Corrales Harvest Festival

Corrales is an agricultural village in the North-West corner

of the city of Albuquerque,

established long before Albuquerque's city limits

greeted its border.

It is historical and traditional New Mexico, rural, and affluent.

It celebrates its agricultural heritage every year with a harvest festival.

I had planned this outing with Ella,

but also invited a friend from work.

We started out at the Farmer's Market,

where we purchased tickets to ride the hay wagon

down the closed off road.

The hay wagon made several stops for attractions

like a kids play area and an arts/craft show.

We continued on past Wagner Farms,

which is the location for my earlier blog entry

on roasting green chiles.

The pumpkins are available!

I may have to go back next weekend.

What we had come to see was the open

admission day to Casa San Ysidro.

My Photo of Casa San Ysidro
June 5, 2014

Ella was excited about her first visit!

The courtyard garden had abundant sunflowers

and late summer greenery.

We took the tour of the inside,

but since it is owned by the museum,

we had to follow museum rules.

No inside photography!

The docent is a substitute teacher at our school,

and so we had a nice time chatting before coming back out

where photography is allowed.

The brown wood windows are an older New Mexico style

while the white pane windows are a part of the territorial style,

introduced when Americans started coming to New Mexico

after 1846.

The back courtyard has more outbuildings,

like this blacksmith shop and several log cabins.

We met Josefina in the blacksmith shop!

Casa San Ysidro, being owned by the Albuquerque Museum,

is also opened to tours of school children.

I'm sure Josefina can be very helpful to them

as they learn New Mexico history!

Ella got to see the reproduction stereo scope on the top shelf.
It like the one American Girl Samantha would have had!

We also listened to the blacksmith in this building.

There are two small log cabins on the property.

Adobe (the mixture of clay, sand and straw)

was still used as a mortar or chinking between the logs.

There is a collection of grinding stones in the back,

near an horno.

After looking at it carefully,

Ella gave the stones a try!

This was actually suggested by and set up by a man

who was volunteering near the horno.

I love it when other people join in on the play!

The horno was being used to bake breads and other treats.

The Pueblo woman also with the horno

said that several turkeys could also be baked in one large horno!

There were three churro sheep.

Churro sheep are a less hardy type of sheep,

but were traditionally used for their wool in New Mexico.

They are now rare compared to other types of sheep.

There was a table to share information about churro sheep

and weaving. The volunteer must have been on a break,

but there was a card with information.

 After admiring the beautiful colors in the rug

Ella tested out the churro wool in the baskets.

When we were done visiting Casa San Ysidro,

we visited the San Ysidro church across the street.

Image Found Online

The Market of Traditional Arts was hosted inside the church.

We rode the hay wagon back to the Farmer's Market,

which was near where we had parked.

The quilting shop was across the street from the parking lot.

It isn't normally open on Sunday,

but today they had a line of quilts outside

drawing me in.

As we walked around, looking at fabrics and fat quarters,

I could smell roasted green chile.

Did the harvest festival follow us in the quilting shop?

Yes, my friend was carrying her bag of roasted green chile

she had just purchased at the Farmer's Market!

Well, that is how we do the Harvest Festival in New Mexico!