The 2009 Harriton Plantation Fair  scheduled for Saturday, September 26, 10AM to 4PM (rain or shine).This major event in Lower Merion Township features crafts, antiques, sheep herding in the meadow, pony rides, historic house tours, childrens' games, muskets and soldiers, blacksmiths, stone carvers, cabinetmakers, spinners, weavers, Bluegrass music and Colonial songs, and much more.  There are also the Harriton Attic Treasures Booth, which is the best flea market on the Main Line, the Harriton Farm stand featuring flowers and organic produce from the Harriton garden, and a Silent Auction, all of which help to assure Harriton's continued operation as an historic site.   Visit our Photo Gallery for views of the 2008 Harriton Fair.

Beginning Blacksmithing will be offered at Harriton House on Saturdays October 3rd & 10th as a cooperative program with Main Line School Night. Come and work with  master blacksmith  Stephen Sears, of Sears IronWorks in Ottsville, PA, and University of the Arts metals major Kayla Block. You will learn about tools and fire and coal and metals. There will be a reference library of books and forged iron objects to see and handle. You will get hands-on experience in shaping small items of forged iron (steel actually), and you will go home with the product of your labor and instruction. Younger, older, or somewhere in the middle, or whether you think you have large biceps or small ones, you can participate. For further information contact Harriton by e-mail at Info@HarritonHouse.org or by old fashioned telephone at 610 525 0201. Fee charged and registration is through Main Line School Night at www.MainLineSchoolNight.org.

Join  Celtic literature scholar Roslyn Blyn-LaDrew and Bruce Cooper Gill, Welsh Society Member and Executive Director of Harriton House, for a conversation about the arrival of the Welsh Quakers to our area in the 1680's.  Drawing upon the writing of Welsh novelist Marion Eames, discuss the early days of the Welsh Tract.  Get reading suggestions and tips for visiting Quaker heritage sites in Wales.  Tour Harriton house and grounds.  Enjoy a cup of Welsh tea and a bit of Welsh cheese!   This is a cooperative program with Main Line School Night.  For further information contact Harriton by e-mail at Info@HarritonHouse.org or by old fashioned telephone at 610 525 0201. Fee charged and registration is through Main Line School Night at www.MainLineSchoolNight.org .

Everything from bowls to candlesticks to staircase parts and fountain pens can be made on the lathe.  Lathe turning is a popular hobby for young and old(er), and it was historically a popular pastime of nobility.  Work with Bruce Gill, Executive Director of Harriton House, to learn about the lathe and tools.  Get a lesson in sharpening (which might even come in handy around Thanksgiving - turkeys as well as wood need sharp tools!).  Come and be introduced to the pleasures of creating your personal pen, candlestick,  baby rattle, or spinning top (take THAT home to your grandchildren and see what happens!). This is a cooperative program with Main Line School Night.   For further information contact Harriton by e-mail at Info@HarritonHouse.org or by old fashioned telephone at 610 525 0201. Fee charged and registration is through Main Line School Night at www.MainLineSchoolNight.org. 

Can't find a good apple at the supermarket?  Join us for the annual Harriton Apple Tasting on October 17th at 3:00 pm.  Apples are a fruit to love. Come and  sample heirloom varieties of America's favorite fruit - tart, sweet, crunchy, soft-fleshed, yellow, pink, and green.  Some varieties are over 300 years old, others are more modern, and one variety was discovered in a field in Lancaster County (this last is only available either at Harriton or from the farmer who owns the trees!).  Apples were extremely important in colonial America.  They were eaten "out of hand";  they were baked into pies or baked by themselves; they were cut and dried into "schnitz" for use all winter long; or, they were converted to cider (hard and soft) and vinegar. Learn who Johnny Appleseed was (yes, he was a real person) and why he spread the seeds he did.  You will also learn that apples don't "come true" from seed and how we do get the delicious varieties which survive today.  All this while you munch apple slices, sample organic Pennsylvania cheese, and partake of a glass of cider.  Children welcome if well behaved.  Apples and small trees will be available for purchase.  $5.00 per person.  Reservations required.

