The Ozark Folk Center (
www.ozarkfolkcenter.com ) is a part of the Arkansas State Parks System, and is located in Mountain View, Arkansas.
The center is home to more than 20 craft artisans, who are all independent business folks, who make their living selling the items they create by hand.
There are many amusing photo opportunities, in the park---including this one where two visitors can put their faces inside the openings, and take on the body of a mule.
One of the craftsman in the village is shown at his old fashioned, foot and arm powered printing machine. I am quite familiar with this piece of equipment, because my parents had one of them in their school supply business in Harrison, Arkansas, during the 1960's. They hired a young man named Sam Brown to be their printer, and my sister also knew how to work the machine. As a pre-teen, I was strictly forbidden from operating it, however, as my parents apparently were concerned I would either tear up the machine, or mash a finger off during the pressing and rolling process. (Apparently, they had reason for concern, as I am told that when I was a youngster, I tried sticking my fingers between the rollers of the wringers used to squeeze out excess water from freshly washed clothes, before they were hung on the clothesline to dry!)
Another shop in the craft village is the Fiber Arts Shop, which has every kind of loom imaginable. I am also familiar with a loom like the one shown in this photo, as my great grandmother had one of these, and made numerous rugs, table runners, and pillow tops, that I am still using to this very day. She was the widow of a Civil War veteran, so the rug and matching pillow cover she made, when she learned her granddaughter was pregnant with me, are treasured items ! I have written about these vintage rugs in previous blogs, which can be accessed in the archives.
Another type of fiber art that you can observe being created at the folk center, is that which is being made, from the raw wool of a sheep, by using a spinning wheel. If you make arrangements in advance, you might also be able to see the actual "sheep shearing" event!
Throughout the Craft Village, you will see examples of how early settlers in the Ozarks managed to survive on the "less than ideal" growing conditions of the mountains. Whatever crops they were able to preserve in jars, or store in crates, would be kept in a "root cellar", where there would be less temperature fluctuation than the farmer would find in a free-standing storage shed. These cellars sometimes also doubled as storm cellars, when a tornado was spotted.
The Heritage Herb Garden is a favorite of many visitors, and is also one of the places where an organization I am a part of, the Arkansas Master Naturalists (
www.ArkansasMasterNaturalists.org ) does volunteer work on Wednesdays, during the months the park is open. You can go to the Master Naturalist website to learn more about being a volunteer for the Ozark Folk Center, as well as a myriad of additional service opportunities.
It is a fascinating thing to see a craftsman take natural straw, and turn it into a functional item, such as a broom. And while he is working, he can keep up a steady conversation with spectators, to answer questions, or teach them the intricacies of weaving together different colors of straw to create a pleasing pattern.
In yet another example of a craft I observed by grandparents and parents doing, the lady in the Leather Shop, keeps the tap-tap-tap of her special hammer going, as she explains to visitors the techniques she is using to "hand tool" a design on leather. I still have a leather wallet made by a family member, that has their name intricately spelled out on it---all made by doing exactly what is shown in this photo.
Since my parents had a school supply store, they were in the business of selling new school furniture, as one room schools closed down to form "consolidated school districts", like we are familiar with today. In the process of doing these sales, they would occasionally take as "trade-ins" wooden desks like the one shown in this photo. I always enjoyed "playing school" with these old desks, and imagining what it would have been like to attend school where all the ages were together in one small room!
There is also a Basket Shop, and as in previous paragraphs, this too was familiar to me, as our family had a "gizzard" basket made by one of our ancestors, and I still have a basket made by my Aunt Helen (although she actually made hers during a college course she was taking to meet graduation requirements).
The anvil shown in this picture, along with the furnace, should be a clue that the village also has a Blacksmith Shop.
I had the good fortune to meet the pretty lady pictured below, (with her official Ozark Folk Center work apron), named Jeannette Larson. Jeanette is a familiar and welcoming face at the Ozark Folk Center, and is also the lady pictured earlier in the blog at the spinning wheel.
