Waterloo's Pioneer Day Harvest Festival: Celebrating Agriculture and Traditions of Days Gone By

Interest in fall harvest traditions from the past are thriving~

This just might be my favorite event of the year.
But then there is the 4th of July at Mill Race Village...
Hmmm...

I've noticed an upsurge of reenactments in the  "brrr"  months.  In fact,  for the past decade or so I've found myself busier in Septembrrr,  Octobrrr,  Novembrrr,  and sometimes even Decembrrr than any other time of the year.  I was recently asked my opinion on why these months are getting busier in living history than in previous years,  for it was not long ago that reenactments in these parts generally ended by Labor Day.   Well,  with the popularity in fall activities such as visiting the cider mill,  pumpkin farms,  autumn festivals,  and roadside farmers markets growing,  I believe interest in historical daily harvest life of the past has also grown greatly,  and more people are enjoying and so excited about the autumn time of year evermoreso than any other time that I can recall.  Just look at your Facebook feed - I don't know about you but mine is filled with friends celebrating fall with joy and excitement,  perhaps due to  (usually)  cooler  temperatures and,  of course,  fall colors.  I also feel we,  as civilian living historians,  have a lot more to offer this time of year than what had been done decades ago.  And reenacting/living history civilians have expanded greatly from prancing ladies in foo foo dresses and men in top hats to women & men showing some of the more dirtier jobs of the farmer,  the baker,  the woodworker,  the blacksmith,  the lumberman,  and increasingly others.  And they're not afraid to get their period clothing a bit dirty.

It's not yer Daddy's reenactment!

Here...lemme show you:

The cabin we call  "home"~~

Earlier in the week we were not quite sure just how this day was going to be,  for a few of our core Cabin Crew members were not able to take part,  and Patty and I prepared to go it alone.

Well,  we were doubly blessed,  for not only was Charlotte able to come out  (Whew!  Yay!),  but so did a long-time friend...one who I've not seen in over a decade,  Tonya Hunter..

The Pioneer Day Colonial group - minus two  (sorry Tom & Tony):
Jim Hunt,  Patty  (my wife),  Charlotte Bauer,  Brian Dewey,  Tonya Hunter,  and myself.

I've known Tonya for about twenty years,  back in the Civil War Michigan Soldiers Aid Society  (MSAS)  days.  She has always been a top-notch living historian,  and did an amazing job sewing her own clothing and participating in the scenarios,  such as our mourning scenario  (click HERE to see our 1860s mourning at Waterloo Farm House from way back when---2008).

Life happens and Tonya took a break,  but with a bit of cajoling from myself and Brian Dewey,  we got her to come out with us,  only instead of the 1860s,  she joined us as a colonial woman...

Here is my display inside the cabin:  heirloom apples on the left and the flour-making quern on the right.  The heirloom apples  (sometimes referred to as  "antique apples") were Roxbury Russet,  Snow,  Ribston Pippin,  and a few other old varieties.

As you may know,  normally we'll have the cabin to ourselves.  But volunteering at Pioneer Day is one of our ways of thanking the Waterloo Farm Museum for allowing us to utilize that cabin in the way we do  (see links at the botton of this post),  which means we are displaying and presenting as the historians we are.

Charlotte brought along fresh-picked apples to hand out to the children who came through.
There certainly were plenty of kids and their parents who visited!

Patty gave the cabin a good sweeping before the event began.
To the left we see a recent acquisition of mine:  a replication of a T-handle shovel/spade made for me by Jymn Hoffman at Hoffman Forge.

Charlotte:
"Now just where is that Ken?
He has to make the flour!"

Here is my friend Theresa who lives in the middle of Michigan's farm country.  She not only harvested wheat in the traditional manner,  using a sickle,  but she dressed in period clothing to do so.

The sheaves of wheat harvested by Theresa awaits their fate:  to be threshed,  winnowed,  then ground into flour.
The sun would soon burn through the fog and clouds to make for a bright autumn day.

Brian liked the new shovel/spade that I recently acquired.
In fact,  he became a model for it - he is like our American Eagle model!

Wheat harvest...

Before the names  "fall"  and  "autumn"  became common,  the season between summer and winter was simply called  "harvest".   This was because it was the time of year when most crops were gathered,  or  "harvested". 

