Vermont Farming Traditions on Display at Billings Farm & Museum’s Draft Animal Day
Vermont Farming Traditions on Display at Billings Farm & Museum’s Draft Animal Day
Sunday, May 9, 2021
Celebrate Mother’s Day – mothers receive free admission!
WOODSTOCK, VERMONT . . . Learn all about the powerful draft horses, working steers, and oxen that farmers have traditionally used on the farm. Billings Farm & Museum welcomes visitors on Sunday, May 9, from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. for Draft Animal Day. Celebrate Mother’s Day at the farm – mothers receive free admission.
Watch local teamsters and their trained teams demonstrate their skills plowing the farm fields using several types of plows. Visitors are invited to try their hand at plowing with a team of draft horses pulling a walking plow. Did you know oxen wear shoes too? Watch as an ox get his hooves trimmed and shoed. See how to harness a horse team and learn more about how teamsters train these magnificent animals. Find out how draft animals are used on farms today.
In the Learning Kitchen, sample old-fashioned favorites, Shoofly Pie and Switchel, and take home the recipes. Kids can race a hobby horse around our lawn and take home a ribbon. Families will enjoy hearing a reading of Huck’s Way Home, the story of Billings Farm’s runaway calf and then make a Huck’s Ears Headband! Find out how flowers were used as secret code in the Victorian Flower Language program.
New for this event! Trail Break Taps and Tacos, a popular local eatery from White River Junction, Vermont, will be on site with their food truck serving a variety of tacos, quesadillas, street corn, chips and salsa, plus a beer garden and refreshing non-alcoholic options.
Visiting safely. We take the safety of our staff, animals, and our guests seriously. Billings Farm & Museum enforces safety standards in compliance with Vermont State guidelines. This may include collecting contact tracing information from our visitors. Each person must answer health screening questions and have followed the Vermont’s travel guidelines. Face coverings must be worn by all guests over the age of 2 everywhere on the site, including the outdoors. For more about visiting Billings Farm safely, updates on our site capacity, and to learn which spaces are open, visit billingsfarm.org/safety.
Billings Farm & Museum, now in its 39th season, is pleased to provide classroom space for the Woodstock Elementary School sixth grade this spring, to allow of in-person learning. The Spring Hours of Operation are 10AM-5PM: April 19-May 30: Wednesday-Sundays, 10AM-5PM. Open 7 days a week May 31-Oct. 31. Celebrate Billings Farm’s 150th Anniversary with a visit this season and support its education mission at billingsfarm.org/donate.
The Billings Farm & Museum is owned and operated by The Woodstock Foundation Inc., a charitable non-profit institution. Billings Farm & Museum is committed to providing educational opportunities and experiences to our visitors, whether here in Woodstock, Vermont or at home wherever you are through our online resources at Billings Farm at Home. Visit us on billingsfarm.org, and find us on Facebook at facebook.com/BillingsFarmMuseum/ and Instagram at instagram.com/billingsfarm/.
– 30 –
