The Wilder Homestead Heritage Gardens Part 2

Beyond the kitchen gardens at the Wilder Homestead, we toured other productive areas of the farm which provided food for the Wilder family.

 The Wilder's grew apple trees. They also had Maple trees for maple syrup and sugar production. 

The pumpkin patch provided an ample supple of pumpkins for the winter.

 

We were shown the trap door to the cellar where much of the harvest was stored for the winter. The trap door was hidden on the farm porch floor. You can see a bit of the porch in the photo below.

 Behind the house in the barn, the Wilder family had a huge area to store hay for their livestock, as well as a threshing room where grain would have been threshed. The Wilder's kept chickens, sheep, pigs, cows and oxen and of, course, Morgan horses as fans of the book will well remember.

 

Onions, herbs and vegetables grew in the kitchen garden.

In the photo below you see hops growing which would have been used to make beer. Our guide told us this year's hops were no where near as tall as those they have grown in the past.

 Blueberry bushes offer a treat to visiting children. Children of today love blueberries as much as the children of the 1800s!

We saw this field on our way to the Trout River where the Wilder's fished.

 From here we followed a path through the woods to Trout River, walking in the steps of the family who once lived and farmed here.

 

And then with regret, it was time to leave. We drove away down a peaceful country road as the sun lowered in the sky and the museum closed up for the day.

 We'd had a wonderful day at the Wilder Homestead. It's my hope we will be able to visit again someday.

Next up...Lake Placid New York