Back in the day,  most threshing of wheat would have been done inside the barn on the floor.  But seeing as we have no barn,  I do it by laying out a canvas tarp,  putting the wheat on it,  then cover it up to keep the edible grain from flying all over the place with each whack of the flail.

You can see Tonya demonstrating the next step:  winnowing.

Myself and Tonya threshing and winnowing - a scene out of the past.

Tonya also threshed.

Gathering the wheat berries that were recently threshed.

Interested visitors were a constant flow.
Pioneer Day is always very busy.

After threshing and winnowing comes grinding the wheat berries/grain into flour.
In this photo you can see the wheat berries in the bowl on the right.  And there on the left we have a bowl filled with the new ground flour.  

Tony gave me a helping hand to pour some of the flour back into the quern to make it a finer grade.  The more you grind it,  the finer it becomes.
I love how interested the kids were.
See?  Kids can  like history---it just needs to be presented/taught the right way!

According to my own research,  "Quern history spans millennia,  from Neolithic times to the more efficient Iron Age rotary querns.  These hand-operated stone tools were crucial for grinding grain into flour,  a process necessary for making grains nutritionally accessible.  

Querns were a common household item in ancient societies and continued to be used in some parts of the world even after the introduction of mechanized mills." 

In the 18th century,  querns were still in use,  primarily in rural homes or out on the frontier for grinding small quantities of grain and other ingredients like spices for home consumption,  as seen in household inventories and historical records from that period.  While larger,  industrial milling technology was replacing querns for commercial use,  the hand-powered,  domestic rotary quern remained a common household item.  

Some people,  like the 18th-century English pamphleteer William Cobbett,  argued that hand-ground flour was of better quality and was free of adulteration.

By the way,  many asked me what kind od stones these grinding stones were and I found out they are sandstone.

I also spoke a bit about gristmills,  where larger amounts of flour could be made quicker and easier...but there was still the preparation beforehand.  Historically,  wheat grain would have still been threshed and then winnowed by the farmer,  just as we did here,  before being taken to a gristmill for grinding.  These steps were essential to separate the edible grain from the inedible chaff and other debris,  whether gristmill or the handmill/quern. 

Here is the Loranger Gristmill and how it may have looked in its original Monroe,  Michigan location.  
A gristmill's output depended heavily on its size and type,  but a large,  powerful mill could produce several hundred pounds of flour in an hour.  Smaller mills designed for local farmers had a much lower capacity. 

Meanwhile...

Charlotte rolling out dough for an apple pie.

I find it interesting that even everyday tasks still done in our modern day
will be more interesting when it is done by someone wearing period clothing, 
as done here by Charlotte.

Charlotte's delicious apple pie was almost ready for the hearth!

Menial task?
I should say not!

In our modern day,  grabbing a quick bite means little;  running up to the McDonalds drive thru or throwing a frozen dinner into the microwave.  In the 1770s,  grabbing a quick bite was perhaps an apple.  But homemaking/homecooking was at the top of the 18th century list of importance.

Menial task...ha!

The fire blazing in the hearth,  soon to be coals,  then the pie can be baked in the Dutch oven.

And there,  in the Dutch Oven in front,  we have the pie baking.

My wife,  Patty,  spun wool on the cabin porch.
She very much enjoys this craft/chore.  Unfortunately,  her wheel was giving her issues and she did not have the tools to take care of the situation with her so she had to stop.  Luckily,  that happened more than halfway through the day.

She also had a consistant flow of interested visitors watching and asking questions.

At times Chalotte would step up to the plate and present flour making and apple history---thank you Charlotte!

During each of our presentations,  we would encourage our visitors - adults and children - to give our jobs a try and experience the past:  take a turn at the quern,  thresh wheat with a flail,  perhaps card wool with carding paddles...these are the things people won't forget,  and may even guide them onto a straighter historical path.

It was later in the afternoon that Patty and I went out to the kitchen garden to harvest whatever was left of our yield.  

I was pretty excited,  for today was the day I got to harvest our pumpkins that I planted back in late May  (May 26,  to be exact).

This was the date when Patty and I donned our 1770s farm clothes and ventured back to Waterloo to weed and do some more planting at the cabin.  

In particular for me,  pumpkin planting.

I planted pumpkins along the edge of the garden.by seed.

