Joni Astrup Associate Editor, Elk River Star News
At the historic Oliver Kelley Farm, tucked away along the banks of the Mississippi River in Elk River, visitors can immerse themselves in a working farm of the 1860s — complete with barnyard animals, fields of crops, activities in the farmhouse and interpreters wearing historic-looking clothing. There’s also a modern Farm Lab, where visitors can explore Minnesota agriculture, present and future.
The Kelley Farm will open for the season on June 11, although there’s a special public event on May 10 that includes a popular plant sale (see below).There also was a Spring Cleaning Day on the Farm for visitors on April 26.
The farm is a Minnesota Historical Society site located at 15788 Kelley Farm Rd.
Learn more about the operation in the following Q&A with Alyssa Olson, site manager.
Q: Briefly describe the Kelley Farm.
A: The Oliver Kelley Farm is a living history museum that was founded in memory of Oliver Kelley, who helped found the National Grange in 1867. The Grange was the nation’s first agrarian organization that helped to unite and elevate farmers socially, economically, and politically.
Q: How many visitors a year come to the farm?
A; Each year the farm sees roughly 18,000 visitors. These numbers are generally split down the middle between school field trips and general visitors.
Q: What are some visitor favorites at the farm?
A: The fan favorite the past few years was our herd of goats, although all our animals are well loved. Come for the animals, stay for the history lesson!
Q: What kinds of crops do you grow?
A: We grow a variety of crops both modern and historic. There is a variety of vegetables, herbs, and fruits in our kitchen garden on the historic farm which are varieties you would have seen in Minnesota in the 1860s. Fields immediately adjacent to the farm also include hay, sorghum, Improved King Phillip flint corn, and winter wheat. The corn, sorghum, and wheat are used in a variety of programs, but notably we’ll be threshing the wheat with our historic threshing machine on August 8 and 9 this summer. And this fall will be Prairie Sugar Day on September 27, when we will press the sorghum into sap and boil it into sweet molasses.
In our modern garden we grow a large assortment of modern fruits and vegetables in alignment with our programs where we talk about gardens today and what people grow.
Q: How many employees work at the Kelley Farm?
A: We have nine employees here full time year ‘round, and about six here seasonally.
Q: Where do you get the historic-looking clothing worn by employees?
A: We sew the majority of our costumes here at the farm. You’ll sometimes see mending happening on a day at the farm. This was an important activity as farmers in the mid-19th century owned less clothing than we do today. They had to take great care of what clothing items they had. We do the same with our costuming inventory.
We also have had some generous donations of historic costuming from other museum sites phasing out their costuming. And there are a few reproduction companies that specialize in constructing historic-looking garments, shoes, and accessories if we are in need of something specific.
Q: What are some of the challenges of running a living history farm?
A: Our farm is unique in that we need to have upkeep to not only maintain the land, buildings, animals, and so forth, but we need to be able to have it set up for visitors and demonstrations. We run some part of our operation like a regular farm, but other aspects we need to alter in order to create the opportunity for visitor interaction and safety. For example, if we aren’t able to use a ground-driven hay mower pulled by horses to cut hay, we can use the modern tractor after hours. We leave the hay in the field for visitors, where staff will show how we turned it to dry by hand. Once it’s ready to pick up, we can haul it into the barn with our hay wagon pulled by draft animals with the help of visitors as part of our daily program. Due to program or weather constraints, any remaining hay in the field might be baled with our modern tractor after hours. It isn’t efficient by any modern farming standards, but we aren’t farming for profit, we are farming for experiences we can share with others.
Q: What are some of the rewards of running a living history farm?
A: Offering someone the opportunity to step back in time is really rewarding and offers an experience you can’t get anywhere else. We can read about history, watch movies and TV, but there is something special and unique about being able to put your hands on it and feel it in person.
Q: Are you open year ‘round?
A: We are not currently open year ‘round, but we are making changes in order to offer some additional fall, winter, and spring programming and hope to have more offerings in the coming year.
Q: Do you collaborate with other organizations?
A; We work quite a bit with the Sherburne County Master Gardeners group. We co-host several events through the year including our Annual Seed Exchange in March. They will be hosting their plant sale here on Saturday, May 10, from 9-3. The farm will be open for exploration as well. Advanced tickets are recommended and can be purchased on our website.
