Spring Break 2011 - Part IV

After arriving home from Houston, we stayed just one night before hitting the road again. But, this time it was just a daytrip to Homestead Heritage, a community north of Waco and just less than two hours from us. We spent the day on a walking tour of the community's craft workshops and homestead. The homesteading community is made up of about 1,000 Christians who live together on 510 acres. We were able to tour the area open to the public and introduce the kids to a way of life very different than our own.

In the fiber crafts barn, this sweet lady so generously took time away from her work to teach us how to spin wool fibers into thread.


I wanted to take pictures of the girls working on three of the weaving looms, but I held back because they were in a class.  I didn't want to be a distraction or act as if they were on display in a museum. It just seemed awkward to gawk. You can trust me that they were weaving together cute vests. I was super impressed at the amount of time that they put into each project.

I also talked myself out of taking photos of the woodworkers in the furniture making barn as well as the super nice potter in the potter's house. It just seemed invasive to gawk with my camera as people worked on projects.

In the woodworkers' building, a class of men were working on gorgeous rocking chairs. Daniel spied on them for a while and was impressed with their craftsmanship and lack of power tools. All Heritage Furniture is crafted by hand and is absolutely gorgeous. The Homestead Heritage men are so talented that they were contracted to build President Bush's home in Crawford, and some of their furniture belongs to the permanent collection at the White House. If you are PBS fan, you can picture a whole group of Norm Abrams from new Yankee Workshop.

Only one woman was working on the wheel in the potter's house, but a large collection of pottery was on display for purchase. I definitely wanted to purchase at least two full sets of tableware. The pieces were gorgeous. I had to hold myself back.

From there, we walked to the gristmill which was originally built around 1760 in western New Jersey where it operated until 1918.


HH found the mill in 2000 when it was dismantled and moved to Texas. They fully restored the mill and handmade cypress overshot water wheel. 


I still don't understand how everything works to make whole wheat flour and cornmeal, but I do know that all of the different baking mixes looked absolutely delicious.  I had to hold myself back from going home with all kinds of yummy carbs. The sweet potato pancake/waffle mix as well as the cinnamon streussel muffin mix were calling my name. 



One more place that I didn't take photos was the forge. The blacksmith was making a wrought-iron table, and I could tell it was going to be gorgeous. We watched him work, but only briefly because it was stinkin' hot in there with the hot coals. It was interesting, but much more pleasant to be outside on the beautiful grounds.




The kids, as always, enjoyed the animals. I think the farm was their favorite stop.



I was jealous of all the home-grown produce. I tried to convince Daniel to get rid of our dogs so we could plant veggies in our backyard.  It didn't work.


But, don't be surprised if he installs this type of rainwater gathering system with a windmill on the land we plan to buy in the near future. He's quite certain we need to get "off the grid" as much as possible.


The one thing we were in total agreement on was the food. Man, oh, man! The cafe was our last stop at Homestead Heritage, and it was AMAZING! Everything from the handmade cheese to fresh, grassfed beef to organic ice cream was like nothing else we've ever had. We stuffed ourselves with our meals then left with carob ice cream and sorghum pecan ice cream that was so delicious we made ourselves miserable by overeating. I know, without a doubt, that we will be making more trips to the Homestead Heritage Cafe.

Food talk aside, we also plan to return to HH after Thanksgiving for the annual craft fair. We heard all about the handmade items they will be selling and demostrations/classes we can take to learn how to make everything they do from candles and brooms to boots and cheese. There will be live music, shopping, crafting and, our favorite, eating. We won't pass that up!

Now, I won't even get into the religious aspect of this community, but I do have a great respect for their sustainable living. I would love to be able to incorporate even just a small fraction of their way of life in our family. And, no matter what I think about their religion, I can't deny the tranquility and peacefulness that they are cultivating. It is admirable. And, it was a perfect spring break escape from our hectic lives.