Duke Homestead, the family home of Washington Duke, father to American Tobacco Company and Duke University, will focus on different kinds of plants Saturday. The state historic site will hold its annual Herb, Garden and Craft Festival featuring green education, vendors, tours and children's activities.
Vendors will sell herbs like lavender and rosemary. A bake sale will include ingredients from Duke Homestead's own gardens of mint, wormwood, chamomile and lemon balm. Junior interpreters dressed in period costume from the mid-1800s will explain the historical uses of herbs for medicine, cosmetics and cooking. Volunteer interpreters will also demonstrate natural dyeing and master gardeners will talk about using natural products at home and in gardens.
Homestead education coordinator Mia Berg said that between 400 and 500 people attend the annual event that was started about 20 years ago by a Homestead staffer who was interested in herbal history.
Food and craft vendors will sell pottery, homemade jellies, birdhouses, soy candles and fiber crafts made by weaving and spinning. All vendors are local. Berg said many visitors come back each year, but the Homestead also hopes to reach those who have not previously visited the historic site. There will be tours of the 1852 Duke house.
Washington Duke was an Orange County farmer who discovered Union troops sampling the local Bright Leaf tobacco during the Civil War. Duke served in the Confederate Army. He and his sons started their tobacco factory in a small log building in the rural county, then moved into the city of Durham and grew as the business did. They later heavily donated to what was to become Duke University.
Visitors to Duke Homestead may watch demonstrations of early tobacco farming techniques and manufacturing processes. The annual Homestead and Hornwood Festival in September features costumed interpreters demonstrate tobacco harvesting, stringing, and curing. For more information about Duke Homestead and other special events, visit www.nchistoricsites.org/duke/duke.htm.
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WHAT: Herb, Garden and Craft Festival
WHEN: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday
WHERE: Duke Homestead State Historic Site, 2828 Duke Homestead Road, Durham. For more information, call 477-5498. To see more of The Herald-Sun, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.herald-sun.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Copyright (C) 2009, The Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C.