Ardenwood Historic Farm

I used to await summer holidays in India. My mom was a teacher, so she had same holidays as me. We used to spend few summer days at my maternal grandmother's farm in a small village called Nagao near Alibag. My mom has 6 brothers, and each one has their own share of the farm where they grow coconut, jackfruit, berry trees. They have fields in which they grow rice and pulses like vaal. They keep cows, bullocks, chicken fowl etc. The Nagao beach has become a famous tourist attraction in past few years, but when we were little not many people knew about it.

Since my kids get to visit India once in 3-4 years, they are not much acquainted with farm life. They get to know about it through books and visits to some nearby farm. Over the weekend we decided to visit the Ardenwood Historic farm. It is a place full of tranquility located on the border of Fremont and Newark, right in the heart of silicon valley. It is part of the East Bay Regional Park District.The farm hosts many kids activities on weekdays as well as the weekends.


Yarns About Wool: In this activity the kids got to touch and feel the wool sheared from the sheep. The instructor took 2 brushes with metal bristles on them and showed how the curly wool is straightened. She used a spinning wheel to spin the strightened wool in to thread or yarn. Kids got to mimic the action of the spinning wheel by holding the wool in one hand and twisting with the other. In the process they also found out that the wool was very strong and the fibers do not break easily.


Peacock : We got glimpses of this beautiful bird in the park.



Train ride : We took a short train ride on the railcar which used to be horse-drawn in the past. It went up to deer station and on the way conductor educated us on the history of the farm. We got to see tall eucalyptus, bare walnut trees and vast fields on our ride.



CooCoo for Cookies : In this activity kids helped bake chocolate cookies (Mmm...). They enjoyed taking turns to add the ingredients and help mix the dough. They found out that mixing cookie dough was very tough without the modern-day kitchen equipments. They got to learn the important lesson "Necessity is the mother of invention". The cookies were baked in dutch oven, again an old way to bake cookies! Finally we all got to eat the cookies that they made!


Name that seed : In this activity the kids were given a chart with fruits, vegetables and flower pictures and a bowl with seeds. They had to match the seed with the picture. Parents were to help kids. (Well i would not reveal how many of them we got correct!). But all the kids were winners and got a popcorn corn as a reward. Back home we tried to separate the dried corn from the cob and the kids found it very time consuming. I pointed out to them that for this very reason humans invented machines! They got the message!

Equipment from olden times :
We got to see the stone mill (As a kid I used to help my mom grind pulses, just out of curiosity!), corn sheller, corn grinder, farm equipment such as tractors.












There are other places that we visited in the Ardenwood Historic farm like the Patterson house, aviary, blacksmith shop and the farmyard cafe for a nice cold popsicle!

The kids had a fun-filled day with stories to share with their teachers and friends and oh yes! I forgot about the wool that my little one got for show and tell in the school.