History lives through garden at Hanna’s Town

Joanna Moyar is using a sharp, long-handled hoe to scalp persistent spring weeds that have settled into the paths between the raised beds in the garden at Historic Hanna’s Town. The garden was created to replicate an 18th-century kitchen garden that settlers used to survive.

Joanna Moyar is the education coordinator for the Westmorland County Historical Society and runs the garden at Historic Hanna’s Town with the help of a handful of volunteers like Martin Keck in the background. The garden was built to show what an 18th century kitchen garden looked like. It’s planted with varieties from the era.

These are some of the heirloom seeds Joanna Moyar, education coordinator for the Westmorland County Historical Society who also runs the garden at Historic Hanna’s Town plants. The garden was built to show what an 18th century kitchen garden looked like. It’s planted with varieties from the era.

Moyar is the education coordinator for the Westmoreland County Historical Society and runs the garden with the help of a handful of volunteers. Some beds also are being hoed and a variety of seeds are sprouting in others. At one point, this area was the county seat.

The wooden fence that surrounds the garden would have kept livestock, people and other critters away from the produce. Today it stops deer, groundhogs and rabbits, but is also here for historical accuracy.

The garden was installed in 1974, the year the rebuilt historic tavern/courthouse also was opened. Now there’s also a Revolutionary-era fort replica to explore along with three relocated vintage log houses and a wagon shed that houses an authentic 18th century Conestoga wagon.

Originally an herb garden was planted, because that’s what was thought to grow here. With the help of a grant in 2008, the garden was reinterpreted with raised beds, and plants were chosen to represent a true 18th-century kitchen garden. Moyar has stacks of books she’s researched to learn what settlers would have grown and also consulted with 18th century historian Dr. Clarissa Dylan. e_SClB“This was your grocery story, your pharmacy, where you got flavorings and food,” Moyar says of the historic garden.

She learned there would have been lots of greens, root vegetables, beans and many other plants growing in a garden from the era. Families would grow things that could be eaten fresh, but could be preserved too. Dylan explained to her what was needed to care for a garden like this.

“It took two adult women and a herd of children six months, six days a week for six hours a day to be able to produce enough food, medicines, flavorings in order to keep a family going,” Moyar says, “and you generally needed between a third to a half of an acre.”

She finds the seeds from companies that carry historic heirloom varieties like Renee’s Garden Seeds, Fedco Seeds, Landis Valley, Victory Seeds, Monticello and others. The varieties are fascinating, and if the seeds are still available commercially, they must have merit, even for gardeners today.

“We put in a ‘Marrowfat’ pea, that was a really good dry pea,” she says. She also planted ‘Champion of England,’ peas. ‘Cranberry’ and ‘Scarlet Runner’ are two beans she grows along with one that has a Somerset County provenance called ‘Mostoller Wild Goose’ pole bean.

The Somerset Historical Center acquired the beans and fascinating story from the Mostoller family who said John Mostoller found the bean inside a wild goose he shot while hunting in 1864.

Moyar also is planting ‘Gherkin’ and ‘Lemon’ cucumbers and ‘Early Jersey Wakefield’ cabbage. Salsify is a root vegetable that also produces a pretty flower that’s not grown in many gardens these days.

“They are called oyster plant because they have a mild oyster flavor,” she says. “They were used a lot in stews.”

‘Black Spanish’ radish has self-sowed and is popping up all over the fertile beds. They have been amended with aged horse manure and are cared for without chemical pesticides or herbicides. There are potatoes, turnips, squash, purple roach, heirloom Welsh walking onions and more growing in the garden.

Martin Keck volunteers at the historical society working with the archives, but loves working in the garden, too. He’s methodically hoeing the soil in the beds working around some of the trellis’ he’s built for the beans, peas and cucumbers to climb. “I enjoy working outside,” he says. “If I’m inside too long I get antsy.”

Martin Keck is a volunteer for the Westmorland County Historical Society and works in the garden at Historic Hanna’s Town. One of his specialties is making trellis’ like these. The garden was built to show what an 18th century kitchen garden looked like. It’s planted with varieties from the era.

‘Black Spanish’ radishes self sowed in the garden at Historic Hanna’s Town. The garden was built to show what an 18th century kitchen garden looked like. It’s planted with varieties from the era.

He studied historical drawings from Moyar, creating an intricate trellis from fruit tree prunings that resemble the shape of a stained glass window.

“The hardest part is tying all the knots,” he says with a laugh. While sitting in the garden under patchy white clouds, he says he wants visitors “to realize what a garden in the 18th century was like and what it would be like to live in Hanna’s Town.”

As the clouds give way to sun, Moyar discusses what she gets out of time in the garden. “I just love it, this is a peaceful place for me,” she says. “I like being out here listening to the birds. People stopping by, they’re always interested in the garden and it’s fun to share with them.”

Doug Oster is the Everybody Gardens home and garden editor. Reach him at 412-965-3278 or doster@535mediallc.com. See other stories, blogs, videos and more at everybodygardens.com.