Want to know more about something you saw at Living History Farms, interested in learning a new skill, or just want to have fun with friends and family? Historic Skills Classes let you work in small groups to learn a specific skill or trade that was common in centuries past, like blacksmithing or baking in a wood-burning oven. With a small class size, you are guaranteed individualized instruction and plenty of opportunity to participate.
FOODWAYS | TEXTILES | TRADES |
Date | Time | Class | Location | |
Wed Sep 4 | 5:30-7:30 p.m. | Bacon, Cornbread & Honey Butter | Tangen Home | |
Wed Sep 11 | 5:30-7:30 p.m. | Apple-Cinnamon Scones & Tea | Tangen Home | |
Sun Sep 15 | 12:30-3:30 p.m. | New! Fall Flavors: Wood Stove Edition | Tangen Home | |
Wed Sep 18 | 5:30-7:30 p.m. | Apple Cider Doughnuts & Hot Cider | Tangen Home | |
Sat Sep 21 | 4–6 p.m. | New! Open Fire Cooking: 3 Sisters Stew & Cornbread | 1700 Ioway Farm | |
Sun Sep 22 | 12:30-3:30 p.m. | Fall Flavors: Hearth Cooking Edition | 1850 Farm | |
Wed Sep 25 | 5:30-7:30 p.m. | Apple Sanbakkel Tarts & Hot Cider | Tangen Home | |
Sun Sep 29 | 12:30-3:30 p.m. | Hearth Cooking with Kids | 1850 Farm | |
Wed Oct 2 | 5:30-7:30 p.m. | New! Taste of Molasses: Cakes & Cookies | Tangen Home | |
Sun Oct 6 | 1 –3 p.m. | New! Victorian Mourning Traditions & Superstitions | Tangen Home | |
Wed Oct 9 | 5:30-7:30 p.m. | Quick Rolls & Butter | Tangen Home | |
Sat Oct 12 | 9 a.m.-noon | Blacksmithing Basics | Blacksmith | |
Sat Oct 19 | 9 a.m.-noon | Blacksmithing Basics | Blacksmith | |
Sat Oct 26 | 9 a.m.-noon | Blacksmithing with Teens | Blacksmith | |
Sat Nov 2 | 9 a.m.-noon | Advanced Blacksmithing: Items for the Home | Blacksmith | |
Sat Nov 2 | 1-4 p.m. | Advanced Blacksmithing: Make a Boot Scraper | Blacksmith | |
Sun Nov 3 | 12:30-3:30 p.m. | Basics of Cooking & Baking on a Wood Stove | Tangen Home | |
Wed Nov 6 | 5:30-7:30 p.m. | Setting a Victorian Holiday Table | Flynn Home | |
Sat Nov 9 | 1-4 p.m. | Advanced Blacksmithing: Make a Camp Tripod | Blacksmith | |
Sat Nov 9 | 1-4 p.m. | Blacksmithing: Make a Camp Tripod | Blacksmith | |
Sun Nov 10 | 12:30-3:30 p.m. | Wood Stove Cooking with Kids | Tangen Home | |
Wed Nov 13 | 5:30-7:30 p.m. | New! Tea Sandwiches through Time | Flynn Home | |
Sat Nov 16 | 12:30-3:30 p.m. | 19th Century Bread Baking | Tangen Home | |
Wed Nov 20 | 5:30-7:30 p.m. | New! Turkey Croquettes: A Victorian Leftover Solution | Tangen Home | |
Su Dec 11 | 5:30-7:30 p.m. | Holiday Trifles | Tangen Home | |
Sa Dec 18 | 5:30-7:30 p.m. | Pepparkakor | Tangen Home |
Learn a from scratch cornbread recipe to bake in the 1876 Tangen House wood-burning stove. Churn fresh butter while it bakes and whip in some honey for a treat. To round out the evening, fry up some bacon in a cast iron skillet, to enjoy the best combination of 19th century sweet and savory tastes.
Closed |
Mix, roll out, and bake a traditional tea scone with a fall flavor flair. Pair it with apple butter and a steaming cup of tea for a light evening treat! Please bring an apron, water bottle, & containers or baggies to take home any left – overs.
Canceled |
Enjoy the tastes of fall and expand your knowledge of cooking and baking on the 1870s wood stove. Students will prepare a savory menu of pork, apples and onions, yeast bread, and a spicy pear dessert. Fry, bake, knead, and stew in one afternoon of fall goodness.
Closed |
Victorians loved doughnuts for breakfast, for tea, and for snacks. Mix and fry this favorite fall treat doughnut on top of the wood stove, roll in cinnamon and sugar, and enjoy with hot spiced cider.
Closed |
Many indigenous cultures in the Midwest built their food culture around the 3 sisters—corn, beans, and squash. Mix together a hearty 3 sisters stew and cornbread then cook them in cast iron over an open fire at the 1700 era Ioway Farm. Dress for being outside in the fall weather.
Closed |
Enjoy the beginning of cooler weather at the 1850 era Pioneer farm, by combining a historic soup and stew seasoning combined with the experience of basic open-hearth cooking. Participants will use 1850s era recipes to make a hearty fall ham and bean soup, bread, and a dessert. Dress for being on a farm, and for cooking! Part of the class will be outside while you tour the farm.
Closed |
Mix and shape sweet crust for tart pans. Chop and spice fresh apples for this sweet treat. Whip sweet cream for the top while it bakes in the wood stove. Enjoy the results with a mug of hot cider.
