CURRENT HOURS: Programs by reservation only from November through April

Historic Skills Classes

Winter/Spring 2025

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.


collage of classes - blacksmith-baking-fire starting - brooms - printing


At a Glance

FOODWAYSTEXTILESTRADES

 

 

Date

Time

Class

Location

Wed Jan 226-8 p.m.Pickles & SaucesConference Center
Sat Jan 259-11 a.m.Beginning CrochetVisitor Center
Sat Jan 259-11 a.m.Biscuits & GravyTangen Home
Sat Jan 2512:30-2:30 p.m.Comfort Foods on a Wood Burning StoveTangen Home
Sat Jan 251-3 p.m.Beginning KnittingVisitor Center
Wed Jan 295:30-8 p.m..Modern Cast-Iron CookingConference Center
Sat Feb 19-11:30 a.m.New! Wood Stove Cooking with Kids: BreakfastTangen Home
Sat Feb 112:30-2:30 p.m.Introduction to TattingVisitor Center
Wed Feb 126-8 p.m.New! Victorian Date NightFlynn Mansion
Sat Feb 159-11a.m.Bacon, Cornbread, and Fresh Churned ButterTangen Home
Sat Feb 1512:30-3:30 p.m.New! Victorian Flavors: Chocolate vs. SpiceTangen Home
Sat Feb 229-11a.m.New! Cinnamon DoughnutsTangen Home
Sat Feb 2212:30-3:30 p.m.19th Century Bread BakingTangen Home
Sat Feb 2212:30-2:30 p.m.Spinning with a Drop SpindleVisitor Center
Sat Mar 19-11a.m.Victorian Spa DayDrug Store
Sat Mar 112:30-2:30 p.m.Letterpress PrintingPrintshop
Wed Mar 56-8 p.m.New! Old Dishes Meet the Modern KitchenConference Center
Wed Mar 125:30-7:30 p.m.New! Exploring Old CookbooksConference Center
Sat Mar 229a.m.-noonBlacksmithing BasicsBlacksmith
Sat Mar 2212:30-3:30 p.m.Homemade Pie in a Wood Burning OvenTangen Home
Sat Mar 221-4 p.m.Advanced Blacksmithing: Boot ScraperBlacksmith
Wed Mar 265:30-7:30 p.m.Irish Soda Bread & ColcannonTangen Home
Sat Mar 299a.m.-noonA Full Irish BreakfastTangen Home
Sat Mar 291-3 p.m.Introduction to EmbroideryVisitor Center
Sat Apr 59a.m.-noonBlacksmithing BasicsBlacksmith
Sat Apr 51-4 p.m.Advanced Blacksmithing: Items for the HomeBlacksmith
Wed Apr 95:30-7:30 p.m.Scones & TeaTangen Home
Sat Apr 129a.m.-noonBroommaking: Round BroomsBroomshop
Sat Apr 121-4 p.m.Advanced Blacksmithing: Camp TripodBlacksmith
Sat Apr 268:30a.m.-1:30 p.m.Basics of Pioneer Hearth Cooking1850 Farm
Sat Apr 261-4 p.m.Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner1900 Farm

Important notes

  • Registration fees include the cost of supplies.
  • Members receive a 10% discount.
  • Ages vary. Please check age restrictions for each class.
  • Classes require a minimum number of participants or a class may be canceled or rescheduled.

Foodways Classes

  • Please bring these items: apron, water bottle, containers/baggies to take home leftovers.
  • Cooking classes use historic recipes and substitutions for food allergies may not be possible.

Pickles & Sauces

  • Wednesday, January 22, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
  • Conference Center (off of Douglas Pkwy)
  • $100 per person ($90 member)
  • Ages 16 and up

Pickles, apple butter, and ketchups were generally canned for long term preservation. But many of these recipes are easily adapted to shorter-term storage for the 21st-century fridge or freezer! Join us in our modern kitchen to mix up a few of our favorite historic recipes for pickles, fruit butters, and sauces to take home for your own fridge.