I recall it was a pretty hot day in May,  but this autumn Pioneer Day was on my mind.

In the 18th century,  pumpkins were called pompions.  The term  "pumpkin"  evolved from the older stated  "pompion"  as American vernacular developed,  but  "pompion"  was the common term in both British and American usage during that period. 

As pumpkins turned into holiday decorations instead of food,  Americans largely forgot how to eat them.  Save for the occasional pumpkin pie  (which these days mostly comes from store-bought processed pie filling in a can),  the fruit wasn’t seen much on dining tables other than as the popular fall and Hallowe'en decoration.  But recent years have seen a modest pumpkin revival.  

Pumpkin pie originated in the early 17th century,  but the original pumpkin pie was not as neat and aesthetically pleasing as the modern pumpkin pie.  The first pumpkin pies were hollowed-out pumpkins filled with milk,  spices,  and honey,  and were roasted by the fire.  It wasn’t until the late 18th century that the modern pumpkin pie began to take its form.  In 1796,  Amelia Simmons published a cookbook titled American Cookery.  Simmons’  pumpkin puddings were baked in a crust thus creating an early recipe for the present-day pumpkin pie.

After planting,  I used my watering jug to soak the ground a bit.

“The most popular pumpkins today are grown to be porch décor rather than pie filling,”  says history professor James E.  McWilliams of Texas State University and the author of the book,  Revolution in Eating.  “They dominate the industry because of their durability,  uniform size  (about 15 pounds),  orange color,  wart-less texture,  and oval shape.”  Mass production of these poor-tasting pumpkins is a  $5 billion a year industry today.  McWilliams calls them  “a culinary trick without the treat”  and accuses them of being  “food in name only.”

Edible pumpkins have not been entirely forgotten.  Heirloom pumpkin seeds are available for those who want to grow the old-fashioned kind,  and farmer’s markets and upscale grocery stores sometimes carry older,  tasty varieties.

And that's what we grew here---heirloom pumpkins.
We plan to taste the past!
The pumpkins in this picture are not haphazardly placed - they are still connected to the vine.  They just happened to have spread out on their own.

You can see the long vine connected to its stem.  
They were all like that.

Pumpkins originated in North America about 9,000 years ago,  where Native Americans cultivated them as a food staple.  Where Europeans gave apples to the Americas,  the Americas gave Europeans pumpkins.

Our beets didn't do too well,  but the turnips didn't turn out too bad.

Patty used our new T-handle shovel.
It was made by Hoffman Forge.

Digging for beets,  to no avail.

Nearly everytime we work in the garden,  dressed period,  we try to get a photo together.

Quite a haul.  We gave some away.

My little autumn harvest vignette.

Pioneer Day and spending time at the cabin is always my favorite,  for I very much enjoy that we who come out,  no matter which of us come out and which time of year it may be,  work together in and around the cabin,  experiencing colonial life.  This Pioneer Day it happened to be Patty,  Charlotte,  Tonya,  and myself, and,  as what we always try to do when here,  worked together as a colonial family would have.  Patty was spinning wool and working in the kitchen garden,  Charlotte was cooking on the hearth as well as grinding wheat berries/grain into flour with the quern/mill,  Tonya was threshing wheat and winnowing,  and I was also grinding wheat berries/grain into flour,  threshing,  and winnowing,  and even worked a bit in the kitchen garden,  harvesting pumpkins.  

These cabin excursions began mostly as a way to experience 18th century Colonial American life.  And I/we are experiencing it,  though not necessarily in ways expected,  for it has become much more of an agricultural experience than any of us may have originally thought.  Oh,  it's not like we didn't know of the high amount of agriculture at that time,  but I believe it just sort of hit us in ways unexpected.  At least it did for me.  But then,  in 18th century Colonial America,  approximately 90% of the population were farmers.  This high percentage reflects the predominantly rural nature of the colonies,  where agriculture was the primary source of livelihood for most people.  And,  most colonial farms were geared towards subsistence agriculture,  meaning they primarily produced what was needed for the family's survival,  rather than for large-scale commercial sale. 

That's what we represent:  18th century subsistence agriculture.

