The annual event changes its focus from year to year. This year’s fall harvest show will center on the traditional harvesting of corn and soybeans, demonstrating how farmers worked before modern technology, computerized equipment, and today’s highly automated agricultural practices.
Visitors will be able to watch the process from the field through the production of food, providing a hands-on look at how crops once made their way from the farm to the table.
More Than a Harvest
While the farming demonstrations are a major part of the event, the Old-Fashioned Fall Harvest also showcases a variety of traditional crafts, skills, and trades.
Demonstrations include rug weaving, hand quilting, blacksmithing, wood turning, wooden spoon carving, macramé, crocheting and pottery throwing. Each demonstration provides another glimpse into a time when many of the items people needed were made by hand.
The event is designed to give visitors a chance to step back in time and see the skills that were once an everyday part of rural life.
From Cornfield to Cornmeal
One of the highlights of this year’s fall show will be following corn through the harvesting and milling process.
Visitors can see corn harvested from the field using historic equipment before watching it move through the milling process to become cornmeal. The cornmeal is then used to make food that visitors can sample.
The farm’s cook shack is another part of the experience. The building was originally a small trailer used by a road crew, where workers were fed and housed. Today, the historic cook shack remains operational and is used to prepare food during the show.
The fall event provides a complete picture of the process, showing how something grown in a field can eventually become part of a meal.
The summer show follows a similar concept with wheat, taking visitors from harvesting the crop to milling it and ultimately producing homemade wheat bread.
Keeping Historic Equipment Running
Preserving history takes plenty of work, especially when the equipment being demonstrated is decades old.
Many of the machines are only operated during the annual shows, meaning volunteers have significant maintenance and preparation work to complete before everything is ready for visitors.
Family members, friends, and others with mechanical skills help bring the antique equipment back to life each year. Getting historic machinery running is not always easy, but keeping the equipment operational allows visitors to see these machines perform the jobs they were originally designed to do.
Eleven Shows and Counting
The upcoming event will mark the 11th show hosted by Bos Brothers Historical Farm.
The farm initially focused on a summer threshing show featuring equipment belonging primarily to Lewis’ father. The event later evolved into an alternating schedule, with the summer threshing show and fall harvest show switching from year to year.
The fall event features more of the equipment used by Lewis’ uncle for harvesting corn and soybeans, giving visitors a different experience depending on which year they attend.
A Weekend of Demonstrations
The Old-Fashioned Fall Harvest is scheduled for Sept. 25-27 at Bos Brothers Historical Farm, located at 8105 Spring Hill Road outside Erie, Illinois.
Demonstrations will take place all three days, allowing visitors to experience the various activities regardless of which day they attend.
In addition to the agricultural and craft demonstrations, visitors can see a sawmill, shingle mill, and rock crusher in operation. There will also be plowing demonstrations following the harvest, including muscle tractor plowing that showcases equipment newer than the machines used for the historic harvesting demonstrations but older than today’s modern farm equipment.
On Sunday, visitors can also attend a church service at 9:30 a.m. in the barn. A tractor pull will take place at 1 p.m., with both activities taking place exclusively on Sunday.
Preserving Skills and History
For Bos Brothers Historical Farm, the event is about more than displaying old equipment. It provides an opportunity to help visitors understand how much work went into everyday necessities before modern stores, technology, and mass production made those items readily available.
Quilts, clothing, food, and other household necessities often required people to develop the skills needed to make them themselves. Something as simple as cornmeal required growing and harvesting corn, grinding it, and processing it before it could be used.
Seeing those processes firsthand can provide a greater appreciation for the time, craftsmanship, and effort involved in handmade goods.
The event also offers families a chance to spend time together away from digital distractions while learning about agriculture and traditional skills through hands-on experiences.
Keeping the Event Free
Admission to the Old-Fashioned Fall Harvest is free. The event operates through donations and support from sponsoring businesses, with keeping the event accessible to families remaining an important goal.
Visitors who want to support Bos Brothers Historical Farm can make a donation during the event, where donation cans will be available throughout the grounds. Information is also available through the Bos Brothers Historical Farm website and Facebook page.
The Old-Fashioned Fall Harvest offers a chance to see historic farming equipment in action, learn traditional crafts, follow crops from the field to the table, and experience a piece of rural history firsthand.
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