Canceled

Biscuits & Gravy

  • Saturday, January 25, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
  • Tangen Home (Meet at Visitor Center)
  • $75 per person ($67.50 member)
  • Ages 16 and up

In 19th century Iowa, people often needed a hearty breakfast to start the day. Share in the tradition by joining staff at the 1876 Tangen House to mix and bake a fluffy baking powder biscuit in the woodstove. Then stir up a milk-and-sausage gravy in a cast iron skillet to go over the top. Scrambled eggs on the side and a pot of coffee round out the morning’s cooking.

Closed

Comfort Foods on a Wood Burning Stove

  • Saturday, January 25, 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
  • Tangen Home (Meet at Visitor Center)
  • $132 per person ($118.80 member)
  • Ages 16 and up

Join us for “stick to your ribs” food cooked or baked on a wood stove in the 1876 kitchen. You’ll make homemade egg noodles for chicken and noodles, fancy mashed potatoes, a buttery vegetable side dish, and a fruit crisp dessert. Then everyone will sit down to enjoy their culinary projects.

Closed

Modern Cast-Iron Cooking

  • Wednesday, January 29, 5:30 p.m. to 8p.m.
  • Conference Center (off of Douglas Pkwy)
  • $100 per person ($90 member)
  • Ages 16 and up

Virtually indestructible, cast-iron cookware was a staple of 19th century kitchens. The original non-stick pan, a well-cared for cast iron skillet is one of the most versatile tools in any kitchen. Learn to use your great-grandma’s skillets and kettles on an electric stove in our modern kitchen. Explore different cooking techniques while learning the basics of seasoning, cleaning, and caring for cast-iron pots and pans. Feel free to bring your cast iron cookware along! Class will be taught in a MODERN kitchen.

Closed

Wood Stove Cooking with Kids: Breakfast

  • Saturday, February 1, 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
  • Tangen Home (Meet at Visitor Center)
  • $92 per person ($82.80 member)
  • Youth ages 7-14 and must be accompanied by a paid adult

Join our cooks in the Tangen Home kitchen for a hearty kid-friendly breakfast. Kids, with their adult, will explore chopping, measuring and mixing tools and learn how a wood stove made cooking different in the past. We will bake an egg and hashbrown casserole and a sweet breakfast bread, cook up a fruit compote, and fry tasty doughnuts. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

Closed

Victorian Date Night

  • Wednesday, February 12, 6 to 8 p.m.
  • Flynn Mansion (Meet at Visitor Center)
  • $75per person ($67.50 member)
  • Ages 16 and up

Experience the romance of the Victorian era! Class is designed for couples of any sort (romantic, besties, or family), whether you’re 20 or 50 or 80! Design and make vintage-style valentines and write poems to go inside. Enjoy parlor games with (gasp!) kissing forfeits. Practice sending secret love messages with fan flirting and flowers. Sample foods considered to be aphrodisiacs through history. Take a lighthearted look at Victorian courting etiquette and go home with advice from famous love letters and historic sources.

Closed

Bacon, Cornbread, and Fresh Churned Butter

  • Saturday, February 15, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
  • Tangen Home (Meet at Visitor Center)
  • $75 per person ($67.50 member)
  • Ages 16 and up

Learn a from-scratch cornbread recipe to bake in the 1876 Tangen Home’s wood-burning stove. Churn fresh butter while the bread bakes and whip in honey for a treat. To round out the morning, fry up bacon in a cast iron skillet to enjoy the best combination of 19th-century sweet and savory tastes.

Purchase

Victorian Flavors: Chocolate vs. Spices

  • Saturday, February 15, 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
  • Tangen Home (Meet at Visitor Center)
  • $132 per person ($118.80 member)
  • Ages 16 and up

Join us for a battle of the flavors found in Victorian treats. Popular treats of the time incorporated a few chocolate frostings, candies, and drinks. But ginger cookies, spice cakes, and fruit sauces gave them a run for their money. Bake some of our favorite recipes highlighting both cocoa and spices. Taste-test chocolate types to find your dark chocolate tolerance. Consider spice cake pairings with fruit sauce. After creating several treats, sit down to enjoy them with your classmates.

Purchase

Cinnamon Doughnuts

  • Saturday, February 22, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
  • Tangen Home (Meet at Visitor Center)
  • $75 per person ($67.50 member)
  • Ages 16 and up

Victorians loved doughnuts for breakfast, for tea, and for snacks. Mix and fry a few of our favorite spiced doughnut recipes on top of the woodstove, then roll in cinnamon and sugar, and enjoy with freshly brewed coffee.

