Do People Still Celebrate the Harvest in the 21st Century?

This is a light-hearted look at autumn present from a light-hearted guy.

I hope you enjoy it - - - - 

Hmmm...well...do people still celebrate the 

harvest in the 21st century?

Let me look into the future...

I love the fall. That should be no secret to anyone who knows me or reads Passion for the Past. And I get to celebrate this wonderful season of the year in three different periods in time:
~in the colonial era of the 1760s where I spend time at an actual 18th century house (or three!) and even help to make colonial ale...and learn a bit about a 1760s kitchen garden...
~in the 1860s, where the Civil War group I belong to puts on a fall Harvest Home presentation, doing our best to replicate some of the fall activities the folks of 150 years ago would have done...
~~and here in our modern time of 2018 by taking part in family traditions of a corn roast, heading to the cider mill for apple picking, cider & doughnuts, and I also have a candle dipping party.
Since I've already posted about my time in the 1760s HERE, as well as my time in the 1860s HERE, how about I elaborate more on how I celebrate the fall in the 21st century.

Let's begin with a long-held family tradition of our corn roast.
My father began this Labor Day Weekend event back in, I believe, 1973. I'm not quite sure why - - maybe because his father, who was a farmer for many years, taught him the value of the harvest time of year.
Maybe it was a way to gather friends and family together for one last summer blast.
Or maybe because he simply wanted to.
No matter the reason, for we have been carrying on the tradition ever since; it was passed onto my brother after my father passed away, and now my brother's kids have taken it over since my brother passed away a few years back. But we all join in, my other siblings and I, and still enjoy this last blast of summer over Labor Day Weekend, even though the weather might already have a nip in the air.

If you look closely, you can see three rather large plastic kiddie swimming pools filled with corn soaking in water. Yeah...25 dozen ear of corn right here, and they are soaked over night and all the following day, for that brings out the juiciness of the corn like little else.

This is my brother's son-in-law, who has taken his
father-in-law's corn roasting technique to heart.

The first batch is almost ready.

While the corn is a-roasting, games are played, such as the bean-bag toss and horse shoes.

Sometimes guitars are brought out and the great baby-boomer songs of our youth are played, such as tunes by The Beatles, Crosby-Stills-and Nash, Neil Young, and even a few newer songs that our kids want to play and hear.

This will occur while sitting around the bonfire.

The corn?

Why, the look on my daughter's face should
tell you all you want to know on how good the corn is!

You know, maybe without fully realizing it, everyone who participated in our family gathering here was celebrating the harvest!

Within two or three weeks of the corn roast, my wife & offspring & I will spend the day heading out to one of a multitude of cider mills in our general area to go apple picking. Now, I used to do this with my parents back when I was a wee lad, and then when Patty and I started dating, this is one of the things we really enjoyed doing together.
It continued after we married and had kids.
And now, our grandkids join us in this tradition!

Apples! Glorious apples!
My favorite fruit!
We go to a no frills cider mill called Ross's Stoney Creek, where we can pick our own apples right off the tree.

We get a tractor ride out to the orchard, sitting upon
the bales of hay. That's my daughter-in-law you see
holding my youngest grandchild.

The trees were saturated with apples, and you can see my oldest grandchild was able to pick his own growing on the lower branches.

But he likes to have his uncle lift him up to snatch
those growing a bit higher.

And there's my middle grandchild, and she is so proud
at picking her apple off of the tree!

Uncle Rob gave his niece a chance to grab the apples
on the higher branches like her older brother.

Here's the bushel we picked.
We usually choose the McIntosh variety (which is
actually from the late 1700s - one of the few heirloom
apple varieties to remain popular into its third century).

Many do not realize that some of the things we consider to be a fun outing was once a necessity.
For our ancestors, gathering apples for cider and drying was a necessity.

Ha! Here I am!
Now before you think I am totally off my rocker and dressed in my period clothing to pick apples, look a little closer. I brought along my 1760s waistcoat, coat, and hat and threw them on over my modern clothes after we had finished picking so I could catch a few pictures for period blog posts. A little bit of Paint Shop Pro photo program allowed me to complete the bottom half of my outfit.
Yeah...pretty sneaky of me, innit?

The orchard also grows raspberries for the picking
as well, so we stopped along that patch.

Here are a few of my family members in the raspberry patch, probably eating as many as what they are putting into the basket! 

I very much enjoy the fact that we do these things as a family,
and that our kids (and grandkids) are taking part in
our long-held traditions.

Of course, what would a visit to a cider mill and orchard be without doughnuts and cider, both freshly made right there on the premises?

Remember the bushel of apples a few photos back?
Well here are a about a dozen and a half of 'em, baking in a pie.

Well, now, onto the next fall tradition: candle making, which was another necessity of our ancestors rather than the crafty fun we make it out to be today. I've been told by the chandlers at Colonial Williamsburg that the average home during colonial times would go through 500 to 700 candles a year. Of course, larger more well-to-do homes would go through two or three times that many, while poorer folk and frontier families would go through much less.

