FEATURE
Farm-to-Table:
Foodways, Historical Interpretation, and Community Connections
Volunteer taking visitors on a tour of the 80-acre property. Photo by WCPD Staff.
Amid the Great Depression, millions of Americans suffered from food insecurity despite a large agricultural surplus. It is a fact that seems wildly, if not maddeningly, contradictory. Why, if there was an abundance of food, did people go hungry? Sadly, the reality was that individuals and families simply could not afford it. Plagued by rampant unemployment and substantial reductions in purchasing power, the average income held little weight against the forces of the market. Farmers, too, equally suffered as commodity prices plummeted, and the rural economy stagnated. The food crisis that enveloped the country, the delicate balancing act between precarity and production, would require political as well as community action.
In rural areas, such as Northwest Ohio, this community action was essential in many lives and could be seen through community members coming together with gardens, community pantries, and soup kitchens. Living in a rural area during the Great Depression meant people were, whether they wanted to or not, likely a part of their personal or local foodway. At Carter Historic Farm, a Great Depression living history site in Bowling Green, Ohio, we strive to demonstrate that historical community support, while practicing the ethos of the time by being involved in and educating community members about the local food systems around them.
At Carter Historic Farm, we are dedicated to connecting our local community to rural life in Depression Era Ohio. Carter Historic Farm staff offer a variety of educational program opportunities to connect our community to where their food comes from, and how they can be a part of that foodway. From how they can grow their own food through our Homestead Series, to free farm-to-table meals full of fresh foods grown locally, the public has the opportunity to engage in a meaningful way with a small-scale foodway. These opportunities help them gain a greater understanding of both historical and modern-day food systems.
Heritage breed chickens who supply eggs for all our farm-to-table events with the large vegetable garden that provides all the produce. Photo by WCPD Staff.
Volunteer showing visitor how to use the corn shelling machine, and explaining why that machine was essential on a Depression Era Farm. Photo by WCPD Staff.
Wetland, Woodlot, Tillable Acres, and Homestead
Carter Historic Farm boasts a wide variety of agricultural production available for interpretation and engagement. When visiting the farm throughout the year, you are likely to experience staff in some stage of the work that goes into producing food for the local community. Carter Historic Farm is an 80-acre site that is part of the Wood County Park District in Northwest Ohio. This site is comprised of a 20-acre wetland, a 10-acre woodlot, around 40 tillable acres, and a 10-acre homestead area. Having this variety gives us the opportunity to showcase many aspects of food production.
We utilize our woodlot for harvesting maple syrup annually, leading to both an educational programming in February and syrup for our farm-to-table breakfasts held throughout the winter. In our 40 tillable acres, we are able to demonstrate varieties of grains that were popular during the Great Depression and are regaining popularity today due to their nutrient richness. We grow buckwheat, Minnesota 13 corn, Jimmy Red corn, spelt oats, barley, and wheat. All these grains are either used for farm-to-table programming, utilized by the public in their homes, or added to the local agricultural system. The farm also raises livestock in the homestead area: chickens, hogs, and sheep. These animals provide staff with the opportunity to interpret the multi-use aspect of livestock on a farm and provide the protein for our farm-to-table meals.
Our Volunteers
Carter Farm is run by a staff of two full-time employees and two part-time employees. This is a comparatively small staff when considering the work that is completed at the farm, which is why our volunteers are an essential aspect of Carter Farm operation. Volunteers are given the opportunity to have an active hand in the interpretation through caring for the gardens, preparing meals, and more.
Due to the farm’s proximity to Bowling Green State University, students have the opportunity to come out and learn through doing. Many students come to the farm not knowing anything about agriculture and leave with a new understanding of where their food comes from. One of our favorite stories is from one such group coming to volunteer at the farm. The students were primarily from urban areas, having no idea that potatoes were root crops. We had them assist with harvesting our potato crop of the season, with many likening it to a treasure hunt. We allowed students to take a potato home, instructing them on how they could make a microwave baked potato in their dorm rooms with a potato they pulled from the earth themselves. We have since had many of those students volunteer again, frequently bringing up their potato adventures.
