I am a part time volunteer at the Carrol County Farm Museum as a spinster and weaver and really enjoy the Historian and Education Director there, Pat. She is a master gardner and told me about a plant and herb market going on yesterday and today up in Lancaster, PA. Mark was out of town yesterday, so I waited for him to come home for a road trip today. Lancaster is only about an hour and a half which is really not bad at all, besides, it is a beautiful drive through mostly rural farmland. We got up early and hit the road heading North.
The plant faire was held at the Landis Valley Museum which is a wonderful Living history farm complete with animals and buildings, artisans, and an extensive garden collection. Every year they have this herb and flower show with all kinds of vendors and it was very well attended, that's for sure. There was a small admission fee, but we more than saved enough on the plants we bought to pay for admission!
We spent several hours at the market looking through the various plants that we were considering for our gardens at home. I got quite a few varieties of plants for the front yard gardens as well as 8 German Bearded Iris plants of very unusual color and types for a new garden area that I'm planning just for them off to the side of one of the existing garden. These and the Siberian Iris are my absolutely favorite flowers and I've had Bearded Iris' as long as I've owned any land to put them in but hadn't had any since moving into this house so it was time! We also got some herbs to go in the deck planters for cooking and drying. The selection was incredible and the prices fantastic.
We also walked around and looked at the animals, the buildings, and of course, you know I had to take a picture of the sheep. There were all kinds of babies and I think some of them were Tunis sheep, they came over to the fence and got their ears and faces scratched. Tunis are very friendly with red faces and just slightly oatmeal tinged white colored wool.
Then we went to the PA Fabric outlet and believe it or not, all I bought, even with a 50% off coupon was a roll of hem tape for my period dresses for 99 cents! Mark took a shortcut and we happened upon a junk shop that we stopped at that was across from this field, one of many being plowed today with horses by Amish and Mennonite farmers. We ended up, quite accidentally, in Intercourse. 
Now, anyone that knows anything about quilts and fabric and Pennsylvania knows that Intercourse is a very dangerous place for a person as addicted to fabric as I am. We stopped and looked around and found some beautiful reproduction Civil War fabrics at The Old Country Store Right on Main street, and after noticing the good prices compared to my usual Gettysburg shop, I got a bit. We saw these kids in the back of an Amish buggy right outside the fabric shop in the middle of town. We just happened upon and had supper at a family style place called Stoltzfus Family Farm which is not too far outside Lancaster near Bird In Hand. It was great! Then it was off to home to plant as many of our new plants as we could before the storm that was brewing came to our neighborhood.
No comments:
Post a Comment