Fall Flavors Fest - Greenfield Village

I love Greenfield Village. I buy a membership every year, and I use it at least once a month, sometimes more. I especially love to visit in the fall, when they have their Fall Flavors Festival and Farm Market.

Today didn't really feel like fall, with the temperature near 80 degrees, but since it was sunny and gorgeous, we definitely wanted to head to the village for the fest.

The farm market has local vendors, from dairy farmers to vegetable farmers to salt and pepper, to actual broom makers. I love to wander around and check everything out, before making any purchases.

The first booth I stopped at was Grassfield Farms, which is a dairy and meat farm, that is all organic with grassfed cows. I don't eat meat, but I did try their cheese, which was amazing. I especially loved their Edam. Next we checked out the local honey makers, Better Bee Honey. They had tons of flavored honey, including peach, lavender, and lemon, but unfortunately they didn't take debit or credit cards, so we were unable to purchase anything.

Fortunately for us, everyone else there did accept credit/debit. We stopped at a table filled with pretty bottles of salt and pepper, which was run by the nicest people. They were dressed in period clothing, and were a pleasure to talk to. We ended up purchasing Hawiian Black Lava Salt, which is naturally lower in sodium, and Long Black Pepper, which has many flavor profiles, from peppery to chocolate, and is earthy and sweet. We plan on using it on a favorite dessert of ours, thanks to our friend Justin, which is good vanilla ice cream, topped with good scotch and pepper. Sounds weird, but it is amazing! If you are interested in checking out the color of your pepper, here is their website.

Next, I wandered over to the Kings Pantry, which had seeds for sale that I have never seen before! I could have perused them all day, but there were a lot of people so I didn't linger so that others could look too. I ended up buying rare Ukranian Beet Seeds and Soapwort Seeds. Both are organic and locally grown.

  

They had a lot more but I couldn't get a picture, just too many people.

I loved this broom! It is called a wedding broom. I sadly don't have a place for it, so I left it behind. 

We walked around the rest of the booths, but nothing called to us. We stepped outside, and saw a crush of people around a tent. We of course had to know what was over there. It turned out to be Maple Syrup! How perfectly fall. I know it is tapped in the spring, but whatever, it seems fall to me. We tried the free sample of maple dip, and then smelled the Maple coffee - which was divine, and I had to buy it. The owner of Doodle's Sugarbush was also very friendly, and when I asked her if they tap their own syrup, she said they did, and told us that in the spring they have tours. We can see them tap the trees, and make the syrup, so of course my Laura Ingalls Wilder soul wants to see this. We are definitely going to remember to go!  Check them out here. 

After shopping the market, we roamed around the village, checking out the cooking demonstrations, but it was so hot in the houses we didn't stay long. I can only imagine what it was like for those early pioneers, who had to just deal with it if they wanted to eat. We also popped into the Wright Bicycle Shop, and saw the 16 foot center of the first plane. Can you believe that only 65 years after the Orville's first flight, Neal Armstrong walked on the moon?

We had a wonderful day, and I can't wait to try out everything we bought, especially the seeds! The village is gearing up for the next event, their Halloween Nights. Whooooo...scary!