Dublin Heritage Park and Museums 'Year of the Farm' Features Exhibits, Activities

DUBLIN, CA: The City of Dublin Heritage Park and Museums is celebrating 2016 as “Year of the Farm,” and will offer a year-long series of exhibits and events that connect the Dublin of today with Dublin’s farmers of the past.

Dublin’s “Year of the Farm” kicks off with a museum exhibit celebrating Dublin farmers, presented in the Murray Schoolhouse Little Classroom. Farm-to-Table: Dublin’s Farmers opens on Wednesday, April 13, 2016, with a reception from 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. The display will be open to the public on Tuesdays, 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m., and Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays,1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., through July 31, 2016. Admission is free, and the exhibit is suitable for all ages.

The Farm-to-Table exhibit provides an overview of Dublin’s agricultural past, exploring who was farming and what they were growing in various locations around the Dublin landscape. The exhibit takes visitors back to when Dublin was a rural farming and ranching community with fewer than 300 residents. Over the past 150 years, Dublin’s farmers raised cattle and poultry, and grew walnuts and tomatoes. Museum guests will learn how these small farms and businesses approached sustainability, family, and community, and explore the processes farmers used to produce different types of crops and how they fit into the larger California agricultural economy.

On Saturday, April 30, from 8:00 a.m. to noon, in conjunction with Dublin Pride Week, community members and volunteer gardeners will help prepare a new Farm Yard adjacent to the Kolb House, clearing and tilling the soil in preparation for “Year of the Farm” planting festivities at the Spring Faire. To volunteer in the Heritage Park Farm Yard during Dublin Pride, or to obtain more information about any of the Dublin Pride Week activities, please visit the website, or call (925) 833-6630.

Children will be the first to plant the new Farm Yard garden, as they learn about historic gardening and sustainability at the annual Spring Faire on Saturday, May 7, 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. Admission is free. Spring Faire activity wristbands are $5 and include the hands-on gardening activity, as well as a tractor-drawn hay ride, milking the ‘cow,’ butter churning, ice cream making, and do-it-yourself project pen activities, where families can create with recycled materials and take home one-of-a-kind crafts. Spring Faire visitors can also visit the Farm-to-Table exhibit or tour the home of Dublin’s farm family, the Kolbs, to see what they’d likely be doing on a spring day in 1949.

Also in May, Dublin Heritage Park hosts Farm-to-Table Tea Lunches on Saturday, May 7, 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m., and Tuesday, May 10, 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. These springtime tea lunches center on locally grown produce and farm-fresh treats, served up inside our rustic Sunday School Barn, beautifully decorated with farm décor. Tickets are $25 per person. Purchase tickets online. Space is limited, so purchase your tickets early.

“Year of the Farm” will continue into the fall with the annual Harvest Festival on October 15, 2016, featuring an exhibit on Historic Highway 21, the route that carried Dublin’s farm goods to different ports, sending local products near and far.

For more information, please call the Dublin Heritage Park & Museums at (925) 452-2100, or visit us online.

Announcement submitted by City of Dublin

Photo courtesy Patch