The Rolon Clan: Old Sturbridge Village

Last week we went on a field trip to Old Sturbridge Village. This place was so cool!

Old Sturbridge Village depicts what life was like there in the early 19th century. A lot of the employees are dressed in full costume, from bonnets and frocks to vests and top hats!

I took 174 pictures here, and while I won't share them all, I will be sharing a lot!

We all tried the bed and it was SO hard and lumpy. Definitely unlike our mattresses at home.

We showed the children how clothes were washed and dried back then.

This man showed us a child's toy, a heavy wooden rectangle with a wooden ball inside.

We all went inside of a church and learned that people paid for their pews. The richer people sat up front and had softer benches. They also brought foot warmers. The poorer people sat in the back on the hard benches.

We visited a graveyard.

We walked into a store that would be equivalent to today's Walmart or Target. They sold everything from fabric to shoes, from food to medicine.

We checked out the differences between civil rights for men and women during the 1830s.

We saw how bread was baked during this time. It was definitely a long process!

The kids pumped water.

The kids participated in a cooking class. They worked together to make a dessert called Jumbles.

They cooked it according to how someone in the 19th century would bake it. Here is Hayzel using a whisk made similar to what they used back then.

The recipe called for 1 egg, 1c flour, 1/4c butter, 1/2c powdered sugar, 1/2tsp rosewater, 1/2tsp nutmeg, and 1/2tsp cinnamon.

One of the moms shaped the dough into circles and it went onto a cookie sheet.

The teacher popped it into their "oven" and set it in front of the fire to bake.

While waiting for the Jumbles to bake, the kids also made a 19th century lemonade *aka fresh lemonade*. The recipe, adapted from The Cooks Oracle, 1823 calls for one tblsp of citric acid with a few drops of quintessence of lemon peel. Mix by degrees with a pint of water, sweetened to your taste.

We saw a couple of different mills.

We visited a blacksmith. He explained that during this time, a blacksmith was only a part time job for farmers, whose main job was tending to their crops. They typically would not hire anyone because it wasn't cost effective for them to hire help. Sometimes a neighbor would send their son over to practice the trade, but the farmer was not responsible for paying him, feeding him, or providing his clothes (3 outfits a year!).