I had the opportunity to attend a cheese making course she was giving at the Ozark Folk Center.
The event took place in a classroom, adjacent to the Performing Arts Auditorium, and had the essential items Jeanette needed for her demonstration. The photo shows her using two hot plates, to heat the milk, which proves a regular stove is not a requirement!
Part of the dairy products used were cows milk, and part of them were goat's milk, fresh from Jeanette's very own goat herd! You can learn more about the items produced by her family at their website
www.havencroftfarm.com
Some of the cheese she made on this particular Saturday used vinegar (shown here) as the starter for the enzymatic process that would change the liquid milk into cheese.
Class size is limited for these special Saturday events, so be sure to create a "shortcut" on your Internet device that will take you to the site where you can see what is available, as they fill up quickly. See
www.ozarkfolkcenter.ticketleap.com to find out what classes, workshops, and concerts are to be held in the future.
This
photo shows some of the "store bought" ingredients that Jeanette used to begin a different kind of cheese from that made using vinegar.
I have a new visual aid for the term "cheese cloth", because that is what Jeanette used to strain the product coming off the hot plate, that was on its way to being a delicious cheese.
This photo shows Jeanette holding up the cheesecloth, with the product inside, letting as much of the liquid drain off as possible.
I cannot see this picture without thinking of the nursery rhyme, about the little lady who sat "eating her curds and whey"!
Our teacher demonstrated how Farmers Cheese could be grilled, on both sides, to perfection. She said some stores call it "Grilling Cheese"
I learned that Farmers Cheese is made using vinegar, and that it tastes great when grilled!
There were several resources available for the classmembers to peruse, and many of them are for sale in the park gift shop.
The wooden device shown in this photo lets the cheese continue to drain, assisted by gravity, and its own weight.
This photo shows the start of the "pressing" process, as even more moisture is pressed out of the cheese.
The reader may wonder, "Why are there photos of figs in a blog about cheese-making?" The answer is, Jeanette Larson might never have moved to Arkansas, and started her work at the Ozark Folk Center, if it were not for figs, such as these. That is because, one of the factors that influenced her move to the Mountain View area, was finding out that fig trees could grow here! (Several times in the
Bible, figs are mentioned. In fact there is a reference to one of those verses in the famous musical,
Hamilton---"Every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD Almighty has spoken."---according to the verse Micah 4:4. That Scripture is included in the musical because it is a quote from George Washington's Farewell Address, that was dictated to his secretary, Alexander Hamilton. )
These slices of figs were made even tastier, with a bit of goat cheese spread on top!
Getting to sample the cheese was
delightful!
After seeing what fun it is to learn how to make cheese, are you ready to go back to school yet? Jeanette said the one thing she wanted readers of the this article to learn was that "cheese making is not hard"!! Give it a try, and it will give you "MILES OF SMILES"!! tricia
I am starting out this blog with a the photo of the horse sculpture, because it was not until I heard about this particular piece of art, that I researched where it was located, so that I could see it in person. I learned that it was at Frederik Meijer Gardens ( 
Upon arrival at the gardens via motorcoach, I began a "walk with purpose" (as opposed to meadering!) to find the sculpture, and take as many photos of it as possible, while it was still daylight. As I started walking the paved path to approach the massive sculpture, I kept seeing numerous ways to photograph the horse from a distance, that showed it wonderfully framed by green plants. And this was no accident---allowing nature to enhance what man has made, and likewise, allowing what man has made enhance nature, is a major goal of Frederik Meijer Gardens!
Upon arriving at the circular plaza that was home to sculpture, I was completely in awe of its beauty, as well as its connection to the famous artist, Leonardo DaVinci. I had the wonderful blessing of seeing many of Leonardo DaVinci's creations, when I toured Italy with my father, back in the last century. However, at the time I was in Italy, it was before the 1967 finding of Leonardo's sketch books, and his design for a colossal image of an Iberian charger horse. 
