will see a scarecrow contest.

It's our 22nd annual scarecrow contest where different community groups, I know there's Boy Scout troops, there's different businesses signed up and they all meet the Thursday before and make these wonderful scarecrows that you can vote on.

There will also be kids activities, lots of kids games.

We have a pumpkin roll.

- Oh, oh.

- Not the edible version.

The rolling version.

- The rolling, okay.

So just between an edible and a rolling pumpkin.

We're going to learn something today.

Interesting, yeah.

- Yes.

And just a few other farm-related games.

There'll be a egg spoon carry type of activity.

We'll also have fresh pressed cider.

- [Steve] Oh, that'll be interesting.

- Yeah, you can stand there and watch the press.

- Ah, nice.

Which is basically as you described me.

Well, like the pumpkin roll.

Okay, so that's, the kids had to entertain themselves on the farm.

So, okay, we've got pumpkins.

Let's see what happens when you roll them.

That's pretty cool.

That's pretty cool.

- And then there will also be live music throughout the event.

Todd Elson and then also the Tuesday crowd.

They're both local music groups and they'll be out there playing that you can sit and enjoy.

And then my favorite activity is going to be the pie eating contest.

If you think of a historical festival, your first thought is, well, there's got to be an eating contest.

- [Steve] Yes, there always was.

- You have to watch someone enjoy some good food at a fast rate.

So this year I decided to get in contact with some of our community leaders and have them participate and kind of compete.

So of course we have our parks director, Chris Smalley.

The request has been apple pie.

- I was going to ask you if they're allowed to choose their own pie because it would be difficult if you had to eat a pie fast that you really didn't want.

- Yeah, I offered.

Yeah, and apple was the resounding answer overall.

So we have parks director, Chris Smalley.

We'll have museum director, Annette Wells.

I'm excited to see that little competition.

We will also have the Wood County Sheriff.

He will be participating.

Clint Corp from the morning show and the chamber.

I'm very excited to see that one.

And then Farm Bureau president, Amanda Bart, will also be participating.

So trying to bring in those other community groups to the farm that are all tied together.

- Tied into that.

Now, so is everybody going to be eating apple pie or they get to choose the pie they want?

- They are all getting apple pie.

No one told me otherwise.

But so that's our community one.

But we will also have an adult pie eating contest that you can sign up for.

- Oh, good.

- When you get there.

And I know you'll be present.

- [Steve] Okay, all right.

- And a children's pie eating contest.

And those pies will be a little smaller.

But they can all sign up once they arrive at the event and have some good fun.

- Well, that'll be interesting.

Okay, so we've now like covered ourselves with pie.

So now we have to find a way to clean out.

So you go over to the pump with the pump handle and wash yourself.

So yeah, just like the old days.

Yeah, and I know that obviously too, the one thing you see is just walking around and watching what's going on at the farm, besides all these great activities.

That is, as you said earlier, is just sort of entertaining in its own way because, oh, look at that.

What's that?

Oh, I didn't know that's what that was used for.

That's what goes on in there.

Cause I know when we were out there a year ago, the Pharaoh barn is there, the Pharaoh barn, which obviously is used to deal with livestock, with pigs basically.

Now it wasn't active that day, but that's the kind of things that people don't understand where things come from.

And you've talked about the sausage is going to be there, the bratwurst rather.

All of those things grown from things on the farm, raised on the farm.

And so people get an idea of, well, this is how this actually works, which is something a lot of, as you said earlier, a lot of people have forgotten.

They have never experienced, they don't know that, oh, that's where flour comes from, that kind of thing.

So yeah, that's really good.

One of the things now too, while the people are out there too, I believe there's, is there like a wagon tour you can ride around and kind of takes you through things?

- Yes, to get a better picture of the farm, you'll be able to start your wagon tour at kind of the back of the homestead and you'll drive back.

We have a wetland that has been created and partially managed by the parks and the Black Swamp Conservancy.

So you can take that wagon ride and you go all the way back into the wetlands to learn a little bit more about how that works and how it looks.

And then you'll go through our woodlot as well, which is a older growth woodlot that has been undisturbed for several, several years.

And come back and stop at the schoolhouse so you don't have to hike all the way back to the schoolhouse.

- It is a little bit of a walk back there.

