Homesteading Festival features classes, activities

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The 3rd annual Homesteading Festival will be held in Mineral Spring Park on September 12th from 8:30 – 4. Admission, classes, children’s activities, and entertainment are free at this family-friendly event. This year, the festival is partnering with the Steve White Volkswagen Camp Out and Show to offer a more complete experience for festival goers. The park will be closed to traffic during the event.

Classes include a plant walk and identification, rabbit hide tanning, raising Gulf Coast Sheep, finding and filtering water for hikers and campers, mushroom cultivation, raising black soldier fly larvae for poultry feed, and detoxifying your home (green cleaning products). Children’s activities include a natural building area and classes on vermiculture and soap making.

Roving bluegrass musicians Bob and Amy Buckingham will provide entertainment, and Jack Ellenburg will help organize bluegrass jams throughout the park. Attendees of all skill and experience levels are encouraged to bring (non-electric) instruments and join in.

Vendor products include solar water heaters; crafts; jewelry; prepping and homesteading equipment and antiques; plants and seeds; homesteading, food, and farming-related books; rabbits and ducks; t-shirts; art; handmade soaps, salves, and personal care products. Palmetto Farmers Market vendors will be on hand with locally grown, raised, and produced food products.

Demonstrations include chair caning, natural building, blacksmithing, and sheep milking. BBQ Pitmasters, Swamp Rabbit Café and Grocery, and Friends Farm and Catering will offer both breakfast and lunch items. Also joining the festival and VW show will be Wright’s mini donuts, Grandma’s Ice Cream, and Hey Bo/Sassy Sow. The Greenville County Farm Bureau Women’s Leadership group will offer free bottled water and packs of crackers.

The festival is sponsored by the Town of Williamston, the SC Organization for Organic Living (SCOOL), and the Palmetto Farmers Market. For more information, visit www.scorganicliving.com.