The Kutztown Fairgrounds was abuzz with activity Saturday morning.
In the cool shade of one pavilion a bluegrass band plucked and drummed and sang. Under another a sheep-shearing demonstration was taking place.
A few feet away, in one of the buildings that dot the fairgrounds, there were vendors selling honey, jewelry, paintings, handcrafted cutting boards and hex signs.
There was a blacksmith demonstrating his trade from the 18th century; there was a man wielding a chainsaw as he turned a tree stump into a bear; there were people of all ages cradling goats.
And almost everywhere you looked, there were smiling faces.
That’s because many people didn’t think they’d have the opportunity to peruse the fairground — listening to music, eating food, shopping for crafts, watching demonstrations — after news that financial challenges brought the annual Kutztown Folk Festival to an end after more than seven decades.
But something new came to the rescue. And while smaller, shorter and different in a lot of ways, the Eastern PA Homestead Festival making its debut this weekend was a welcome addition.
The festival’s final day is Sunday. It is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and admission is $10 at the gate or at easternpahomesteadfestival.com/.
“I’m glad that there’s still a festival,” Jessica Stubits said as she stood with her two young daughters at the archery range. “Coming to the Folk Festival was something we looked forward to each summer, so it’s nice to see some of the same things here in this new form. I really hope that they can keep it going.”
Stubits said they heard about the new event and wanted to check it out.
“I think it’s a really great start,” she said. “I wouldn’t even begin to imagine what it takes to pull off an event like this, so kudos to them.”
A unique event
Homestead Festival founder Michael Richards acknowledged that a lot of hard work went into planning and organizing the four-day event. He said that while it pays homage to the Folk Festival and hopefully fills the gap it left, the new event is its own unique thing.
It shines a light on and educates the public about the growing homesteading movement — a lifestyle that involves living independently and prioritizes sustainability, emphasizing tasks like making your own sourdough bread, gardening, canning vegetables and raising animals.
“We wanted to keep some of the things that people loved so much about the Folk Festival as a way to pay our respect to an event that was so loved and add elements of the homestead movement,” he said.
Richards said that while many may immediately think of the traditional model of homesteading that involves tending large parcels of land and raising livestock, it comes in many other forms.
For those who live in a suburban setting, homesteading could be as simple as growing some vegetables in a garden, rainwater harvesting or adding a few chickens into your backyard. And if you’re living in a city, homesteading could mean building a container garden or keeping a small composting bin.
He said the point is that people can homestead no matter where they live.
Richards said one of the highlights of the festival is its guest speakers. The topics covered include how to raise and keep chickens, how to start beekeeping, how to create an organic garden, the types of homestead operations, backyard composting and introductions to canning.
Richards said that over the first few days of the festival he heard nothing but positive feedback.
“People really seem to appreciate what we are doing here,” he said. “Our hope is that this event grows over time and attracts people who are interested in preserving and restarting our agricultural traditions.”
Trying homesteading
Francesca Kaschak was one of those people.
“We are really enjoying this,” the Kutztown resident said. “It’s similar to the Folk Festival but geared more toward homesteading, which is nice because we recently started doing some of those things at our house.”
Kaschak said she has added a few chickens to her backyard, grows vegetables in her garden and planted some fruit trees.
“I met a few people who have given me advice, and I learned a few things that will be helpful,” she said. “We’ve made connections that I hope will grow as the festival grows.”
A classic craft
Growing food and raising animals weren’t the only hot topics at the festival.
Paul Janusz caught some eyes as he stood in front of his blazing-hot forge, bending and shaping pieces of steel. The Wayne County man said he visits more than 40 events a year throughout the region.
He built a traveling forge complete with coals and bellows to display his skills to people and educate them about the craft and its history. On Saturday, dressed in traditional 18th-century blacksmith’s apparel, he was shaping a fire striker.
Janusz said he got into the trade by necessity. He had trained as a stonemason in Scotland and returned home to Pennsylvania to start his own business but soon found there was no one around who could sharpen his tools.
So, he contacted a blacksmith who taught him how to do it himself.
He does restoration work of pre-19th century masonry and makes all the hardware needed for the tools to do that work.
“The sad thing is that sometimes people have no clue what a blacksmith does, but their kids do because they play ‘Minecraft,’” he said with a chuckle. “But, seriously, the goal is to educate people about the time period and how things were made back then.”
Dylan Godby was one visitor interested in learning. He traveled from Delaware County to attend the festival, and was excited to see all it had to offer.
“It’s really great to support the work of craftsmen and farmers,” he said. “This is a part of our Pennsylvania culture and history that my wife and I love to see. We have seen so many cool things today.”
Godby is an active member of the homesteading movement. In fact, he said, he relies almost exclusively on the food he grows in his garden or hunts in local woods.
“I only have a small backyard, but we are making it work,” he said. “We decided we wanted to be more independent, so we have a group of friends who we partner with to trade items that we grow ourselves.
“It doesn’t matter what skin color, what religion, what political affiliation — when you have a community that relies on one another that is what homesteading is all about.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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