WHS Summer-Long "Back to Our Roots” Festival Showcases Westport Farming, Then and Now

 Summer-Long “Back to Our Roots” Festival Showcases Westport Farming, Then and Now

 The flagship exhibits, at the Westport Historical Society, open Friday, May 27th. Featured elements will be: Westport Farming: Then & Now, with a special focus on Wakeman Town Farm: Modeling Sustainable Farming in Westport, in the Sheffer Gallery; Barn Again! Westport’s 2011 Barn Survey, in the foyer; Rock On! Westport’s Stone Wall Story, in the little gallery, and, finally, an exhibit of authentic vintage farm tools in the WHS’s very own 1846 Bradley-Wheeler Cobblestone Barn/ Museum of Westport History.

What’s cooking at the Westport Historical Society? In recent years, for nutritional, health and gastronomic reasons, Westporters have joined a larger national consumer movement back to local produce and organic growing methods. As supermarkets, manufacturers, restaurateurs and even school curriculum planners know, this shift in demand selectively is undoing a century of “improvements” to land use, fertilization, water management, food growing, pest control, packaging, shipping and menu preparation.

Responding to this popular trend, the Westport Historical Society proudly announces Back to our Roots, a ground-breaking, summer-long, townwide festival that will use exhibits, programs and field trips to explore and celebrate 350 years of Westport farming heritage, and how that experience is shaping our lives today. Local barns, stone walls, artifacts and archival records--dating to the 17th century--will link generations of crops, livestock, tools, fertilization and food preservation wisdom to today’s farmers markets, community gardens and CSAs. Specific periods covered will be: pre-Contact through Puritan/Colonial Settlement, the Long Lots through the American Revolution, Local and Regional Market Trade (War of 1812 to Civil War), Interstate and National Trade (Civil War to 1900) and Farming Decline and Resurgence of Sustainability in the 20th and 21st Centuries. This event will conclude the WHS’s year-long celebration of Westport’s 175th Anniversary as a town.

Developed collaboratively with Wakeman Town Farm, Green Village Initiative, the Westport Farmers Market, the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation and the WHS’s own Hidden Garden Tour, Back to our Roots will run from Memorial weekend until Labor Day weekend.

Through an illustrated timeline and local artifacts, Westport Farming: Then & Now explores evolving local farming practices from the Pre-Contact era/indigenous tribes, through the Colonial Puritans and Connecticut Yankees, to today’s return to local produce. The spectrum includes crops and livestock, shell-fishing and even ice harvesting, along with related commerce such as food shipping by market boat and rail. During the early 19th century, Westport market boats supplied fast-growing Manhattan with fresh produce. During the Civil War, Westport was a major supplier of onions to the Union Army. Culminating this exhibit section are Larry Silver’s black and white photos of Westport farms and farmers.

The Wakeman Town Farm section compares WTF’s legacy as a family farm with its new role, developing a model of sustainable farming practices for Westport and other towns. Throughout the term of the exhibit, WTF will host sustainable farming demonstrations for the public on its Cross Highway property.

In the Foyer, Barn Again! Westport’s 2011 Barn Survey, features a map of nearly 250 extant (in 2010-11) barns (structures that once had an agricultural use) in Westport. The WHS team that canvassed the town were trained by the CT Trust for Historic Preservation, as part of its Statewide Barn Survey initiativePaintings of local barns by Hardie Gramatky are another highlight.

The Little Gallery houses Rock On! Westport’s Stone Wall Heritage, including photographs of colonial-era dry-stack stone walls, by Larry Untermeyer, and notes on the geological origins of local fieldstone, by UConn Geology professor, Robert Thorson, who is head of the Stone Wall Initiative and author of Stone by Stone.

The Westport Historical Society is a private, member-supported, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that receives no taxpayer subsidies. Major support for Back To Our Roots comes from annual sponsors, including lead sponsor, BNY Mellon Wealth Management, along with the Betty R. & Ralph Sheffer Foundation, Janet & Fred Plotkin/The Ruth and Adoph Schnurmacher Foundation, Berchem Moses Devlin, Kowalsky Brothers, The Leapley Financial Group/Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, TD Bank, Weichert Capital Properties and Fountainhead Wines. Additional exhibit sponsors include Green Village Initiative, Tauck-Romano Innovative Philanthropy (TRIP), Webster Bank, Westport Farmers Market, Catamount Wealth Management, Gault, Gilbertie’s Herb Gardens, Longshore Sailing School and Bank of Fairfield.

Special Back to Our Roots programs for food and farm lovers of all ages will run every Saturday at Wakeman Town Farm on Cross Highway, Thursdays at the Westport Farmer’s Market, and at a variety of times at the Westport Historical Society, 25 Avery Place. For more information, contact the WHS at 203.222.1424 or at www.westporthistory.org