This year we will celebrate Life on the Farm, the Nature of Sky Meadows, Rest and Rejuvenation, and the History of Sky Meadows. During these weekends we will consistently have Mount Bleak House tours, live music, a children's play area, hearth cooking, delicious food and drinks for sale, and, of course, our pick-your-own pumpkin patch.

Starting the weekend of October 7-8, 2017, Sky Meadows State Park holds its Fall Farm Days. Each weekend has a different theme that celebrates the different aspects of Sky Meadows.

Come out for a day of fun on the farm

Sky Meadows has a pumpkin for everyone

We will also have many of our own products, produced in the park, for sale as well. These include:

• Honey from our apiary
• Produce from our garden
• Indian corn grits and meal

Sky Meadows Honey made here

This is made possible by staff, volunteers, the Friends of Sky Meadows, and area artisans such as the folks from the Burwell-Morgan Mill. Sky Meadows State Park has a special relationship with the Burwell-Morgan Mill.

As the story foes, the Mill was looking for someonw to grow Indeian corn for them and the park had the space to grow it, so we partnered with the MIll on this endevor. After the Indian corn that we grow here is harvested, we take it to the Mill. There the millers grind the corn and package it to be sold in the Visitor Center here at Sky Meadows State Park.

 

Visit the historic Burwell-Morgan Mill in Clarke County, VA, tell them Sky Meadows sent you!

Since 1785 the Mill has been a finely tuned engine of industry for neighboring Clarke County’s population.

According to the information from the Burwell-Morgan Mill, “The existence of the Mill and its substantial production made the town of Millwood a thriving center of commerce from the late 18th century to the Civil War. Wagons brought grain to the mill, and transported it’s product from Millwood to the nearby Shenandoah River where flatboats carried it to Alexandria and other port cites.

Processing more than 60,000 bushels of wheat per year at its peak, the Mill operated constantly - day and night, seven days per week.”

Sky Meadows State Park is proud to carry on this historic tradition by having our corn ground at the Mill and to make it available to our visitors.

Grown at Sky Meadows, Ground at the Mill

I actually knew about the Burwell-Morgan Mill long before I started at Sky Meadows State Park and found out about the park’s relationship with them.

I visited the Mill as a kid for a class science project I had to do. I was in third grade and we were studying simple machines. The project was to pick one simple machine and teach the class about it in an interesting way. I choose the wheel and my mom told me about the Burwell-Morgan Mill that was nearby.

We decided to do my project on how the mill’s water wheel turned the grind-stone. We borrowed a video camera and went to the Mill to shoot a “news clip” on the water wheel. I stood outside next to the wheel and explained how when the water passed over the wheel it turned it.

Burwell-Morgan Mill has an indoor water wheel

The water passes through this run and into the building to turn the wheel

The wheel is connected to an axel which turns belts and other axels inside the Mill to turn the grind-stone. The energy “movement” of the grind-stone against the other allows corn and other grains to be ground down to make flower, meal, and grits. Needless to say I passed the assignment with flying colors. As a result, I was thrilled to find out that the Mill and Sky Meadows State Park had a partnership.

If you’d like to learn more about the Burwell-Morgan Mill and its partnership with Sky Meadows State Park then I highly recommend visiting the park the first Saturday in October where the Mill will be having demonstrations. Of course I would recommend coming every weekend since there will be unique programs and events throughout the month.

Fall Farm Days, every weekend in October, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day:

• October 7-8, Life on the Farm
• October 14-15, The Nature of Sky Meadows
• October 21-22, Rest and Rejuvenation Weekend
• October 28-29, The History of Sky Meadows

Plan your visit today online here.

Call us at (540) 592-3556 if you have any questions, or email us here.