Visitors to the Big South Fork area in Jamestown, Tennessee always enjoy the Spring Planting Festival held each year on the last Saturday in April. There are a number of old farmsteads in the area and the history of the early settlers in this once-remote area is fascinating.
The area is rugged and the soil is generally poor so, for those families, it truly was a matter of subsistence farming. They depended on their ability to raise crops, animals and gardens to feed themselves. They gathered many wild plants and hunted and fished, but the “kitchen garden” was vital to their survival. To this day, descendents of these mountain folk maintain the tradition of cultivating a large garden and providing a substantial amount of their food.
Along with planning for their gardens and crops, families had a number of annual chores that were performed each spring. Women and girls gave the house a thorough "spring cleaning," airing out the house and the bed linens. They made soap and spun wool into yarn for use in knitting and weaving in order to make the family's clothing. Men and boys mended fences, performed whatever repairs were necessary to buildings and equipment and made furniture, as well as caring for livestock.
The skills needed for survival in the area we now call the Big South Fork have become today's crafts and visitors are always delighted with demonstrations of blacksmithing, chair caning, basket making, hand spinning and weaving and the construction of paling fences. There are demonstrations of garden herb lore and use, exhibits of antique farm tools and, of course, the plowing and planting done by horses and mules that is always a big draw.
Mountain dulcimer music is performed throughout the day by the Knoxville Area Dulcimer Club.
For information about Big South Fork real estate or horse properties in Jamestown, Tennessee, go to www.trailridersrealestate.com
For more information about the area in general, go to Tennessee Recreational Properties' website.
Comments(2)