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!

Countdown to the Agricultural Fair!

Three Days to go until the Agricultural Fair!!

This year's fair is gearing up to be our best yet and features Magic, Mystery, and Mayhem! Get your fortune told by a traveling mystic, hear a sales pitch from a medicine woman, see a magic show, try your hand at phrenology and try a taste of heirloom variety apples. There's plenty to see and do!

Thrill to the many performance opportunities offered: our Grand Show will be the amazing Signora Bella, slack rope walker and juggler. She will astonish you with her talents at knife and fire juggling all while balanced on a slim rope! Having performed at Mt Vernon and Colonial Williamsburg, she is a world-class act you won't want to miss!

 

For the little ones, see the classic Punch and Judy Show where the time-honored story-telling technique of puppetry will delight them. On Sunday, see the Magic Show at the Davis Opera House. Can the magician guess which card you have without looking?  

Roaming around the Village Square, see impromptu encounters with the Medicine Woman and her remedies. Do you believe her pitch?

 

 

A Special Exhibit at the McKay house will thrill you! Harry Houdini Original Artifacts will be on display there all weekend accompanied by the grand-nephew of the Handcuff King himself!

The Horticulture Tent is filled with glorious displays of the harvest abundance. See heirloom varieties of carrots, potatoes, squash, and cucumbers and taste some of the apples from the Village. Assist the farmer with thrashing and processing corn and find out how to grow your own heirloom vegetables from our Master Gardener.

Step into the Tent of Wonders and you are sure to be thrilled! See the amazing 6 foot tall Man-Eating Chicken, a rib from the Ark, the Shield of an Amazon Warrior Princess, a painted Lady, the Waters of the World and many more such fantastic items.

New this year, you can try your hand at guessing the objects at the Tactile Teasers table. What is in the box? Can you guess just by touching? Our Barker will be happy to assist you in your guesses and reveal the true answer!

Around the Village Square are a variety of tents to entertain and inspire you. Learn how to tell someone's character by the bumps on their head at the Phrenology Tent. Have the mystic answer your questions about the future, all in good fun, of course, at Fortune's Favorite. Learn about the evils of Demon Rum through an entertaining tableaux and sign the Temperance pledge at the Temperance Society booth.

Shopping opportunities abound, whether getting a jump of Christmas, or taking home the farm-fresh products you love, the popular Market Tent features specialty vendors offering  cheeses, baked goods, maple products, spices, honey, cider, apples and other specialty items. Vendors include Abbott's Custard, the historical Popcorn Wagon, Helmut's Strudel, Rochester Herb Society, Kutters Cheese and many more!

In addition, you can purchase Village-made products like baskets, pottery, 

 brooms, and naturally-dyed wool at the Peddler's Wagon, or the Flint Hill Store.  

Special guest Gretchin Sepik, also known as "Erie Canal Sal," will be on campus both days offering a book signing at the Flint Hill Store and performances daily in St. Feehan's Church.  Sal, the cook on the boat, the Saint Francis, is a seasoned storyteller. She weaves together history and folktales about the Erie Canal into a fine tapestry of fact and fiction. In her Irish brogue she will insist that each story is true and it is up to you to decide!  Book is available for purchase on line or in the Flint Hill Store. 

There are exhibitions in more than 150 categories of judged baked goods, preserves, hand-made needlecrafts and the industrial arts—including tin, iron and wooden wares; pottery; cooperage (barrel making); printing; and broom and soap making.

Youth compete in 60 different aged categories, from penmanship and pottery to photography and pumpkin pie.

Among the competitions are those for the largest pumpkin, one for weight and a second for size. The competitions are open to museum members and the public alike, and most have both 19th- and 21st-century categories. This year, entrants will receive one day free admission to the Ag Fair. Click Here for Contest Entries!

Prize-winning sheep, oxen, cows, alpaca and horses will be on display, in addition to a poultry show, sponsored by the Rochester Poultry Assn.  On Saturday watch the goat show and competition hosted by the Genesee Valley Dairy Goat Club.

And, as was common at 19th-century fairs, museum vintage base ball teams will square off for the Mayor’s Cup Championship trophy. Games are at 1:30 pm at the Silver Baseball Field both days. 

Special performance on Sunday: you won't want to miss the Harmonics Concert at Brooks Grove Church at 2pm.

Today's Word of the Day is cabbage. Cabbage is a synonym for plagiarize. "I like the way that pumpkin is carved, but I don't want to cabbage it."

National Silver Ball Tournament This Weekend!

This weekend, along with our Laura Ingalls Wilder event we are also hosting the National Silver Ball Tournament. All players play by vintage 1865 rules and wear period uniforms. It's baseball like you've never seen it before! We also have the first replica 1860's ball field in the nation!! The cost of tickets covers both the Laura Ingalls Wilder event as well as the Silver Ball Tournament!  This will really be a weekend that your whole family will enjoy! 

Friday, Saturday & Sunday, August 6-8

Teams from across the East, Northeast, Midwest and Canada clash during this eighth  annual National Silver Ball Tournament, featuring 23 vintage base ball games over three days.The matches will be played round robin style on three fields, including the museum’s Silver Base Ball Park — the first replica 1800s base ball park in the nation.

All teams play according to 1865 rules.

In addition, the museum's own Brooks Grove Belles and Miss Porter's Ladies Base Ball Club will play an exhibition game Saturday at 1:30 p.m. The game will be played on the Great Meadow.

Beginning Friday at 3:30 p.m., the teams will play continuously, with the championship game at 2 p.m. on Sunday.  

Games begin on Saturday and Sunday at 9 a.m. 

 The teams scheduled to appear include:

Brooks Grove Belles, Mumford, NY

Cleveland Blues BBC, Cleveland, Ohio

Flemington Neshanock BBC, Flemington, NJ

Flower City BBC, Mumford, NY

Kent BBC,   Grand Rapids, MI

Knickerbockers BBC, Mumford, NY

Live Oak BBC, Mumford, NY

Meddowe BBC, Springfield, MA

Melrose Pondfeilders BBC, Melrose, MA

Miss Porter’s Ladies BBC, Mumford, NY

Rochesters BBC, Mumford, NY

Talbot Fair Play BBC, Talbot, MD

Woodstock Actives BBC, Woodstock, Ontario

All games are free with museum admission.

Major Event Admission rates: $16 adult; $10 youths 4-16, $13 seniors 62+ or students with ID, children under 3 admitted free.

Baseball Season Kicks Off & Fathers Get in Free On Sunday

This Sunday, in celebration of Father's Day, all Dads get free admission to the museum!

This Sunday also marks the kickoff of the men's 2010 Baseball Season with a doubleheader of 1865 base ball at Silver Base Ball Park that begins at Noon. Our ladies league kicks off their season at 1pm on Saturday.

The museum boasts 4 mens teams and 2 ladies teams. We have our very own baseball park and all of our players wear vintage uniforms and play by old time rules. It's a great time to compare today's game to the one played in the 19th century. From no gloves, to no infield fly rule (and who can remember that one anyway?) it's entertaining and educational at the same time.

Period costumes, rules and etiquette are meticulously adhered to by our four local teams and visiting opponents. The hawkers ply vintage snacks. Boys man the scoreboard. And unattended ladies are asked to sit in the appropriate section to avoid scandal!

Our Silver Base Ball Park is the first and finest 19th-century replica ball park in the nation!

For more information about our Father's Day Celebration check out our website.

Mens 2010 Baseball Schedule
Ladies 2010 Baseball Schedule