This Weekend: Baseball and Tastes of Fall

To go along with this Saturday’s Mayor’s Cup Championship base ball game and a celebration of the sights, sounds and taste of fall, we are offering a special admission price to any young baseball players under the age of 16. If they wear the uniform of the team they play for, they can receive a special admission rate of just $5.00. This offer is good any day this weekend Saturday, Sunday, or Columbus Day Monday.

Come watch the Flower City and Live Oak base ball clubs play under the rules of 1865 for the coveted Mayor’s Cup on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in the museum’s own Silver Base Ball Park. You can enjoy a hot dog, cold drinks and a variety of other snacks from our concession stand located just behind home plate. Celebrate a great fall tradition in one of the grandstands in America’s only recreated 19^th century ball park.
Sunday will host another game: Rochester v. Victory at 1:30pm.

Families can also enjoy a variety of other games on the village square. The sugar maples surrounding the square are ablaze with fall color and provide a wonderful backdrop to a great family outing. We’ll have all of our favorite 19th century games out to enjoy including bowling, croquet, stilts, hoops, graces and many more. It’s a great way to spend time outdoors on a perfect fall day.

The women in the village and some of our household cooks have been busy using up some of the season’s harvest for some special autumn treats available for you to taste.   Guests each day can try fall favorites like homemade apple sauce and apple-butternut squash soup made using historic receipts (recipes). There will be a special elderberry shrub available in the newly renovated Hosmer’s Inn on the village square along with our famous 1-2-3-4 cake at the Livingston-Backus House. We’ve even used up some of our herbs in some wonderful herbed butter that’s great for any holiday table.

There will also be $2.00 hot dogs and plenty of cold drinks at the Depot restaurant located on the Great Meadow. The Depot’s regular menu will also be available. The museum’s Freight House and Tap Room will also be open Saturday and Sunday from 12:00 until 5:30 for anyone interested in one of our great area craft brews, including our own 1803 Fat Ox Ale. Be sure to stop in at our Flint Hill Store for the latest creations from our kitchens with new seasonal candy apple and pumpkin varieties of fudge in our now famous home-made fudge offerings. There are also some terrific seasonal items for sale and the new stoneware pottery from the first firing of our new salt-glaze kiln is available. 

 

Meet our final pioneer family for the 2011 season this Saturday and Sunday at the Pioneer Farm and find out how they enjoy living the life of the Genesee Country pioneers in the early 1800s. They will be living, eating, and sleeping in the log pioneer house for the weekend and learning how to cook on an open fire, caring for animals at the farm, dress in 19^th century-style clothing, learning 19^th century games, and even finding time to do some dancing. They’ll also be learning how to prepare for the upcoming winter by stuffing sausages and drying fruits and vegetables.

Other villagers are also getting ready for the upcoming cold season: visitors can assist the quilter in making warm bed coverings out of scraps of leftover fabric, the kitchens are putting up preserves and condiments to use throughout the winter, and the spinner is making warm wool yarn for winter knitting projects. In addition to spinning, the spinners will also be dyeing the last of the yarn Sunday and Monday. See what fantastic colors can be achieved with natural materials! The villagers are giving their houses a last airing out on this fine weekend and getting out the warm clothing…before we know it, it will be winter!

Just 3 More Days to Enter to Win Our Stonware or Tickets Giveaway!

Just a reminder that there are only 3 days left to enter our Giveaway from a new 1803 Fat Ox Ale Growler or 2 tickets to the museum!

Click here for the official contest! 

War of 1812 Encampment / Regency Civillian Weekend June 26th and 27th

Please join us this weekend for our War of 1812 Encampment & Our Regency Civilian event this coming weekend. We have so much planned!


Visitors can enjoy a variety of live demonstrations, talk with the special 1812 village residents and witness life in the time of war in the pioneer settlements of the Genesee Country and Niagara Frontier.

The historic village will come to life with reenactors portraying shopkeepers, housewives, merchants and soldiers. Start the day off with a morning parade. Enjoy lively entertainment, military drills, live fire artillery demonstrations, military music, Austen-era dancing, games and lots of crafts and trades, many of which are unique to this era. Included among these will be the Museum's peddler's wagon! Those looking for some personal insight can even visit a Tarot card reader! Each day ends with an evening parade and Saturday evening there will be an after hours dance in the Village Square.

There will be many special ongoing activities in the village that include tailoring uniform coats, cartridge box construction, uniform and canteen construction, knapsack construction, frontier living, officer's quarters, period cooking, hornsmithing, a commissary and more.

We will also be debuting several pieces from The Greene Collection in the meeting center. Along with these pieces there will also be a display of regency costumes and military uniforms.

If you get hungry a light period tavern meal is avaliable at Hosmer's Inn for a donation. If you get thirsty, don't forget to stop in our Depot and Freight House restaurants where you can purchase our 1803 Fat Ox Ale by the pint or by the growler!


For a tentative schedule of events, click here.

June Giveaway at The Genesee Country Village & Museum

For the month of June we are hosting our first giveaway ever!

In honor of our new beer, one lucky person will win a new stoneware salt glazed 1803 Fat Ox Ale beer mug made right here in the village by Mark Presher our resident potter OR 2 free passes to the Museum!

Rules:

You can enter between June 13th-30th, 2010 at 9am EDT. The winner will be announced July 1st!

