The aroma of boiling molasses, the dust of corn shucking and the twanging sounds of banjos will fill Dudley Farm Historic State Park’s biggest event of the year Saturday.
Visitors to the park can get a whiff of rich Florida farm life from the time periods following the Civil War up through the mid-1940s at the 25th annual Cane Day. The free event is at the farm located at 18730 W. Newberry Road from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
More than 40 volunteers equipped with roles throughout the farm, house and commissary store will be clothed in traditional garb and living history at one of Alachua County’s oldest farms.
“It’s a dying art — a lot of the stuff that’s done here — hardly anybody sees it anymore,” said Sandra Cashes, the farm’s park services specialist. “So just being able to give that educational value to people and show them what our forefathers used to do is the best part of the event.”
Cashes has organized the event for the past three years and said she loves watching the actors at the old farmstead breathe history into guests with remnants of the old South.
She expects more than 2,000 people to come explore the vendors and participate in old-time crafts like butter churning, quilt-drawing and grinding sugar cane, which will be taught by volunteers.
Newberry resident Gloria Hughes started volunteering at the event in 1996 and said she has watched the popular festival blossom into “something remarkable.”
“We have to know our past,” she said. “We really do, and cherish that.”
Hughes will be the commissary keeper, joining other volunteers who will be nurturing the livestock, cooking in the kitchen and even sitting on the house’s porch.
The actors donate their time because of their appreciation of the park and dedication to educating others, she said.
As guests walk through the park, the actors will share facts and stories about the farm that once belonged to Myrtle Dudley.
Dudley, whose birthday is commemorated through the festival, donated her family’s farm to the state in 1983, hoping to preserve its history for generations to come.
She documented the estate’s precious artifacts with lively stories bursting with Florida’s deep-rooted farmstead culture.
The event’s proceeds will go to Friends of Dudley Farm, the group that safeguards her family’s legacy.
Alachua County resident Art Wade, who is president of the organization, said the event offers an authentic experience of old farm life, reminding some guests of their past and others of an era they never had the chance to see.
“It’s kind of an eye-opening experience if they look at it as that’s just one thing our ancestors had to do each year to just make ends meet, in order to eat,” Wade said.
The activities will show what life was like in the fall more than 100 years ago, he said.
Park admission will be $8 per vehicle with up to eight occupants.
“People come out to see how things were done years ago,” Hughes said. “Stepping back in time like that gives them an entirely different outlook.”
[A version of this story ran on page 10 on 12/4/2014]
Bill Dunk, a volunteer at Dudley Farm Historic State Park, bottles cane syrup at the park’s annual Cane Day.
