Save the date for a day filled with activities on Saturday, June 2, 2012, 11:00am-4:00pm at the historic Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm on Little’s Lane in Newbury, MA.
Celebrate the start of the season with the 17th annual Draft Horse Plow Day, Site Opening Day and the opening of the tenant farmhouse at the Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm. Lived in by the Stekionis family from 1913 to 1994, the tenant farmhouse is open to the public for the first time, an example of twentieth-century domestic life. Farm activities abound as we prepare for the summer growing season: watch teams of draft horses and mules plow our fields; shear six of our seven resident sheep (ask us why we will not shear the seventh!) and Cashmere goat; tempt your taste buds with locally made pie, one of Jacob Stekionis’ favorite foods; watch Vintage Baseball sponsored by the Essex Base Ball League; sample locally made libations from Ipswich Ale Brewery and Turkey Shore Distilleries; enjoy traditional New England music; and tour the 1690 stone farmhouse. Kids can make a craft to take home in the 1775 Great Barn, watch a puppet show, or learn about our animals. Shop local vendors, and enjoy blacksmithing demonstrations, wool washing and spinning, and horse-drawn wagon rides.
The Plow Match continues a long tradition of work horses on the farm used to prepare the soil for spring planting. In the 1880s, brothers Edward Francis Little and Daniel Noyes Little imported draft horses by rail from Iowa to Newburyport. Trained at the Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm, the horses were sold to other farms and coast guard stations.
Admission is free. For more information please call 978-462-2634.