It took several models (some of which were complete failures) to finally come up with the sculpture one can see today in Grand Rapids. It was the Duke of Milan that originally commissioned Leonardo DaVinci to make the sculpture in 1482. It was intended to be the largest equestrian statue in the world, and be a symbol of the power of the Duke of Milan. The Duke collected 70 tons of bronze to make the statue, based on a clay model made by DaVinci. Sadly, wars broke out in Italy, and the bronze had to be used to make cannons, to defend Milan from an invasion by Charles VIII. The enemy French soldiers ended up using the clay horse sculpture that da Vinci had made, as a shooting target. Hence, none of daVinci's equine models survived to present day.
Meijer Gardens has 200 full-time and part-time staff, plus 850 volunteers! This photo shows the female volunteer (she is the one facing the passengers) who provided a narration for the shuttle I was on. She did a magnificent job pointing out the various sculptures we were passing, telling something about the artists who created them, as well as other significant facts of interest about each piece.
This photo is a reminder of one of the many reasons I want to make a return visit to Meijer Gardens. They recently embarked on $115 million capital campaign for expansion. The result will be new LEED-certified Welcome Center, Transportation Center and Visitor Center. Plans call for expanding the amphitheater, building a new entry plaza, adding a new outdoor picnic pavilion, and expanding the parking capacity.
The 8 acres of the Japanese gardens opened in 2014 at a cost of 22 million,
This photo is included to be a reminder of "garden etiquette", as outlined on the gardens website, 
This massive sculpture is called "Four Square", and its four main supporting beams, roughly in the shape of a square, account for its name.
Folks who have been to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art ( 
This is a photo of a very large parrot sculpture, with gigantic, colorful wings. It is the image of those wings, sitting on top of "my" heart, that I am using as the visual aid to remember my First Place 4 Health ( 
I like the way the bright yellow in this contemporary piece of sculpture (called "Julia" by Keith Haring), is mirrored in the bright yellow of the flowering plants beside it. This was, in fact, one of the objectives of the Frederik Meijer Gardens---uniting human visual fine art with the visual beauty of nature!
When a visitor comes to the garden, they may want to just spend time, sitting with their arms resting on their knees, and contemplate their existence. And, that seems to be what this sculpture (titled Grosser Trefree, by Dietrick Klinge) is doing!
Other visitors to the garden, may just want to stretch out and look at the beautiful greenery that surrounds them. Although, it appears that this visitor is doing just that, this is actually a very realistic piece of sculpture! It is called Lying Man, by Sean Henry. 
Regardless of what language one speaks, the "body language" spoken by this sculpture accounts for its title---MAD MOM---and is a product of artist Tom Otterness. The mom might be commanding her children to NOT being throwing their baseballs near here, because LOOK AT WHAT IS BEHIND ME! All that glass you see is the 5-story, 15,000 square foot Lena Meijer Conservatory. It houses tropical plants from around the world, and connects to event spaces indoors.
This photo shows the the home of the 3-acre Michigan Farm Garden, opened in 2003, so families could experience a farm in the context of the 1930's. It replicates the farmhouse of Lena Rader Meijer's childhood. I read that Lena was the daughter of farmers, and met Fred Meijer, when she worked as a cashier in the Meijer grocery store. 
How would you like to be the employee in charge of dusting this incredibly fragile, and priceless, chandelier that hangs from the ceiling of the conservatory??!!
Glass art on a smaller scale (as well as a myriad of other delightful and artistically designed items) is available in the Meijer Gardens gift shop . 
The Meijer Gardens Amphitheater opened in 2003. It is an outdoor musical and theatrical venue that features a covered stage, and a tiered lawn, seating 1,900 persons. On the day I visited, concert goers had already started gathering for a group of "big-name" recording artists who were performing that evening. 
These motor coaches waited to pick up our group, as we finished our tour of Meijer Gardens, and the sun was setting in the west. Hopefully, this blog post has helped you understand why Meijer Gardens are such a popular group destination, as well as a fun place for all types of travelers to visit. Considering, the gardens have hosted more than 12 million visitors since they opened, it is safe to say that a trip to Meijer Gardens will give you "MILES OF SMILES"!! Tricia