By Suzanne Schmidt
Staff Writer
DADE CITY—Visitors to the Pioneer Florida Museum & Village will experience life as it was many years ago at the 20th Annual Farm Festival & Quilt Show.
The festival will be 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 6 and 7 at the museum, which is one mile north of Dade City off US 301 on Pioneer Museum Road.
Festivities will include a Southern Draft Horse Competition, an arts and craft show, demonstrations, live entertainment with Cowboy Tom’s Wild West Show and cowboy poetry by Les McDowell. Children’s activities include a free petting zoo and crafts.
Susan Bayes, office manager at the museum, said she thinks the festival will be a lot of fun.
“It should be an educational and fun experience,” Bayes said. “Many of the demonstrations throughout the day will teach people about the history of Florida during the 1800’s time period. There will be soap making, butter making, weaving and basket making.”
Bayes said what she is really looking forward to is the quilt show and the Hoffman Challenge Traveling Collection with dolls, quilts and clothes.
“The Hoffman quilts are small and are unreal,” Bayes said. “They are absolutely gorgeous, like a piece of art. The show goes all over the country and it is very interesting.”
In addition to showing off quilts submitted by the community, there will also be a quilt raffle. Last year the quilt show had more than 90 entries and they are expecting about the same this year.
“It is not like a juried quilt show where judges pick the quilt based on skill, this will be a people’s choice award,” Bayes said. “Visitors to the show will be given a ballot where they can vote for their favorite.”
Kathie Watts, of Zephyrhills, and her husband Gary will teach visitors about what life was like for Seminole Indians from 1835 to 1842.
“We will have a period Seminole camp,” Watts said. “It is surprising how many people don’t know their Florida history. We will teach people about the hardships they faced and how they fought the Second Seminole War only to try to protect their families and their homes.”
Watts said she and her husband will be dressed the way Seminole Indians did in that time period and doing things the way they did then.
“I will be doing things that a Seminole woman would have done,” Watts said. “I will be grinding corn and cooking Seminole corn pan bread. We will also have hands-on activities for kids and my husband will be showing how bullets were made.”
The Pioneer Florida Museum is a private non-profit history museum dedicated to preserving and teaching about Florida’s Pioneer Heritage. For more information, visit www.pioneerfloridamuseum.org or call 352-567-0262