Closed |
Explore the Pioneer kitchen, while cooking with your kids! Learn how heat travels in a hearth, and what pots and pans were available to an Iowa pioneer. This basic cooking class is designed to get kids and parents/grandparents busy in the Pioneer kitchen together. Prepare from scratch a kid-friendly stew, cornbread, and a sweet treat for dessert. Along the way, learn about how pioneers in Iowa raised crops and livestock for food for themselves and other Iowans.
Note: You will be eating around 3:00 p.m., so plan accordingly
Canceled |
Enjoy baking sweet treats? Try your hand at wood stove cookies and a cake. No chocolate chips in these recipes though! In the 19th century, molasses and ginger spice were more popular than cocoa and vanilla.
Canceled |
Explore the superstitions and traditions of a Victorian funeral. The rituals for burying, mourning, and remembering deceased loved ones were complex in 1876. A family with means was expected to dress themselves and the house in black. A funeral required food and even invitations! Mementos of the dead could include photos and even cherished locks of hair. Tour the 1876 era Tangen house and experience the black draping, covered mirrors and stopped clocks of a home funeral. Bake funeral biscuits on the wood stove and create a horsehair flower to remember your afternoon.
Canceled |
Cozy up to the wood stove in the 1876 era Tangen House kitchen for an evening of baking tastes and smells. Mix and knead a fast-rising yeast roll recipe. Bake your rolls in the wood stove and churn cream into butter while you wait!
Closed |
Do you have a wood burning stove at home that you’d like to cook on, but have no prior knowledge of how to do it? Do you just want to try cooking like your great-grandparents? Roll up your sleeves and make hearty meat stew, a vegetable side dish, bread, and a cake. Participants will learn the design of the wood stove and how to properly use it. After the meal is prepared, sit down to enjoy the food and ask last-minute questions.
Sold Out |
Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve are right around the corner! The holidays bring out our best china and flatware. Are you confident about where to put your soup spoon on the table? Set and decorate the Flynn Mansion dining table for an elegant 19th century party and discover the multitude of knives and forks involved. Finish the table by learning a fancy napkin fold.
Canceled |
Explore the Victorian kitchen while instilling a love of cooking in your kids. Learn to read a recipe, measure and mix ingredients, and roll out dough the old-fashioned way! Wash and dry dishes and bring in wood for the wood box. This class is designed to get kids and adults busy in the kitchen with kid-friendly recipes and hands-on tasks.
Sold Out |
Tea sandwiches began as three bite concoctions of delicious snacking joy to tide you over until dinner. Join us in the Flynn historic kitchens and explore how ingredients and tastes for these treats changed over time. We will prepare four different recipes from varying time periods to enjoy informally with a pot of tea.
Sold Out |
Looking to explore bread baking from scratch? Would you like to try baking in a wood burning stove? If so, try your hand at biscuits, muffins, yeast bread and cinnamon rolls in the 1876-era Tangen House kitchen. Afterwards, sit around the table and enjoy your creations while learning more about the house and the type of family that would have lived there.
Sold Out |
Dreading a refrigerator full of leftover poultry? Join us in the Tangen kitchen to learn the delights of croquettes, the 19th century way to make chopped turkey, chicken, pork or beef shine again! We will mix and fry up balls of chopped turkey mixed with breadcrumbs and other seasonings in a searing hot cast iron pan on the wood stove. Then taste your treats with fresh cranberry sauce.
Canceled |
Assemble a classic Christmas dessert in several holiday flavors. Bake a pound cake from scratch. While it cools, create a fruit filling and a chocolate filling. Combine with freshly whipped cream in individual trifle glasses to take home!
Purchase Tickets |
Enjoy the tastes and smells of cardamom, pepper, cinnamon and cloves as you mix and bake this intense Scandinavian style of crisp gingerbread cookie in the 1870s wood stove.
Sold Out |
This class will give someone with little or no metalworking skills a hands-on, fun, “be a blacksmith for a day” experience. Explore the basics of forge work in a blacksmith shop while making a decorative iron project to take home. Topics will include safety, proper use of tools and equipment (such as an anvil), and beginning techniques for shaping metal.
Sold Out |
A parent/grandparent will work with a teen age 14-17 as they learn historic blacksmithing techniques in a historic setting. Begin by learning about proper safety in a workshop environment. Then everyone will make several small, hands-on projects, such as dinner triangles and S hooks.
Canceled |
You will make at least two of the following decorative projects: candleholder, napkin ring, hook, paper towel holder, letter opener. You will learn and practice these skills: drawing out metal, making decorative bends, forge welding (if doing rings), and more.
Sold Out |
Just in time for winter! Every 19th-century farmhouse had a boot scraper by the porch to remove mud or snow before entering the house. Even if you don’t have a farm, a boot scraper is a handy item. You will forge a useful boot scraper while learning metalworking skills.
Purchase Tickets |
Get a workout as you learn historic blacksmithing techniques. Forge a large camp tripod that doubles as a rotisserie or decorative plant hanger (online retail $50-$120)! The finished project will stand 4-5 feet tall and is based on a Civil War-era design, great for campers or re-enactors. You’ll learn and practice these skills: drawing out metal, making eye bolts, and advanced forging techniques.
Sold Out |
The Historic Skills Classes program is funded in part by the Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage Area.