Focus on Hanley Farm – May 2015

May kicks-off the event season at Hanley Farm with two annual favorites, the Heritage Plant & Garden Fair and the Children’s Heritage Fair.

Mark your calendar for Mother’s Day weekend, Saturday and Sunday, May 9-10, from 10:00am-3:00pm, for the Hanley Heritage Plant & Garden Fair. There will be a wide variety of Hanley Farm heritage plants for sale including perennial flowers, shrubs, herbs, and heirloom vegetables starts. The Rogue Valley Orchid Society, which Mary and Martha Hanley were charter members of, will also have a lovely variety of orchids for sale—just in-time for Mother’s Day. This is also the opening weekend for guided tours of the Hanley House. Bring the whole family and picnic by the pasture, visit the baby lambs and kids, and stroll through the blooming gardens. There will be freshly-baked sweets and unique keepsakes for Mom available throughout the weekend. And don’t miss-out on the garden scavenger hunt to win a special prize. Admission to the Fair is free; Hanley house tours are $5/person and offered from Noon-3:00pm both days.

The Children’s Heritage Fair is one of our largest and most-anticipated events of the year. The Fair includes four school days that are exclusively offered to 4th-grade classes across Jackson County and ties in with their history curriculum. Over these four days, there will be over 1,200 students learning about their local history and agricultural traditions at the Farm. Each class will have the opportunity to make candles and clay pots, learn about the heritage breed livestock and no-till vegetable gardens, try their hand at ‘faux’ cow milking, learn about the Oregon Trail from costumed interpreters, bake bread and churn their own butter.

On Saturday, May 30th, from 11:00am-4:00pm the Children’s Heritage Fair is open to the public ($4/person). This special event will include all the exciting activities listed above, as well as several additional attractions including wagon rides, live fiddlers, farm-fresh food vendors, guided house tours, pioneer dress-up, blacksmithing demonstrations, tin punching, and so much more. This event continues to be an invaluable source of learning, fun, and community spirit for young and old alike.

To volunteer at these events, email education@sohs.org or visit www.sohs.org.