The National Colonial Farm

The National Colonial Farm. Accokeek Foundation at Piscataway Park. , Hundreds of thousands of people have visited The National Colonial Farm since it was founded in 1958. The farm was created to show how the ordinary farm family lived in colonial times prior to the American Revolution and has served as an important center for the preservation of rare strains of historic crops., While many of the great Potomac River estates, such as Mount Vernon and Gunston Hall are well preserved today, most of the small tobacco plantations of the period have vanished. The Colonial Farm addresses how people lived on these smaller plantations: the crops they grew, the foods they ate, the animals they raised, and the structures they lived in., The colonial farmhouse, tobacco house, kitchen, crops, gardens, and chestnut rail fences all paint a picture of a rural, often isolated family life. The Virginia Gourdseed corn, Red May wheat, and Orinoco tobacco, all rare heirloom varieties grown here---represent, along with the produce of the gardens, the basic staples of life. The farm animals---Red Devon cattle, Razorback hogs, Hog Island sheep, and various types of fowl give the visitor an idea of the kinds of animals they maintained., The general public and thousands of school children participate in the education programs developed for the site each year. The National Colonial Farm is a project of the Accokeek Foundation and is supported with grants from the National Park Service, private foundation and contributions from the general public.