Old Deerfield Craft Festival

 

Last year Earl and I went out for a fall foliage drive and we headed North with no objective other to find pretty leaves and maybe get to the Vermont border and maybe find some cheese.  While we never made it to Vermont that day, we found something better, the Old Deerfield Craft Festival. He had pulled into this parking lot and we found ourselves on a bus to go and check it out! It was so much fun.  Honestly it's something that I had never thought to go to before because they charge admission.  However, after attending I think it's well worth the $5.00 to get in.  We spent a few hours there last year and again this year and it goes to help support their local museum.  The area it is in is rich in history.  If you look up Deerfield Massachusetts you will find more than a little bit of reading material.  The craft fair itself is located within Historic Deerfield.   

Historic Deerfield is an 18th Century New England Village.  It's a lot like Old Sturbridge Village that I tell you about all the time.  The thing that is really neat though is that you can see all the houses and walk the roads that it's located in without having to pay a fee to get in.  However, if you are interested you can support their cause of preserving history and pay an admission to get access to the interior of houses and the tours in many of them.  We have done it before and it was a great way to spend the day. 

Today though it was all about going to the Deerfield Craft Festival!! I have had the flyer hanging on my door with the coupon for admission for weeks.  I was so excited and the day was perfect!! Being a craft fair in and old are of New England I find that a lot of the vendors there are very suited to New England.  As a witch Iove so many of the vendors.  If you are looking for jewelry there are so many places selling jewelry, a lot of them had natural stone jewelry that I know so many of you would love. I saw a couple of bracelets that I almost grabbed and there were some great earrings with little ghosts on them! If you love tea there was more than one vendor selling tea and I saw a few with raw honey and different types of honey.  There was even a vendor just for fire cider! I was surprised to see that.  I think a lot of you would know what that is... it just occured to me that it may be a New England sort of thing as most of the time I've heard of it it's been with New England Witches.  I'll make a note to circle back to that on a different day with you!



One of my favorite vendors wound up being from my town! She runs Red Wagon Primitives. I bought a small battery candle from her that looks like it's form the 1800's with a flicker light bulb.  It has sunflowers on it and matches one with a cardinal that I have.  They both live on my desk where I'm writing this to you. :)


This is a picture of her booth. :)) You can likely tell right away why I was so comfy there. :)



In addition to all the vendors, there was a museum to visit, food trucks and the best part ... goats! :)) Aren't they cute! We made friends. 



This is Memorial Hall museum, the museum that proceeds from the craft fair benefits.  The building is from the late 1700's... 1798 I think. It was part of the Deerfield Academy and the collection starts around the same time.  The museum opened to the public in 1880.  I had a lot of fun there both years as they have a great collection of objects that have to do with local history.  You can check that out more if you are interested in the website that I linked for you above. They have a lot of great pictures on there for you. 



One of the coolest booths that I saw today was a place called Of Grave Concern. I didn't take any picture in his booth out of respect for how absolutely unique and interesting his art is! Seriously I could have spent so much longer there and I'm already signed up for his email lists.  He even offered to tell me some dark tales. I loved it!  He creates historically inspired art.   He had apothecary bottles and jars, candles, books.  It's really hard to explain so I'm going to give you his website!! I know so many of you are going to love his art! You can find his website here: Of Grave Concern  He also has a section on his website that has history!! I could not love it more! I encourage you to give him a visit. 



Last year we found this beautiful path in the village that goes by a working dairy farm.  It's so beautiful and so relaxing. I truly love living in New England.  Especially on days like this where I can wander dirt roads from the 1800's. It's called the Channing Blake Footpath. I linked a small video for you. 



This is another photo of that path for you. 



After that we walked the Village! This picture features two homes that Historic Deerfield owns.  There are private residences on this street as well.  



This is another picture that I took. :)  If you are in the area it's a great place to explore.  

I hope that you enjoy looking at all the links and the pictures. 

Have an amazing day!

Much Love and Many Blessings,

Jasmeine Moonsong