Purchase

19th Century Bread Baking

  • Saturday, February 22, 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
  • Tangen Home (Meet at Visitor Center)
  • $132 per person ($118.80 member)
  • Ages 16 and up

Would you like to bake bread from scratch in a wood-burning stove? Try your hand at biscuits, muffins, yeast bread, and cinnamon rolls in the 1876-era Tangen Home kitchen. Then sit around the table and enjoy your creations while learning more about the house and the type of family that would have lived there.

Purchase

Old Dishes Meet the Modern Kitchen

  • Wednesday, March 5, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
  • Conference Center (off of Douglas Pkwy)
  • $70 per person ($63member)
  • Ages 16 and up

Transferring historic recipes to the modern kitchen can take some translation of measurements, ingredients, time and temperatures. Join us in our modern kitchen space to cook some of our favorite 19th century recipes, including quick bread and vegetable sides, while comparing the old text with modern techniques. Tips and tricks on Victorian terms, measures, and the elusive meaning of “bake til done” will be shared.

Purchase

Exploring Old Cookbooks

  • Wednesday, March 12, 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
  • Conference Center (off of Douglas Pkwy)
  • $70 per person ($63 member)
  • Ages 16 and up

Cookbooks in the 19th century were called “receipt books.” Many cooks supplemented these printed books with handwritten recipes. Church groups and women’s circles traded and published items. By the 20th century, newspapers, radio, and magazines provided even more possibilities. This class will not cook, but we will share examples of period books and handwritten recipes from the museum collection, then discuss how to translate measurements and directions. We will also make suggestions for where to find more historic recipes for your collection. You will create your own mini-recipe scrapbook to take home.

Purchase

Homemade Pie in a Wood Burning Oven

  • Sunday, March 22, 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
  • Tangen Home (Meet at Visitor Center)
  • $132 per person ($118.80 member)
  • Ages 16 and up

Sweet and savory pies were common on the 19th century farm table. Join us for an afternoon of pie crust making with period ingredients such as lard for both a savory meat and vegetable pie and a seasonal fruit pie. Bake your creation in the woodstove and taste the results of your work.

Purchase

Irish Soda Bread & Colcannon

  • Wednesday, March 26, 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
  • Tangen Home (Meet at Visitor Center)
  • $92 per person ($82.80 member)
  • Ages 16 and up

Enjoy a taste of traditional Irish food. Bake soda bread in the oven of a woodburning stove and cook the hearty cabbage and potato dish (colcannon) on the stove top. After you will sit down to taste your creations with some Irish butter.

Purchase

A Full Irish Breakfast

  • Saturday, March 29, 9 a.m. to noon
  • Tangen Home (Meet at Visitor Center)
  • $144 per person ($129.60 member)
  • Ages 16 and up

The “full Irish breakfast” developed from the need to give farmers a substantial plate of food to get them through a morning of heavy labor. From simple 19th-century porridge of the working class or meat and potatoes of the middle class, menu choices expanded and often varied regionally. Explore the idea of a “fry up” and prepare some of the dishes in a full Irish breakfast—including fried eggs, thick cut bacon, sausages, black pudding, grilled tomatoes, toasted soda bread, and potato pancakes—in the 1870s Tangen Home kitchen.

Purchase

Scones & Tea

  • Wednesday, April 9, 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
  • Tangen Home (Meet at Visitor Center)
  • $75 per person ($67.50 member)
  • Ages 16 and up

Mix, roll out and bake traditional fruit tea scones in an historic kitchen setting at the 1870s era Tangen House. Pair it with butter, fruit jam, and a steaming cup of tea for an evening treat!

Purchase

Basics of Pioneer Hearth Cooking

  • Saturday, April 26, 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
  • 1850 Pioneer Farm (Meet at Murray Conference Center off of Douglas Pkwy)
  • $175 per person ($157.50 member)
  • Ages 16 and up

Learn the basics of hearth cooking, while exploring how new settlers in Iowa produced, prepared, and preserved food. You will use 1850s era recipes to make your lunch. While your meal is cooking, tour the 1850 Pioneer Farm. After eating their meal and cleaning up, everyone will go home with copies of recipes, and information on how to care for their cast iron cooking utensils.