- [Anna] It is a little bit of a walk.

- But kids walk to school in those days.

So you kind of, that's part of the experience.

So yeah, yeah.

Well, I think it's interesting because people can see the difference between what the farm looks like now, the land that's actually being farmed and what it was before it was drained.

Because we take for granted now, as we look around Wood County and other places, you know, you've got these big flat fields, obviously great big ditches alongside them.

Sometimes people don't connect that with, oh, this used to be a swamp.

And so you can see the difference, what kind of work it took to make that farmable land versus the way it was when people first began to settle here.

- Yeah, it's an amazing opposites that you're driving through.

- And I think the other thing that's interesting about this too is, people can kind of see as they go through the house, the difference in, you know, the way people lived back then, the type of furniture, electric lamps, gas lamps, candles, whatever.

Again, things we take for granted, running water, not necessarily a given in those situations.

So, it is pretty amazing what you can experience there.

When we come back, we can talk about, because obviously this is one event, you have things going on all year long there and on all of them education, a whole variety of things.

So we can talk a bit about that in just a moment.

We'll be back in just a second here on The Journal.

Our guest is Anna Cotterman, Historic Farm Specialist with the Wood County Park District.

Back in just a moment.

You're with us here on The Journal.

Our guest is Anna Cotterman, Historic Farm Specialist with the Wood County Park District.

Specifically talking about Carter Historic Farm.

October 7th, Heritage Farm Fest, obviously a great annual event, but over the course of the year, there are all kinds of other events that go on.

It isn't just a one-time thing.

It's not just a summer thing.

It's not just a fall thing.

So talk about all the other things that go on during the year, because obviously, lots to see out there every day of the week, every day of the year.

- Yes, yes.

So, immediately after Farm Fest becomes our Heritage Holiday event, where you'll be able to come out and do different crafts and try different foods from the holiday time.

But other than those big events, we have little programs throughout the year.

Every third Wednesday, we have Michelle with Central State come out and she'll talk on subjects like soil fertility, gardening, winter garden care.

And so you can get your monthly dose of what am I doing with my garden?

So she's phenomenal.

We also have programs for the crafty folks.

So we do quite a bit of children's crocheting, teaching knitting for both kids and adults.

We'll start having a, we could call it a wool working circle, where if you want to come crochet, knit, needle felt, whatever it is you do, come on out.

We also do different cooking demonstrations.

So we'll have canning coming up here at the end of November.

And we also partner with the rest of the park district on programs.

The weekend after Octoberfest, someone will be out having some fun with fungi.

- [Steve] Oh boy.

- So some mushrooms through the wood lot, mushrooms in the wetlands, and anything you would like to know about mushroom foraging, Justin from our stewardship department will be going over.

And there are just so many great different opportunities.

- Well, when you mentioned the canning and that sort of thing, of course, the farm that I was familiar with through my grandmother lived, there was a root, they call it the root cellar or the canning cellar.

And you took all the canned goods in those Mason jars and they were all stacked on there because it stayed cool.

There was a uniform temperature pretty much all year down in this sort of underground sort of building.

So those are the kinds of things that people, you know, they go to the store and they pick up something off the shelf.

Well, back in the day, you didn't have refrigeration the way we have it now.

So that was another way that they kept things.

And you see that whole thing from basically picking the tomato off the vine to canning it to then storing it.

So in the winter time you had fresh produce and that's something we don't worry about so much now unless there's, you know, some kind of a shortage or something.

So yeah, those are the kinds of things that people really get an idea of what it was like to live here and where we've come from and why we are the way we are.

That sort of thing.

When you look at other things, and obviously the historic Carter Historic Farm has been there You've got this footprint.

Are there things you think about like, oh, because obviously nothing stays static.

Are there ideas floating around about, okay, this is something we should think about adding or maybe this part of the farm, we can sort of make downplay it a little bit.

This isn't something else we need to bring in because obviously you want to keep things fresh out there.

So what are the thoughts about that?

- Well, some of our thoughts for the future is bringing in a little bit more of the cultures of the time.

So played around with different monthly events like barn dances or movies that were released during the time, bringing in more than just the agricultural aspect, which is also tied into food.

- Right, yeah.

