Small Staff and Volunteers
Turkey Run is staffed by a small paid professional staff, supplemented by volunteers (mostly pre-teens and teenagers called apprentices) who demonstrate 1771 farm life, including field work, crafts, cooking, and other special activities. Staff (including volunteers) use "first person" to demonstrate living history.
The farm has also cooperated with Fairfax County in providing work-release parolees with court-required employment. And on a 1771 farm, this means labor.
The highlight of the year is the Market Fair, held the third weekends of May, July, and October. The Market Fair is enhanced by the participation of a cadre of long-time volunteers who man the stands, including the blacksmith, the cabinet maker, millinery, plants, toys, scriptorium, puppet theatre and, most importantly, the tavern. The importance of the tavern in Colonial life is captured on the sign displayed therein: "Beer is proof that God loves us, and wants us to be happy. —Benjamin Franklin."
Many of the participants are members of American Revolutionary War re-enactor groups and appear at other Colonial historical events. The gathering and threshing of wheat and the preparation of the tobacco crop are annual events. A Colonial Wassail, including the blessing of the orchard, is the final event of the season, in mid-December.
Read more about this topic: Claude Moore Colonial Farm
Famous quotes containing the words small, staff and/or volunteers:
“If Montaigne is a man in the prime of life sitting in his study on a warm morning and putting down the sum of his experience in his rich, sinewy prose, then Pascal is that same man lying awake in the small hours of the night when death seems very close and every thought is heightened by the apprehension that it may be his last.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)
“I shall not want false witness to condemn me,
Nor store of treasons to augment my guilt.
The ancient proverb will be well effected:
“A staff is quickly found to beat a dog.””
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient: why enter then as volunteers into those of another?”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)