There’s no tool like an old tool, and ample evidence of that will be supplied at the History Tent at the Cauliflower Festival Saturday, Sept. 26 from 10 to 4 in Margaretville Village Park.
Sponsored by the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown, the tent will be the gathering point for antique farm implements and equipment loaned and in some cases demonstrated by area residents and farmers.
Lynn Johnson, an avid collector of all things that go and the creator of the Rust in Peace mechanical graveyard on the Arkville Cut-off Road, will bring a 1930s-era buzz saw to show how rough lumber and scrapwood was noisily and efficiently cut back in the day. The power for the saw will be provided by Johnson’s 1937 case tractor, which he will also ride in the Tractor Parade that begins at 11:30 a.m. The buzz saw will be demonstrated at 12:45, 1:45 and 2:45.
John Fairbairn of Red Kill will smash some apples periodically during the afternoon using a hand-cranked cider press that belonged to great uncle Claude Haynes.
Bob Vredenburgh will travel from his home in Greene to bring a fanning mill made in the 1860s or ‘70s by R. D. Sloat of Roxbury and used on the farm of Sebastian Shultis of Kelly Corners. He will also exhibit a large threshing machine he restored. Made about 1880, it too was used on the Shultis farm on the Denver Road.
Any idea what this item is? Come to the Cauliflower Festival and find out!
Andrew Campbell and Burr Hubbell will explain and demonstrate a variety of tools and ingenious devices found in barns and other buildings at the Hubbell Homestead farm in Kelly Corners.
A Frank Mead-made wooden cradle (the kind that mowed buckwheat, not the kind that rocked babies) will be on loan for the day from John McMurray. HSM’s own two-seater cauliflower planter, donated by the late Ron Ballard, will be in its usual place of honor in front of the History Tent, where an exhibit on the heyday of the Catskill Mountain cauliflower industry will be displayed.
The eagerly anticipated DVD of the Fourth Annual Living History Cemetery Tour, held in June at New Kingston Valley Cemetery, will be available for purchase. The video of the one-hour tour, featuring area players portraying people from Middletown’s past, was professionally produced by videographer Kevin Spelman.
A sales table of glassware, home decor and other items will help raise funds for HSM. Several regional history books will be available for purchase, including “When Cauliflower Was King in the Catskills.”