From 1909 until almost 1930, Harriton was known as the Harriton Guernsey Dairy. This farm, which provided rich milk and cream to the neighborhood, was  an active and important participant in a flourishing dairy industry in southeastern Pennsylvania. Today  we are familiar with concerns about our food supply and the debates over pesticides, growth hormones, and unpronouncable chemical names listed as ingredients in what we eat.  This is not the first time that the American public has become aware of  what is in our food.  You may remember reading Upton Sinclair's The Jungle when you were in high school.  The growth and quality of Pennsylvania's modern dairy industry is directly related to similar concerns for milk at the turn of the 20th century, and the Harriton Guernsey Dairy  was part of that evolution. We will explore through programs and an exhibit the early 20th century dairies in and near Lower Merion Township, including herd types, estates, and a collection of embossed milk bottles from 35 dairies - only one of which still sells milk today (can you guess which one?).  We will have programs for children,  a trip to a dairy farm, Guernsey cows visiting the Harriton park , and an ice-cream social.   

Browse through some of the other programs below which were held at Harritotn in 2009.  Many of these are annual events, so keep checking our website for the schedule in 2010! 

A Welsh Banquet will be held in the Education Center at Harriton on Saturday, March 14, 2009.  This is a cooperative program with Main Line School Night in which Harriton's Executive Director, Bruce Cooper Gill, and Mr David Walker, of the Welsh Society of Philadelphia (the oldest fraternal organization in America), will prepare a lunch of traditional Welsh foods.  You may sip Welsh whiskey if you are over the age of 21 (don't call it "Scotch") while you nibble Welsh artisanal cheeses and watch the preparation of faggots (pork meatballs), bara brith, laverbread (seaweed) with cockles (shellfish), glamorgan sausages (meatless cheese sausages), perhaps some Welsh rarebit, and mini Welsh cakes.  You can wash it all down with TyNant sparkling water from Wales.  While lunch is being prepared, you can visit the historic Harriton House, which was built by Welsh Quaker Rowland Ellis in 1704.  Space is limited for this program.  If it tickles your tastebuds, please contact Harriton House at Info@HarritonHouse.org or by old fashioned telephone at 610-525-0201 for further information.  Fee charged, register directly with Main Line School Night at www.MainLineSchoolnight.org.  

Beginning Blacksmithing will be offered at Harriton House on Saturdays May 9th and 16th as a cooperative program with Main Line Schoolnight.  Come and work with master blacksmith and artist Stephen Sears of Sears IronWorks in Ottsville, PA.  You will learn about tools and fire and coal and metals.  There will be a reference library of books and forged iron objects to see and handle.  You will get hands-on experience in shaping small items of forged iron (steel actually), and you will go home with the product of your labor and instruction.  Younger, older, or somewhere in the middle,  or whether you think you have large biceps or small ones, you can participate.  For further information contact Harriton by e-mail at Info@HarritonHouse.org or by old fashioned telephone at 610 525 0201.  Fee charged and registration is through Main Line School Night at www.MainLineSchoolNight.org.

The 4th annual Welsh Heritage Festival will be held at Harriton on Saturday, June 13, 2009, from 10 am until 4 pm.  The festival day features:   Music by the Celtic Band Moch Pryderi (Pryderi's Pigs);    Traditional Welsh dancing with Sian Frick;  Storytelling with Cindy Rosser;    House tours of the historic 1704 Harriton House - originally called "Bryn Mawr" which means "High Hill" in Welsh;   Welsh culture lessons  -- try tangling your tongue around the Welsh language, learning numbers, colors and shapes;  sample Welsh food treats;  and Welsh souvenirs.

So, bring a leek sandwich,  and enjoy the sun in the park while you eat your picnic lunch and listen to the Celtic band.  This event is co-sponsored by the Welsh Society of Philadelphia and the Harriton Association and is free to the public.

Harriton "Apprenticeships" are arranged in cooperation with the Township of Lower Merion Recreation Department for boys and girls aged 11-14.  The program allows today's youngsters to feed sheep, harness and drive a horse, be a blacksmith, work with traditional tools, and learn about antique houses and furniture.  Warning -- although we do have a picnic and make ice cream on our last day, there is some work involved during the program!   June 23-26 & July7-10,  9:30am to 2:00pm (Call or write for further information).  There are also two weeks of August camp programming in ccoperation with Riverbend Refuge in Gladwyne.  Please register with Riverbend (610 527 5234) for these programs which are held at historic Harriton.