Well, that's a good point because obviously people, you'd mentioned dancing, square dancing around all those sorts of things.

That's what people did once there was a little time.

And obviously if anybody who knows, if you worked on a farm, even today, there's not a lot of downtime.

There is always something going on.

And so, especially back then when literally you lived, every day producing something, working on something, you still found some time for entertainment and those cultural things, like you mentioned, the knitting, crocheting, people made their own clothes.

We don't do that so much anymore.

It's now, as you said, more of a craft than a hobby versus a, this is how we subsist.

We're going to make our own dresses, our own pants, our own shirts, that kind of thing.

So, and possibly from the sheep that were raised on the farm, the wool, which people still, obviously, that's a huge industry, the yarn industry.

But, and if you go to those kinds of shows, you see people have pictures of the sheep.

Okay, this is the yarn from this particular kind of sheep.

So it does kind of take us back and touch base with the way we live now and what it was like to live back then.

So it's really interesting.

When you look at the Farm Fest every year, are there things you talk about doing that are always going to be there?

Like, I don't, you know, probably the pumpkin rolls, probably a go-to every year.

Are there other things that people come up with?

Again, these cultural kind of things you're talking about.

- Well, right now, this is really only our third year of it being a massive Farm Fest.

I mean, things we'll always keep will be the wagon rides, the food, the games.

We're always adjusting what music we have playing, what opportunities could be tied to that.

It's really just a really awesome growing project and we grow in numbers every year as well.

So I guess just keep your eyes open for next year.

there's always going to be something new, something surprising.

And again, as you mentioned earlier, it's going to be like, oh, so that's what that is.

I always wondered what that was for, or I didn't know that's how that worked and that kind of thing.

Cause obviously there's probably a well out there, but with this back in the day, 'cause there wasn't running water.

And of course a lot of people still do have wells, but a farm that's where there were windmills.

They weren't there to generate electricity.

They were to pump water.

So you had water, if you had running water to some degree, that's where it came from.

It came from a well with a windmill, that kind of thing.

So yeah, really good.

So once again, that event is on October 7th.

And I know that when people drive out there, you're on Carter Road, but parking is actually off of Simmons Road, which is so basically you're at the corner of Simmons and Carter.

If people have an idea of how to get there, it's really kind of easy.

But it does take you back in time.

So yeah, anything else, anything we haven't talked about you want to add?

- So Carter Historic Farm is not the only park in your Wood County Park system.

We have several parks, which means we have several opportunities to go out in your parks and learn new things.

Our programs department works very hard to provide a variety of activities.

We have a birds and coffee activity.

We have kayaking.

We even have rock climbing out at Sawyer Quarry.

And if you're interested in any of those things, there is a newspaper called the Oak Leaf, and you'll find that any of your park districts, and that will have listed all of your programs.

You can also find us at wcparks.org or follow us on Facebook.

Carter Historic Farm has our own Facebook and you'll see the weekly updates.

You'll also have what is it Wednesday?

Well, you'll have that opportunity to not even visit the farm and go, what is that?

- What is that?

- What is that?

And then you'll get an answer.

- Not bad, not bad.

Well, and just, and this has now passed, but just within a few days of us of talking about this on the show, there was the native plant sale up, I think Cedar Creek.

And it was really interesting to see all of the different plants, things like, oh, I didn't know that was a native to the area because we've gotten used to planting just different things, but some of those plants, they were here for a reason.

They actually do a lot of good to go back to native plants.

They're more sustainable.

They don't use as much water.

They're adapted to the environment versus things we may try to force into our landscape.

So that was kind of neat.

And all the people that were there, there were volunteers, there were park district people, all very informative, answering your questions, say, okay, here's where you want to plant this.

Don't put it in direct sun, put it over here.

Here's the amount of water, those kinds of things.

So just something as simple as planting plants is part of the whole experience with Wood County Park.

So yeah, as you said, multiple places to go with all kinds of different activities.

So just a great thing.

So Anna, thank you so much for being on.

Good luck with Heritage Farm Fest this year.

And yeah, thank you so much for coming on and giving us all this great information.

- Thank you again for having me.

- Good, you can check us out at wbgu.org.

You can watch us every Thursday night at 8:00 p.m. on WBGU PBS.

We will see you again next time.

Good night and good luck.

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