Numbers correspond with the photograph number (in case someone has question, they can reference the number!)

1:
This year they have the corn & squash growing in a field just as you enter the village:


10:
Some sheep chewing their cud in a nice, cool spot next to the town pound


8:
On approach to Freeman Farm, showing the "Kitchen Garden."


11:
Raspberry Bushes

12:
They grow herbs along the fence.

13:
Pole Beans

14:
Watermelons in the foreground, winter squash in the back.

18:
Another herb, not sure what offhand.

Oniongs, something my eyes are too old to make out, and more onions.

25:
This is onion tea brewing in the sun. It's just using the tops, since they use the bottoms in the kitchen.

26:
Carrots.

27:
Beats.

29:
Beans under heavy attack from flea beetles. Plus some dill (the tall stuff). Most of their dill are volunteers.

32:
Interpreter letting people smell the "onion tea" he's had brewing in the sun all morning. He's been finding it effective in detering flea beetles since he started using it.
Here's a video of of him talking.

35:
I just like this photo. Give him a cape -- he's striking the Super Hero pose :)

40:
Mmmmm, beeeeeerrrrr...these are hops.

48:
Inside the Freeman Farm house, the interpreter is showing off some of their household baked goods:

 

62:
This is driving me insane.
It's a very effective fly trap, half full of dead flies. I looked at it for 20 minutes and can't figure out how it works!

66:
Should I be worried the sheep all ran...towards me?

71:
Cattle grazing in the orchard.

74:
Potatoe Patch.

75:
Hmmmm, I don't think they had felt paper in 1835. Although I'm sure it makes it much more comfortable for the interpreters during a winter shift in the Cooper's building.

80:
The Freeman Farm House. A young bride was looking out the window on this side of the main house, nervously, at her husband as a thunderstorm approached.

And she herself was struck and killed by lightning!

85:
These are onions left to go to seed. Their process is to plant the best specimens from last year's garden of biannuals like onions and carrots to grow seed for the following year.

88:
And these are carrots left to go to seed:

90:
Leaving the Freeman Farm, we come to the Bixby House. While Freeman was largely a farmer with a cooperage shop, the Bixbys relied on their blacksmith shop more, while still maintaining a small farm and numerous home industries. OSV's been having financial challenges due to long term declines in attendance to living history museums, and many of their formerly staffed exhibits are being turned into more "hands on" exhibits with signs self-guiding the tours.

Cheese anyone? Learn more here.

92:
Cheese in storage. Refrigeration? We don't need no stinkin' refrigerators...

99:
Now we're back up in "town" -- at the Fitch House.
The "Children's Garden" -- more info
here.

 

168:
Another view.

102:
More of the Fitch House.

104:
Crossing the commons, we come to the Parsonage's kitchen garden, a bit more refined then the Freeman Farm's.

108:
The front yard.

 

113:
One thing I need to do better...crop succession!

121:
Tomatoes aren't grown at the more utilitarian Freeman Farm -- these are times before canning, so there is no way to store tomatoes through the winter. Why expend effort growing a food that won't carry you through the lean months? In the town, where cash income is more common and people will trade or be paid in kind for services so they have more food security, we find items like tomatoes, rhubarb, and asparagus.

126:
That's a watermelon. That's about as big as they grow...even modern ones up here ;)

138:
Now we move to the wealthy Towne family and their ornamental garden. I simply adore this grape arbor.

139:
Really cool gate. The stone in the middle of the chain functions as an automatic closer!

141:
Grape arbor again.


142:
Detect a theme?


143:
Some young grapes.

147:
The flower garden. It doesn't have a lot of "show" compared to modern gardens, but the aroma was absolutely marvelous!


148:

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155:

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161:


175:
When women where women and dyed their wool over an open fire in August.

176:
This is the Herb Garden. It's not associated with an interpreted site in the village, indeed it sits just outside the "exit." It's used to show off the large variety of herbs and provide education on their uses.

179:
Many of the plants at OSV are available as seedlings or seed at the gift shop.

186:

193:
An interpreter providing a herb garden tour, focusing on summer time herb uses. The large-leafed plants are tobacco.

210:
Soapwort...


213:
And someone washing their hands with the soapwort. It's full of sappins, so it lathers up and removes dirt.

228:
Some aloe (the tall, triangular leaves). These, like some of the other herbs here, are not hardy in New England and go into a greenhouse for the winter time.

That's all folks!