NEWS
MAY 1st, 2011
Spring has sprung! The grass is green, the weather's warm, and the weeds are up! Kitchen Garden volunteers are invited to join us every Wednesday, 12:00pm-2:00pm and Saturday, 1:00pm-3:00pm to help one of the Museum's costumed interpreters work in the garden. Experience isn't necessary and tools will be provided. Visit our Volunteer page for more information about becoming a volunteer. Be sure to mark your calendars for the 5th Annual Rhode Island Wool & Fiber Festival hosted by Coggeshall Farm Museum on May 21st. Fiber vendors, demonstrators, and enthusiasts from across the northeast will gather to celebrate all things fiber! Watch our sheep get hand shorn and help with 18th century textile and farm work. We hope to see you there!
Justin L. Squizzero
Director of Historic Interpretation
APRIL 1st, 2011
Spring's supposedly right around the corner, which means the beginning of another growing season on the farm. Join us for our April School Vacation Day on April 20th for Breakfast in the Barnyard and special hands-on activities for the whole family all day long. in anticipation of the warm weather, we've updated our directions for those visiting us using alternative transportation. Take advantage of Rhode Island's incredible public transportation system and ride the #60 Bus to Poppasquash Road. The #60 Bus links Providence and Newport and has stops just over a mile from the museum entrance. The East Bay Bike Path hugs Narragansett Bay as it connects Providence to Bristol. Hop on a bicycle and pedal your way to Colt State Park and enjoy the sights and sounds of salt marsh, woods, and wildlife. Both are environmentally friendly ways to get around and truly make getting to Coggeshall Farm Museum half the fun. We've also added additional Historic Foodways & Hearth Cooking Workshop dates throughout the summer which can be found on our Calendar pages. Space is limited, so book early to avoid disappointment. Visit the museum and bid a last farewell to Winter and welcome in the Spring!
Justin L. Squizzero
Director of Historic Interpretation
FEBRUARY 1st, 2011
Winter continues to make itself known here at the farm. The snows are piling up, the ground is still frozen, and we're still here keeping the place humming with activity. We've added a new homepage to this web site where you can find essentials about the museum at a glance. Our Multimedia page under "The Museum" tab now features slide shows of photos. New videos have been added to our Press page highlighting some of our recent media coverage. Our Calendar page is chock full of programs and events for the coming year, and is regularly expanding, so check back often. We'll be holding a February School Vacation Day for the first time this year with a winter version of Breakfast in the Barnyard and special programs for kids and their families throughout the day. Hearth Cooking Workshops are scheduled through March and space is still available! Come to the museum, visit the animals, build a snowman, warm up by a fire, and enjoy the pleasures of the season the way people did two centuries ago. We hope to see you here,
Justin L. Squizzero
Director of Historic Interpretation
NOVEMBER 24th, 2010
It's been a busy fall here on the farm. Be sure not to miss our last Breakfast in the Barnyard program this Saturday, November 27th at 8:00am. Also coming up are several new events and some old favorites. On December 4th and 5th we'll be holding our annual Christmas Sale. Come and make your own wreath, play 18th century games, help with winter chores around the farm, and bring home one of our hand cut Fraser Firs.
We'll be holding our first School Vacation Day on December 29th. Come early to help with the chores for a special winter Breakfast in the Barnyard, then spend the day helping the farmers with additional hands-on 18th century farm work. We're saving up lots of early winter chores for kids and their families so dress warmly and prepare to get your hands dirty.
We've added some new features to the Learn Online page with much more to come, and our 2011 Calendar is now online, so check back often for more details about these events, programs, workshops, and more. We hope to see you at the farm soon,
Justin L. Squizzero
Director of Historic Interpretation
AUGUST 1st, 2010
The eighth month has begun and we've got a lot planned here at the farm. Join us every Saturday morning this month for Breakfast in the Barnyard, a new program featuring our unique heritage livestock! The animals at Coggeshall Farm Museum are one of the most popular parts of our exhibit, but did you know that these aren't your ordinary barnyard critters? Learn about “barndoor fowl”, phenotype breeding, and the different ways that New Englanders have thought about and used animals over the past 200 years. This program runs from 8:00am-9:30am and gives you, our visitors, the chance to get a behind-the-scenes look at the morning chores at the museum. Meet, feed, and brush your favorite animals and our best furred, feathered, and bristled interpreters. For more information, please visit our Special Events Calendar here on the web site.
Also new this month is the first of our Foodways Workshops. Here at the farm we're all about asking food questions- Where does it comes from? Who produces it? How is it prepared? Food, or “foodways” as we call it in the museum field, is the core thread that unites every aspect of the farm museum. These workshops will give you the opportunity to ask those questions while discovering the answers and tasting the results! Focusing on local food, the workshops begin in our Kitchen Garden where participants will harvest our heirloom produce. Returning to the farmhouse, we'll turn that produce into dinner at the hearth using Amelia Simmons' American Cookery, the first cookbook written by an American author for an American audience. Ms. Simmons published her cookbook in 1796, making it a staple for our foodways program. The evening will finish off by enjoying our farm raised dinner by candlelight in the farmhouse. More information about our Historic Foodways Workshops can be found on the web site under the Workshop Calendar. We hope to see you there!
Coggeshall Farm Museum is also starting to develop a regular presence off the museum grounds. Visit us on Friday afternoons from 2:00pm-6:00pm at the Colt State Park Farmer's Market. Our offerings tend to be small, just enough to fill a basket that we carry by foot from the farm, so come early! This is a great market with lots of variety and wonderful farmers, bakers, and fishermen. I will personally attest to having purchased some of the best peaches I've ever eaten at this market, and sorry Georgia, they were grown in Rhode Island! One stop shopping while supporting your neighbors, what's better than that?
As always there are plenty of volunteer opportunities at the museum, especially as we gear up for our annual Harvest Fair fundraiser in September. Please visit the Volunteer page under Join and Support on the web site and fill out a volunteer application so we can help you get the most out of your experience at the farm.
We hope that as the summer winds to an end that you'll make a trip to Coggeshall Farm Museum. Looking forward to another month of sun!
Justin L. Squizzero
Director of Historic Interpretation
JUNE, 2010
Welcome to Coggeshall Farm Museum's new web site! Knowing that so many people access our museum through the internet, we've redesigned our web presence to be user friendly and to hopefully capture a little of the museum's flavor. We hope that you find the new site easy to navigate and enjoy. Please visit our Calendar page for an updated schedule of special events and workshops, and check back as we expand and update our web exclusive features. We hope to see you at the museum soon,
Justin L. Squizzero
Director of Historic Interpretation |
