Spring Farming Days
Visit Historic Amish Acres as the farm awakens this spring!
April 1st - May 31st 2013
As winter draws to an end, the promise of spring once again prepares the soil for new life; a time of plowing, planting and cultivating followed by the eventual harvest. A new historical Crop Garden will display gometric patterns of Sorghum, Broom-corn, Indian Corn, Millet and Oats. The kitchen garden's rows are laid out with stakes and strings. The horses return to the pasture and the wildlife begans to be more active in the farm's nature reserve.
Maple Sugaring comes first as the freezing an thawing sap from the Hard Maple Trees. Natural beauty blooms on the farmstead as you explore Amish spring farming traditions.
It all comes together in celebration of the season the weekend of April 19 - 20
Spring Farming Days Getaway Package
Enjoy a Midwest Getaway close to home (two hours from Chicago’s Loop) for two under $200 per couple without restrictions other than lodging and theatre availability. You save over 20%, on individually priced attractions, meals, entertainment and lodging. Children stay free and receive Amish Acres portion of the package for $25. Read more...
Maple Sugar Camp
Maple sugar demonstrations will be held of April 19 - 20, 2013. Maple syrup is boiled in the early spring at the Beer sugar camp that was relocated to Amish Acres. Hard maple trees are tapped in the woods in the back forty, the sap is brought to the boiler in the camp where it is reduced by evaporation becoming more and more dense until perfect syrup is determined by a thermometer. The liquid gold is then bottled and sealed for sale. Get a taste of the syrup on special menu items served during Maple Sugar Camp.
Maple Syrup Demonstration Times:
Friday, April 19th at 11am, 1pm, & 3pm
Saturday, April 20th at 11am, 1pm, & 3pm
Kuhns Grist Mill
The Amish Acres courtyard will host demonstrations* unique to the season. Get an up close look at how corn is traditionally ground into cornmeal during the Corn Grinding demonstration in the Grist Mill. The eight unique shops in the courtyard will feature spring favorites; among them are fudge and ice cream in The Log Cabin Fudgery and Soda Fountain.
Guided Tours of the Historic Farm
A guided walking tour of the 1874 Stahly-Nissley-Kuhns farmstead (the only Amish farm listed in the National Register of Historic Places) tracing the history of the pioneering Amish families of northern Indiana. Learn the whys and ways of the Amish and marvel at the ingenious ways of the family farm of the last century. Two documentary films, Genesis and Exodus of the Amish, lead you from the Reformation through migration to America and coping with the modern world. The Bonnets and Britches film leads children down the same path at a different pace.
Family Style Dining in the Old Barn Restaurant
Following a nostalgic and education visit to the farm, guests will sit down to Threshers Dinner in the old barn restaurant around oil cloth covered tables at antiques chairs. The traditional menu hasn't changed for over three decades and begins with an iron kettle of steaming ham and bean soup, followed by hearth bread, apple butter, and last of the garden relish. Platters chicken, roast beef, and cider baked ham fill the table with mashed potatoes, beef noodles, sage stuffing, giblet gravy, and green beans. Prairie dressed waitresses return with tins of pies, cobbler, and pudding.
Amish Acres Historic Farm & Heritage Resort is easy to get to, but hard to leave on U.S. 6 in Nappanee, Indiana. For additional information call 800-800-4942 ext 242.
Spring Farming Days Features
Church Basement Ladies 2: A Second Helping
April 10 - May 26, 2013
Due to the thrilling success of the first production and the phenomenal audience response, The Round Barn Theatre has decided to continue the story of this unique group of women. Originally produced by Troupe America, A Second Helping: the Church Basement Ladies Sequel, reassembled the original creative team, picking the story up in 1969 with the world changing. As protests of the Vietnam War increase and the women everywhere are demanding equal pay for equal work, in their small rural Minnesota community, the ladies of the Lutheran church basement kitchen are dealing with changes of their own. With their heartwarming humor and antics, A Second Helping: The Church Basement Ladies Sequel takes us from the High School students at the Luther League Banquet to a church sponsored Missionary night.
Mother’s Day
May 12, 2013
Give Mom more than a Meal, give her the nostalgia of gathering around antique tables amid the hand hewed beams of the old barn restaurant with your family and share Amish Acres famous Threshers Dinner served family style. Begin your culinary treat with steaming bean soup served from the iron kettle, pass platters of mashed potatoes, giblet gravy, beef and noodles, and baskets of hearth baked bread and crock of apple butter. You'll tarry while you select from the tins of baked pies, apple dumplings, and date nut pudding.
