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A Year on the Field
A Year on the Field

A Year On The Field
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The Potato Year at Firestone Farm, Michigan, USA
At the 1885 Firestone Farm, two varieties of heirloom potatoes are grown each year. They are Early Ohio, an all-purpose potato, and...
Nov 15, 2024


ESTONIANS – A POTATO NATION?
When the expression "potato – our second bread" became an idiom in a language of people who had valued rye bread for a thousand years –...
Oct 8, 2024


About the Exchange Place Living History Farm and Their Potato Harvest
Exchange Place Living History Farm is located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Northeast Tennessee. Once a robust,...
Sep 11, 2024


News from Auenhof Pabstthum: maintaining and weeding the potato cultures
On the 6th of April so approximately two weeks after planting the potatoes, the team from Auenhof Pabstthum began to harrow the ridges...
Jun 21, 2024


The Lumper and the Famine
Several contributions to pre-famine Irish economic history have drawn attention to the apparent contrast between the abject poverty of the
May 31, 2024


Introducing our growers: Luisenhof - Farm Community Linden & Kelleners (GER)
Along with their friend Daniel Linden, Frank Kelleners and his son Maximilian run a small self-sufficient farm with horses. The farm is...
May 17, 2024


From farm to fork: about the history of potatoes in Sweden
The potato has played a very important role in Sweden over the last two centuries. Initially, they were used as an emergency food and for...
May 3, 2024


Hackles and other Flax Processing equipment in The Henry Ford Collections
Hackles and other flax processing equipment remind us of the constant labor needed to turn an agricultural crop – flax – into raw...
Oct 27, 2023


Flax to linen at the Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation
Background The Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation (CPP) is a living history museum interpreting the lives of English colonists living in...
Feb 17, 2023


Grain Harvesting Technology at The Henry Ford, Dearborn, Michigan, USA
Museum collections contain material culture documenting grain harvesting tools and equipment. The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan, USA,...
Jan 20, 2023


Wheat Harvest and Reaper Technology at Firestone Farm in Greenfield Village at The Henry Ford (USA)
Lazy days of summer start for some farmers only after they finish the most stressful time of their year – grain harvest. Wheat ripeness...
Nov 10, 2022


The harvest by painters
Benjamin Ulmann. Entering sheep in the mobile pen for manuring the land. Photo: Georges Carantino The harvest, a moment of strong...
Nov 7, 2022


Looking back - a wheat cultivation cycle at Sterling College (Wendell Berry Farming Program, USA)
As our wheat crop ripens through to the flint stage, it is time to sharpen our sickles and prepare for the harvest. Most (nearly all) of...
Jul 1, 2022


Beehive Art in Slovenia - an unexpected insight in 19th century agricultural practice
To conclude our coverage of wheat sowing, we would like to present a very special exhibit from the Slovene Ethnographic Museum (SEM) that...
Jun 15, 2022


Equipment in focus: the Bickford & Huffman Grain Drill (ca. 1890), The Henry Ford (USA)
As an official grower with the “A Year on the Field” project, staff at the Firestone Farm in Greenfield Village (The Henry Ford, Dearborn...
Jun 8, 2022


Wheat sowing at Barrington Plantation State Historic Site (Texas, USA)
On a cloudy Oct 10th 2021, the staff at Barrington Plantation State Historic Site (focusing on the American South in the 1840-50s; see...
May 18, 2022


Wheat sowing at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky (USA)
Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, is a landmark destination that shares 3,000 acres (1214 hectares) of discovery...
Apr 20, 2022


Wheat breeding - a contested practice
Growing grain and breeding grain were for a long time inseparable activities. Until the end of the 19th century, grain producers were...
Mar 23, 2022


Soil preparation at the Wendell Berry Farming Program, Kentucky (USA)
In Henry County, Kentucky, the Wendell Berry Farming Program of Sterling College offers a farming curriculum focused on ecological...
Feb 16, 2022


WHEAT: A Miscellany of Memories
I am writing from the Highlands of Scotland, where, unlike oats and barley, owing to the environment, climate, and local farming...
Feb 9, 2022
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