Here's my daughter at age seven dipping candles 

at the 1760 Daggett Saltbox Farm House.

She began living history early in her life.

One of my favorite memories is of my now nearly 18 year old daughter dipping candles at Greenfield Village when she was a tiny tot. She would dip them in the late summer and then we'd let them 'cure' for a couple months, until the holidays would roll around. We would burn them during our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, and that always made her feel pretty special, knowing it was her candles that were supplying us with our atmospheric light.
Unfortunately, due to as many different reasons as people you can speak to, the Village stopped this popular attraction (and it was popular, for there were lines of folk - both young and old - lined up to dip most of the day).
So...I took it upon myself to begin dipping candles at our 1860s harvest reenactments, and that drew quite a few visitors. Plus I got a whole lotta candles!
But I didn't stop there - I took it a step further and began to have candle dipping parties at my own home, and I invited *mostly* friends who had never done this before.
Now it has become a new fall family tradition, for it was in the autumn of the year that our ancestors would usually make their candles, normally from either beeswax (which is what I use) or tallow (fat from meat, which I have not done as of this writing).
Here are a few photos taken at this year's candle-making gathering, where, like in the old days, family and friends gather together to help each other with chores, all the while enjoying each other's company:

I do not have a large back yard, but it does have enough room where I can safely use my fire pit and wrought iron cookware and utensils to help give it that old-time feel, for doing such a chore over the stove inside my modern kitchen would not be nearly as fun or as fall-feeling.

I had plenty of pure beeswax on hand - some purchased and other blocks 
given to me - to make a decent amount of candles

Watching the wax melt...

These two ladies have both dipped before, but wanted
to join in the fun again this year.

My wife did not want to dip this year, but she did prepare
one of my two candle molds...and also made lunch for everyone.

You can tell by our clothing that this was a cool fall day, perfect for our little craft.

Only the beginning...
That's my son and myself in the picture with friend Charlotte.

I believe this was Rob's second of around 25 dips.

I concentrated on the molds, for it was easier!

I had just poured the wax into the larger mold while
the wax in the smaller mold was already drying.

Jenny is a teacher at the same high school where I work.
Oh, if I only had such cool teachers when I went to school!

They are almost, but not quite, candles.

Meanwhile, the wax in my molds continue to harden in the cool
autumn air.

Yes, I even dipped as well, though the wax in the pot was too hot and actually melted the wax off my wicking rather than add layers.

As you can see, by the end of the afternoon we had dipped quite a few candles. I gave each 'dipper' one to take home for their hard work.

Some of my candles I hang on my sconces.

Others put into my tin candle box.

While others go into the wood pipe holder
that I now use as a candle holder.

Oh!
And the candles from my molds?

Here they are! These are the candles made from the molds I poured the day before. To remove them from the molds, I put the entire mold into a pot of boiling water and most slid out like melted butter. Unfortunately, two did not come out (the wicking did but the candles remained in the tubes) - - but the rest turned out beautiful!

One of the questions a am frequently asked is how they got the candles out of the mold once they hardened, for the 21st century candle maker seems to prefer to use a spray, which was something not yet available back in the olden days. The secret used to pulling candles out of the mold was to dip the mold with the hardened wax into a vat of boiling water for only a few seconds, and then the candles will slide out like melted butter.
I know this to be true, because I do my own candles in this manner, and it works wonderfully.
I actually learned this from the book by author Laura Ingalls Wilder called "Farmer Boy."
Yep - - our ancestors were right-smart people!

It's been a pretty wet autumn and I have had little time to walk around taking pictures of fall trees like I really enjoy doing. But in my own backyard we have an oak tree - - 

Fall. Autumn.
The oak tree in our yard. It was pretty much a twig when
we got it on Arbor Day at Greenfield Village quite a few years 
ago, and here it sits today, where we enjoy it throughout the 
year...but especially in autumn.

You bet they still celebrate
the harvest, in the 21st
century, Boney Maroney!

So there you have it. 

This posting may not be historical in the strictest sense, but it does promote tradition, which, in this case, is based on history in itself. And keeping tradition is what I am all about, especially if the roots are deep.
Much of our nostalgia tends to make itself known this time of year as well, for it truly is a 'wooden' time of year, isn't it?
And if the good Lord's willing and the creek don't rise, I plan to continue on in this manner...
So, I suppose the answer to the question on whether or not folks still celebrate the harvest in the 21st century would be a resounding yes! Oh, maybe not exactly in the same way or same frame of mind as our ancestors did, but with the same spirit!

Until next time, see you in time.

To read about 18th and 19th century harvest time activities, please click HERE
To read about reenacting a Victorian harvest, please click HERE
To read about the history of apples in North America, click HERE
To read about historical lighting from the 18th and 19th centuries, please click HERE
To read about lighting in colonial times, please click HERE
To read about a year in the life on a colonial farm, please click HERE
To read about having nostalgic feelings for a time you've never lived in, please click HERE

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