Every year Gulf Branch Fall Festival takes a step back in time to provide a hands-on experience of early Arlingtonians in their everyday life.  

A crowd has gathered around the butter-making stand as Rachael Tolman shapes and pushes the finished mound of butter around in a bowl. “All this takes is heavy whipping cream,” she explains, “and you can add salt when it’s finished if you like.” A line has formed at the table to taste a small slice of baguette piled high with the newly made butter. On the ground at the other end of the table a tiny volunteer is churning another batch by pulling a lever up and down in a pottery container which gradually turns the cream into solid butter. “Thank you for all of your hard work on that.” It takes about an hour.

Next door kids are circling round pushing handles that grind chunks of apples into apple cider. A table is loaded with apples from nearby orchards that get cut into chunks and then dropped into the top of the crank. The volunteer explains nothing else is added to the apples for cider; if you add water you end up with apple juice. The table next door is offering tastes of cider either plain or with spices including cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and allspice.

One of the tables is loaded with a variety of squares of brightly colored material. A sample of a finished quilt sits nearby. Each person is given a square as well as a needle and thread and shown how to sew around the edges. Another table offers a choice of different yarns that will be woven into tiny carpets. Lauren Shrader from Maryland has come with two friends and is volunteering at the yarn table.

Up the stone steps on the terrace a new dyeing experience has been added this year. Erin Cruz, who is manning the table, points to the black walnuts “just from that tree over there. They will turn material brown. And these pokeberries will produce a pinkish/purple/dye.” She says some of the dyes are from native plants, and others are from things like turmeric that produces a yellow color. She has a container with two different kinds of material that illustrate one fabric takes to dye better than the other. 

Children line up at another table with a feather quill and a small container of ink made from plant, animal or mineral extract. Each is attempting to write a note or produce a small picture but admit “this is pretty difficult.”

Just across the terrace imaginations are at work at the pumpkin decorating tables.  Evelyn Platt, who has walked to the festival from her neighborhood down the block, holds up her bright red pumpkin for her mother’s inspection. “I’m making it look really bloody.” 

And if this isn’t enough, the creek running through the park has attracted a number of kids who are scrambling over the rocks and throwing twigs into the water—a pastime for the ages.