There are THREE ways you can enter. You can do 1 or all 3. Doing all 3 will get you three entries! Open to adults over 18.

*Enter a comment on this post.

{and/or}

*Send us a question about the museum for our monthly Q & A Column-Please use the email link of the right of the blog.

{and/or}

*Become a follower of this blog.

We will pick a name at random and then mail the prize of your choice to your home! You do not need to live locally to win this contest!!

Good Luck!!!

1803 Fat Ox Ale Now Avaliable!

We are pleased to announce that our W. Grieve Brewery is up and running! We will brew for the first time this coming Saturday and are excited to share it with you.!

In addition, our 1803 Fat Ox Ale is avaliable in our Freight House and Depot Restaurants.

Pints are $3.75 and Glass Growlers are $15 the first time and $10 for each fill up after that.

Initial tasting yielded great reviews!

1803 Fat Ox Ale in One of Our New Glass Growlers!

Salt Glazed Stoneware Made In The Village

At the Flint Hill Pottery, one type of Stoneware that our resident potter, Mark Presher creates is salt glazed stoneware.

The unique characteristics of salt glazing were discovered in the Rhineland in Germany during the 14th century. The salt reacts and forms a shiny glazed surface without an additional glaze to accomplish it. The German stoneware was also characterized by the use of a cobalt oxide based colorant for decoration. This process and type of stoneware made it's way to the Genesee region with the completion of the Erie Canal.

The stoneware in the Northern United States is very distinctive as it bears close resemblance to the German stoneware that it is descended from. The pottery in the Genesee region is further distinctive as it tends to have more intricate designs than in other regions. Often, when making many of the same items, the design was used as a way to set yourself and your work apart from your competitor.

Mark makes traditional salt glazed stoneware in the village pottery and decorates it with a typical 2 dimensional design that would have been popular in the 19th century. He creates pieces for use in the village and also for sale in our gift shop. He has recently designed a new growler and beer mug to commemorate our new 1803 Fat Ox Ale.

We also have a documentary featuring Mark which details the process of making stoneware in the 19th century as well as about the life of the potter, entitled, "The Potter's Fire."

Here is a short clip to enjoy!

1803 Fat Ox Ale Label

Hot off the presses!

We are excited to share with you the new logo for our 1803 Fat Ox Ale, avaliable in June!

Brewing 1803 Fat Ox Ale at Custom BrewCrafters

This week was historic for us for a completely new reason!

For the past week, we have been working with our partner, Custom BrewCrafters to brew the VERY FIRST REAL BATCH of 1803 FAT OX ALE that will be avaliable for purchase at the museum!!! We could not be more excited.

The beer is brewed using the same ingredients and process that we will be using at the W. Grieve Brewery in the village. It will be a cloudy ale that would have been typical of the 19th century. Custom BrewCrafters were instrumental in helping us refine the process that we'll be using to brew beer in the Village. Along with being very educational for us, it has also been a lot of fun!

Tuesday morning started with a trip to the brewery to help out!

Stirring The Mash

Checking The Milled Malt

Grist Milled Malt

Kent Golding Hops

Adding Hops to The Ale!

The ale will be avaliable for purchase in June!

Naming our New Ale!

As we eagerly anticipate the opening of our new brewery, we are excited to share everything about it that we can with you!

After coming up with the perfect 19th century style ale, we also wanted the prefect name for our new brew!

We held a "name our beer" contest that attracted 370 people who submitted more than 1700 entries. Our winner, William Gucker, came up with the moniker 1803 Fat Ox Ale!

In addition to bragging rights at the brewery, Gucker won a a handcrafted, salt-glazed stoneware growler made by our master potter, Mark Presher as well as a family membership to the museum and 12 refills of the museum's new ale!

After this summer he should be a 1803 Fat Ox Ale expert!

The version of 1803 Fat Ox Ale, made in conjunction with Custom BrewCrafters in Honeoye will be avaliable by the glass and growler in June!

Soon we'll have a sneak peek at the new label!

The 1803 Walter Grieve's Brewery

Starting this year, the Genesee Country Village & Museum will be the only Living History Museum in the country with a real working brewery. To create this special brew, we are using the same brewing practices as did the early brewers in western and central New York State.

The 1803 Walter Grieve's Brewery sports copper kettles and leather hoses, just as breweries in the 19th century did. Liquid is heated with a wood fire and all of the equipment was hand-made, right down to the hand-forged copper top to the brew tank and hand-augured wooden pipes. Brewing will take place two days during the week as well as on the weekends.

We recently sponsored a contest to name the beer. The winner, 1803 Fat Ox Ale, will be a cloudy brown ale done in the style that would have been popular during the 19th cecentury in the Genesee region.

We partnered with Custom BrewCrafters of Honeoye Falls to perfect the process that will be used in the village. They have also crafted a version of 1803 Fat Ox Ale that will be available on tap in the village as well as in glass or specialty stoneware growlers made by our village artisans.

The waste products from the brewing process will be utilized in the village as compost or animal feed.

All of our hops were generously donated by North American Breweries, the parent company of Genesee Beer, the family business that our founder, John L. Wehle, originally headed.

Check back for more posts about the history of beer in the Genesee region!

Funding for this project was provided, in part, by funding from the Davenport-Hatch foundation.

Democrat and Chronicle Mentions Fat Ox Ale!

Last week the Democrat and Chronicle mentioned our new Fat Ox Ale!!!

New (Old) Brew