In addition to one-off volunteer opportunities, we also have several dedicated regulars. With weekly visits for tasks such as repairing and restoring equipment to daily chores, our regular volunteers have the opportunity to be hands-on in the production at the farm. Some of our favorite times spent with volunteers is with those individuals whom we can count on to join us before every farm-to-table meal. These volunteers come cheerful and ready to chop vegetables, crack eggs, and shuck corn. Staff are able to learn from these volunteers as well, as many of them have lived through changes in foodways and are able to share their knowledge and experiences.
BGSU Students helping to teach young visitors about garden pests and garden care. Photo by WCPD Staff.
Rows of breakfast enjoyers at the farm-to-table breakfast held in WCPD’s historic Thompson Stone Hall. Photo by WCPD Staff.
Building Community with Meals
As mentioned, the farm has multiple farm-to-table meals a year. In the fall we host the Heritage Farm Fest: an opportunity for families to come to the farm, share a meal, learn about rural life, and enjoy the day with different activities. Our meal for Heritage Farm Fest consists of bratwurst from the hogs raised on the farm, cornbread made with cornmeal grown on the farm, warm vegetable soup full of everything grown in the garden from squashes to tomatoes, pickled beets, sauerkraut from cabbage grown and processed at the farm, and pear butter from the pear trees as a sweet topping for the cornbread. This meal is an opportunity to show the visitors not only a historical meal, but also the opportunities that their local foodways provide for their own tables. Leading up to the event, local community members become actively involved in the preparations, including a local vocational school preparing cornbread for over 500 guests annually. These preparation opportunities allow for members of the public to have hands-on experience with the historical local foodway we are demonstrating through this meal.
A local favorite is our farm-to-table breakfasts throughout the winter. Visitors leave full of buckwheat pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, potatoes, and a satisfying sense of community. All the products for the breakfasts are grown and processed at the farm, which makes for a great meal. However, it is the sense of community formed around the meal that is the greatest part of the farm-to-table breakfasts. Tables are set up in long rows, family style, encouraging visitors to sit with new faces and share their stories.
Due to this being an indoor and accessible event, we have many senior members of the public attend, including visitors who are old enough to have their own stories about local foodways during the Great Depression. One such visitor remembers the day when he was finally put in charge of the family chickens, and he was able to go to the feedstore to choose the right feed. He, to this day, remembers his excitement over raising those chickens to produce delicious eggs and meat for his family and neighbors.
The farm-to-table meals hold a special place in our community because of the opportunity to share stories just like this one from generation to generation. They give grandparents the opportunity to share their “I remember when...” stories spurred on by meals reminiscent of their childhood. The meals are an opportunity to be involved in the local food system while also interpreting the historical foodways.
WCPD staff serving a regular volunteer who helped make the Heritage Farm Fest meal possible. Photo by WCPD Staff.
Giving Back to the Community
In addition to educating the community about foodways and sharing meals through our farm-to-table events, Carter Farm works to give back to the community. One way the farm gives back is by donating extra produce and meat to the Brown Bag Food Project, a non-profit food bank located in Bowling Green. Carter Historic Farm has donated over 3,000 pounds of food to the Brown Bag Food Project in the last 3 years, providing community members with fresh healthy vegetables and locally raised bratwurst to nourish their families.
We also work with various rehabilitation groups, providing meaningful volunteer hours and education that will be applicable to their lives after they have completed their programs. These opportunities have led several of these volunteers to seriously consider becoming an active member of food systems in the future, valuing the importance of quality foods in the local food system.
The farm also holds several other programs throughout the year encouraging and educating members of the community to be involved in the local foodway. One such series is our Homestead Series. Every month members of the community come together to learn and connect. Through partnerships with local agricultural extension offices, a wide variety of programming is available to those in our community who are interested in becoming a part of the foodways around them.
With our Homestead Series kickoff in January 2025, we discussed Ohio Cottage law, had a panel of local homesteaders, and formed connections with other local homesteaders. Throughout the year we follow along the growing season, offering classes starting with planning the garden to preserving food after harvest to feed families and communities. These programs also focus on animal care and production, showing local families how they can produce their own eggs and meat products on a manageable scale.