I must say that my two favorite blog posts that I've written involves agriculture:

Marchin' Through the Ruins of Time - Ancient Farming & Daily Life Practices from the B.C. Era Through the Early A.D. Period  (click HERE)

and 

A Year on a Colonial Farm:  Living By the Seasons  (click HERE)

The other thing we've experienced  (and continue to experience)  are ancient holidays  (or holydays)  that are either no longer celebrated or have changed from its original meaning,  such as Candlemas,  Rogation Sunday  (I have not written about Rogation Sunday as a sole subject---thinking about doing so in 2026,  though click HERE to read of our Rogation Sunday celebration),  and,  as you just read in today's post,  Lammas Day.

But we were not alone there at Waterloo's Pioneer Day event...let me give you a quick tour of a few of the others who helped make this event such a great one.  In fact,  we'll begin with a few reenactors of  "our"  era:

Tony Gerring,  dressed as a later 1770s Revolutionary War Continental Soldier, 
was there.
It was good to see him!

Here we have a Revolutionary War soldier and a Civil War soldier - an 80 year spread between them,  and here they are together---this is such a great history lesson for the attentive audience.

With America's 250th at hand,  Brian & Jim,  who both usually portray 17th century men,  decided to show off the Revolutionary War items in their personal collections.

The three guns:
 one is a Brown Bess British.  The other one is a rifle,  and one is a Fowler musket.
All commonly used during the revolutionary war.

The cases here that were on display have original revolutionary war dig artifacts.

Brian told me about this collection of originals he had acquired,  and I told him it needed to be displayed - to be seen by the public.

Because we are now celebrating America 250,  it is awesome to see these original Revolutionary War items.

Some pieces in this collection were once owned by Frank Kravitz and George Newman,  along with Debbie Sprouse - all authors of American Revolution books.   

This came from their personal collection . 

I hope you can read the tags for they give the basic information of each item.

All are of museum quality.  In fact,  The Henry Ford Museum should contact Brian so they could celebrate America's 250th with American history.

Here is some accoutrements carried by soldiers -- some pieces are original and some are reproduction.

Brian reenacted as a red coat for about 25 years.

Tom the colonial toy seller.
Tom also portrays a colonial  (and sometimes medieval)  doctor, 
and collects historic flags.

Master historic bread baker,  Jeff Pavlik,  came out once again at the bake oven.

Jeff drew quite the crowd throughout the day.

See the bread in the bake oven?
I made sure to let visitors to the cabin know to step over to Jeff's area to see the next step in period bread making---the actual baking process!  It fit right in with our wheat and winnowing and quern presentation.

Ropemakers.

Here we have a basket weaver.

The master of the ax!  He was amazing to watch.

And behind him is his  "up and down pit saw."

A weaver...

I see a small/miniature horse and a goat.

A woodworker - - - - 

The blacksmith was there...

For photo-opps there was this old carriage.

This was at the barn - I really liked this.

I snapped this solely because of the leaf colors.  Since we had near drought conditions in summer and fall,  the leaves are not as brilliant in color as usual,  so ya gotta grab  'em while you can.
This is the path to the cabin from the necessary.

A hand-cranked corn sheller

Here's another older carriage for picture opportunities.

I've known the gentleman here for a very long time.  Steve used to work as a Firestone Farmer at Greenfield Village.

Here's Steve again posing with his horses.

I was so glad to see someone there that was promoting America's 250th!

Help Waterloo Celebrate America's 250th Birthday - the Semiquincentennial.

We have truly been blessed when it comes to Pioneer Day,  for each one that we have participated in since 2021 has had picture-perfect weather,  and this year was no different.  Sunny and upper 60s temps in mid-October make for a fine Autumnal day indeed.

Waterloo's Pioneer Day is a wonderful fall celebration that entails everything we love about this season,  from the rural farm setting to the fall colors to the celebratory nature of all who came...and,  yes,  there was even cider as well!  And people in our modern age are still celebrating the autumn harvest,  whether going to an apple & cider  (with doughnuts!)  orchard,  maybe experiencing the past by visiting historic open-air museum such as Greenfield Village or Waterloo Farm Museum,  or even just taking a long drive in the country to look at the changing leaves and stopping at roadside vegetable stands.  

But what I believe really makes Pioneer Day at Waterloo so great is that everyone,  seriously everyone,  was smiling happy,  whether visitor,  volunteer,  vendor,  and living historian!

They are ready to celebrate harvest and the past!

