November 4 - Historic Johnson Farm

After Jump Off Rock, we went to the Historic Johnson Farm near Hendersonville. The farm started out as a tobacco farm. When other farmers in a different part of the state began growing a different kind of tobacco, this one went under because consumers preferred the other kind of tobacco. Of course, our guide told us the specifics of the types of tobacco, but I can't remember. One type was crisper, drier and maybe crunchier than the other. I'm not a smoker. I don't care about tobacco!

So we toured the farm.... When the farmer's wife was widowed, she opened her home as a boarding house and rented out rooms for vacationing families. It wasn't exactly Biltmore House, but it was nice - as a farm house can be. We had to "name the mystery items" on the table and I dazzled my family (well, I dazzle myself mostly) with my knowledge of old time farm objects. I even dazzled the tour guide when I knew what a darning thing...oh what is that called, Mother?! That thing you stick in the socks to darn them?! Do you still have yours? I am sorry I ever suggested you toss that stuff out - it would be vintage now! I recognized many of my Mother's kitchen items as well: I swear the exact same scale you used to weigh chickens on was there... kitchen utensils, canning jars, etc. Elyse recognized a jar that was on the counter: we have one just like it that she gets her chocolate chips out of every morning for her waffles. I took it from my mom's basement a few years ago! It's an antique! I even recognized the McCormick spice CANS - can't find those anymore!

On the farm, of course, was a barn. There were three donkeys there and upstairs the hay loft had been transformed into a play area for when schools have tours of the farm. There were desks (see the picture - Carolyn and Elyse wanted their teachers to be sure to note that they are doing their absent work!), old time games/toys, and more farm stuff that I recognized from the big tub that I remember butchering chickens in to the plows, rakes, and other tools we used to have here and there. Mother, note Elyse gathering eggs from the metal nests. She obviously doesn't realize that those nests on our farm had been filled with angry chickens that would attack little girls who were sent out there to gather the eggs by their mother! I digress - and maybe should go back into therapy about those chicken fears. Any of my siblings care to join me?!?!?! It was a trip down memory lane - I think Scott might have even been impressed with my knowledge of all things "farm." My favorite part was, though, the walk through the trees enjoying the colors and sounds of leaves crunching beneath our feet...having the days on the farm being a fond memory instead of a reality!