Kutztown Folk Festival

Hey stranger! It's been a while! (Totally, 100% my fault.) As always, life has been happening, and I've been trying to enjoy it. I have a few posts planned for this month: Orioles Baseball, 4th of July, and then today. I'm also going to Louisville at the end of the month, and hope to have some great things to share with you then. How fast has this summer gone by?! I mean, seriously!

Anyway, so yesterday, my mom and I had one of our mother-daughter dates and this time, our adventures took us to Kutztown, PA. It's home to a university (who knew?), and also the Kutztown Folk Festival, which has been in operation since 1949. It celebrates Pennsylvania Dutch culture through the showcasing and selling of fine crafts, farming essentials, trades, quilts, and food. It's fantastic! It was a 2.5 hour drive for us, but it soon proved to be well worth the trip. Admission is $14 for adults, and gets cheaper from there. You can also find $2 off coupons online. The best part: parking is free! You can walk your dogs as you browse, and there are tons of things for children to do. Almost every station has an interactive element to get kids involved. There's also the only mule-powered carousel in the world. I took a picture, but I felt so bad for the mule . . . so I'm not going to post it. However, it's something for the kids, if they'd enjoy it.

Once you get into the Festival, there are just so many things to look at. You have blacksmiths, wood turners, metal workers, quilters, copper sprinklers, jewelry, pottery . . . literally everything you can imagine. Not to mention the food - fresh brick-oven baked breads, cinnamon rolls, pies, pretzels, meats, freshly brewed root and birch beers and sarsaparilla. Oh. My. Goodness. We could have stayed forever. It was so cool! And what honestly made it cool was that everyone that was there represented their craft, whether that was woodworkers, doormat makers (out of tires), bee cultivators, whatever. There was a glassblowing presentation. Each vendor sits and works on their specialty as you browse so you can see that the things you are buying are legit. 

The Quilt Barn was literally like a museum - for real, people were sitting on chairs and admiring the quilts. This is because Quilters pride themselves on doing every stitch by hand, if you're the real deal. My great-grandmother used to make quilts, and they are prized possessions in my family. This is why they're so valuable. You can cheat and do them on sewing machines, but deep down in your heart, you'd know you were a cheater. Anyway, every July 4 weekend, there is a massive quilt auction. Last year, one quilt sold for over $15,000!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from yesterday. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the food that we had, but on the list was a GIANT cinnamon roll, eggplant fries with marinara, and an all-beef hot dog with sauerkraut. As well as fresh birch and root beers. Trust me, ALL diets were harmed in the making of this post ;) Enjoy!