All I can say is Pioneer Day 2025 was awesomely wonderful~~~

To learn more about the connection between harvest and Hallowe'en and Hallowe'en history,  click HERE

For a colonial Thanksgiving,  please click HERE
For a colonial Christmas,  please click HERE  (by the way,  contrary to current popular belief,  many colonists - much more than modern folks care to admit - did indeed celebrate Christmas)

For a colonial Winter,  please click HERE
For a colonial Spring,  please click HERE
For a colonial Summer,  please click HERE
For a colonial Autumn,  please click HERE

For A Year on a Colonial Farm,  click HERE

To learn more about American Apples,  please click HERE

Are you interested in our previous colonial life cabin excursions?  Look no further,  for here is a complete list with links for all of our colonial cabin excursions,  including our celebrations of holidays such as Candlemas,  Rogation Sundays,  and Lammas Day celebrations  (remember - each year listed here we are representing 250 years earlier:

2020 = 1770

2021 = 1771

2022 = 1772

2023 = 1773

2024 = 1774

and now

2025 = 1775

~To read about our 2020 autumn excursion - our first time at the cabin - click HERE

~To read about our 2021 wintertime excursion at the cabin - click HERE

~To read about our 2021 springtime excursion at the cabin - click HERE

~To read about our 2021 summertime excursion at the cabin - click HERE

~To read about our 2021 summer harvesting of the flax at the cabin - click HERE

~To read about our 2021 autumn excursion - click HERE

~To read about our 2022 winter excursion at the cabin - please click HERE

~To read about our 2022 spring excursion at the cabin - please click HERE

~To read about our 2022 summer excursion at the cabin - please click HERE

~To read about our 2022 autumn excursion at the cabin  (Pioneer Day) - please click HERE

~To read about our 2023 winter excursion at the cabin  (Candlemas) - please click HERE

~To read about our 2023 spring excursion at the cabin  (Rogation Sunday) - please click HERE

~To read about our 2023 late spring at the cabin - click HERE

~To read about the 2023 early summer - please click HERE

~To read about the 2023 summer  (Lammas Day) - please click HERE

~To read about the 2023 autumn Pioneer Day - please click HERE

~To read about our 2023 Thanksgiving harvest celebration - please click HERE

~To read about our 2024 Winter experience at the cabin - please click HERE

~To read about our 2024 spring excursion at the cabin - please click HERE

~To read about our 2024 late spring with just Patty & I - click HERE 

~To read about our 2024 summer  (Lammas Day) - please click HERE

~To read about our 2024 mid-and-late-summer - please click HERE

~To read about our 2024 mid-September - click HERE

~To read about our 2024 autumn Pioneer Day Celebration - please click HERE

~To read about our 2024 Thanksgiving Harvest - please click HERE

~To read about our 2024 Christmas at the Farm Cabin presentation - please click HERE

~To read about our 2025 winter & Candlemas Day - please click HERE

~To read about our 2025 spring/early May Rogation Sunday excursion - please click HERE

~To read about our 2025 Memorial Day/Late May visit,  please click HERE

~To read about our 2025 (Lammas Day)  Celebration,  please click HERE

~To read about our 2025 September visit with my grandson experiencing living history,  click HERE

Including today's post,  that makes 32 days spent in the good old colony days!

Again,  I simply cannot thank enough those special folk at the Waterloo Farm Museum for their allowance for us to have such experiences.

We are so honored.  And grateful.

I am also honored to visit the past with my cabin cohorts of  Patty  (who just happens to be my wife),  Norm,  Jackie,  Larissa,  and Charlotte  (and sometimes a few others here and there),  for,  without them,  none of this would even happen.

Brian,  Chad,  Chrissy,  Arlene...and others from Waterloo - past and present - my heartfelt thank you.

It's pretty amazing how rooted in agriculture and in traditional ways and of the ties to God in all of it our colonial cabin living history group has become.  But there is a strong reason behind that,  and,  yes,  it has everything to do with history,  for I first read about colonial living in my history books.  Then I saw much of the activities live and in color while visiting Greenfield Village over the past 43 years.  And it's been since around 2009 / 2010 I have found myself actively taking part in such period activities...

This has been a wonderful experience for all involved,  and I pray it continues...

And I say to myself what a wonderful world~~~

Until next time,  see you in time.

~  ~  ~