Of course, these programs also frequently become a forum for homesteaders to share ideas, share support, and brainstorm issues everyone is facing. For example, during a program on pests, several attendees shared their tips and tricks for dealing with squirrels. Many went home and tested these tips, and came back with success stories in their gardens. These programs give members the confidence to be involved in their foodway, creating a strong sense of connection to where their food comes from.
Volunteers serving breakfast at the farm-to-table breakfast. Photo by WCPD Staff.
Employees serving farm-raised bratwurst at the Heritage Farm Fest event. Photo by WCPD Staff.
Historical Education
As a compliment to hands-on programming, an important area of development has been lecture-based historical education. Through our annual “Agricultural History Lecture Series,” guests are invited to learn more about how agricultural production changed throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Focusing on a variety of thematic topics, such as historic commodity production and economic trends, the lectures illuminate how these changes affected not only farmers but also regional and national foodways.
A successful lecture on the 1980s Farm Crisis, a period which saw high debts and farm foreclosures, for example, demonstrated how rural economic stagnation increased the cultivation of corn and soybeans among Midwestern farmers. Before, a more diversified range of commodities were grown, such as a variety of vegetables and fruits. When the demand coalesced around western and southern markets, Midwesterners felt the effects in the availability of locally sourced produce. It is through lessons like these that historical education connects contemporary audiences to the often-overlooked realities of modern foodways.
An aspect that can be difficult in interpreting foodways is ensuring you acknowledge the cultural significance of the steps in creating the dishes and the meal itself. In interpreting the culture around meals during the Great Depression in Northwest Ohio, we are able to identify the important aspects that tie to the economic impact that the Depression had on these traditional recipes. For example, while following recipes from historic cookbooks, we may substitute for another ingredient that we may have more readily available. This usually leads to the discussion of people in the Great Depression utilizing what they had available and how this affects family traditions and recipes.
Agricultural Specialist Chase Fleece teaching weekly volunteers about the 1910s planter and planting the spelt that will be harvested in 2026. Photo by WCPD Staff.
These educational conversations are more frequently held in less formal education settings, in passing at events or during volunteer opportunities. Creating the “at-home” atmosphere for visitors, facilitating conversation, and working side-by-side with our volunteers are all steps we take to ensure that, even while volunteering, community members have the opportunity to discuss our current food systems versus that during the Great Depression. One prime example is during our farm-to-table breakfasts, we have used pear butter available instead of maple syrup. This is because we have not had a good maple syrup year for a few years now, but we have had plenty of pears in the summer to preserve. This gives us the opportunity to discuss how someone in the Great Depression might not have had the funds or means to get maple syrup for their pancakes, but they still found a way to add sweetness to their life. Whereas today, we have several cheap and available options in the store. This is a fun conversation, because many members of the public may not understand the work and process for pure maple syrup, and the production process is usually a natural progression of the conversation. Of course, we do outsource some syrup, because due to our current “always available” food systems, there is an expectation, and sometimes you just can’t have your pancake without a little syrup!
Volunteers using historic cider presses to make fresh cider at Heritage Farm Fest event. Photo by WCPD Staff.
Interpretive Opportunities
Carter Historic Farm has a unique interpretive opportunity that only historic farms have, to make hands-on lasting connections to foodways within the community. This makes sites such as Carter Farm essential in many areas—making a welcoming and safe space for people to learn, ask questions, and make mistakes. At Carter Historic Farm, not every row needs to be planted straight, but every volunteer who planted that row should leave having learned something new about the food on their plates.
Becoming an active part of your local food system can be intimidating and seem impossible. From the expectations created by social media to the overhead costs advertised for growing the “perfect” garden, local foodways can seem impossible. However, looking back in history, we are able to see how people were able to make it work, building thriving food systems and communities out of very little resources. Carter Historic Farm makes learning about foodways accessible and possible for community members who may have never considered where their food came from without a visit to the farm.
