Colonial Gardening Day at Walnut Grove Plantation
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This is coming up tomorrow – 11am to 4PM at Walnut Grove Plantation!
Walnut Grove Plantation to Hold Colonial Gardening Day on July 24.
Roebuck, SC, July 19 — The corn fields, wheat fields, and vegetable gardens of 18th-century Backcountry farms and plantations served as crucial food sources for settlers. Walnut Grove Plantation’s Colonial Gardening Day from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 24 relives the days when frontier farmers and aspiring planters had to grow their own food! Tim Foster, Walnut Grove’s gardener, and his assistant gardeners will share plants, techniques, and tastes of the colonial-era garden.
A plantation’s gardens and fields fed others besides settlers, however. During the American Revolution, both Patriot and Loyalist
militia frequently foraged for food on farms and plantations like Walnut Grove. Explore 18th-century military survival techniques with
local reenactors from the South Carolina Rangers. See camp food preparation techniques and learn about fire making and other frontier survival skills. Militia drills and weapons demonstrations will occur as well.
Blacksmith Bruce Mills will be making tools for the garden and plantation at Walnut Grove’s forge. Janet Pyatt of Pyatt’s Herbs and
More will be on site to share the history and uses of herds in colonial times. Jackson Dye will demonstrate pewter-casting. You can even learn how to preserve beans by stringing them together to dry in what were called “leather britches.” We’ll have cute little farm animals too! Tours of the plantation’s historic buildings are available all day. Picnics welcome!
Charles and Mary Moore established Walnut Grove Plantation after receiving a 550-acre grant of land in the South Carolina Backcountry. The Moores, who were Scots Irish immigrants, raised ten children in the house they built about 1765 and lived in for the next 40 years. Revolutionary War heroine Kate Moore Barry, who served as a scout for Gen. Daniel Morgan prior to the Battle of Cowpens, numbered among those ten sons and daughters. In late 1781, Loyalist William Cunningham, called “Bloody Bill” by the Patriots, killed three Patriot soldiers at the plantation and sparked a small skirmish with local militia, which is reenacted each year in early October.
Along with the house, the site preserves Rocky Spring Academy, one of the first schools in the area; a separate kitchen; a blacksmith’s forge; a smoke house; a barn sheltering a Conestoga-type wagon; a well house with its dry cooling-cellar; and the reconstructed office of Dr. Andrew Barry Moore, the county’s first college-trained physician. The original family cemetery is on-site as well as a nature trail.
Tours of the restored historic buildings and special events on the plantation grounds offer visitors a glimpse into the daily lives of
the people–both free and enslaved–who settled the South Carolina Backcountry, engaged British and Loyalist forces in the American Revolution, and played an important role in shaping the new nation.
Walnut Grove Plantation is operated by the Spartanburg County Historical Association, which explores and preserves our region’s
history by collecting and sharing the stories and artifacts of the people who shaped that history. In addition to Walnut Grove, the
Historical Association operates the Spartanburg Regional History Museum, the Seay House, and Historic Price House. SCHA activities and events are supported in part by The Arts Partnership of Greater Spartanburg and its donors, the South Carolina Arts Commission which receives funding from The National Endowment for the Arts, the City and County of Spartanburg, and by corporate and individual partners.
For additional information, phone 864-576-6546 or email walnutgrove@spartanburghistory.org. You can also visit our website at
www.spartanburghistory.org, see photos from our special events on Flickr at flickr.com/spartanburghistory, and even “Like” us on
Facebook at www.facebook.com/spartanburghistory.
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Contact: Zac Cunningham, Director
Walnut Grove Plantation & Historic Price House
864-576-6546 (o), 864-576-4058 (f)
walnutgrove@spartanburghistory.org
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