Note: You will be eating your meal around 12:30, so plan accordingly.

Purchase

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

  • Saturday, April 26, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
  • 1900 Farm (Meet at Murray Conference Center off of Douglas Pkwy)
  • $136 per person ($122.40 member)
  • Ages 16 and up

Expand your cooking skills with a skillet-fried chicken meal on the wood-burning stove. Learn to control the stovetop temperatures by adding just the right amount of wood for frying—without burning the dessert in the oven—at the 1900 Farm House. You will brine, bread, and fry chicken on the stovetop and make two veggie side dishes, along with a sweet fruit dessert.

Purchase

Textiles Classes

Please bring these items:

  • good cloth-cutting scissors
  • thimble(s)
  • bag to take home your project

Beginning Crochet

  • Saturday, January 25, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
  • Visitor Center
  • $53 per person ($47.70 member)
  • Ages 16 and up

This class will teach you several crochet stitches, how to select the correct crochet hook and yarn for projects, how to read a crochet pattern, how to switch colors in a pattern, and learn how to make Granny Squares! Leave with a crochet hook, some yarn to continue practicing, and several patterns!

Closed

Beginning Knitting

  • Saturday, January 25, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
  • Visitor Center
  • $56 per person ($50.40 member)
  • Ages 16 and up

This class will teach you how to begin a knitting project with casting on, show how to do the basic knit and purl stitches, how to increase and decrease stitches, and how to read a knitting pattern. We will begin making a simple dish towel, and you will leave with your own knitting needles, some yarn, and several other beginner patterns!

Closed

Introduction to Tatting

  • Saturday, February 1, 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
  • Visitor Center
  • $50 per person ($45 member)
  • Ages 16 and up

Tatting is a Victorian handwork technique which creates knotted lace for trimming linens or making doilies and dresser scarves. Get an introduction to the basics of holding a tatting shuttle and of using a tatting needle. Learn the basic double stitch and picots. Patterns and materials will be provided, go home with your own tatting shuttle and pattern.

Closed

Spinning with a Drop Spindle

  • Saturday, February 22, 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
  • Visitor Center
  • $100 per person ($90 member)
  • Ages 16 and up

Interested in learning to spin wool? A drop spindle is a great place to start! Learn to process wool by cleaning and carding then begin spinning on a drop spindle. You’ll go home with your own carders, drop spindle, and some wool to keep practicing!

Purchase

Introduction to Embroidery

  • Saturday, March 29, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
  • Visitor Center
  • $53 per person ($47.70 member)
  • Ages 16 and up

Hand sewn embroidery has returned in popularity. Learn the basic decorative stitches commonly used including running stitches, lazy daisy, satin stitch, French knots and others. Materials for a simple beginning project will be provided.

Purchase

Trades Classes

  • Dress for weather. Shops are heated with wood-burning stoves.
  • Dress for a work environment. Your clothes will probably get dirty!
  • Footwear: You must wear closed-toe shoes or boots.
  • Bring: Refillable water bottle, heavy-duty gloves, eye protection.
  • Blacksmith classes only: Bring heavy-duty gloves and eye protection.

Victorian Spa Day

  • Saturday, March 1, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
  • Drug Store (Meet at Visitor Center)
  • $75 per person ($67.50 member)
  • Ages 16 and up

Do a little Victorian self-care bath potion and perfume making in the Schafer Drug Store. Create your own fragrant perfume, a fizzy set of bath salts, and a sugar scrub. Take them home in jars you decorate with custom labels.

Purchase

Letterpress Printing

  • Saturday, March 1, 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
  • Print Shop (Meet at Visitor Center)
  • $104 per person ($93.60 member)
  • Ages 16 and up

Get up-close and hands-on with the big printing machinery in the 1876 Advocate Newspaper Print Shop! Learn basic hand-setting of moveable type and see if you can proofread backward. Choose from selected historic engravings to complete a type layout, then load it into a press for printing. Projects will be printed on 19th-century hand- and foot-powered proof presses. You’ll take home several printed projects.

Purchase

Blacksmithing Basics

  • Saturday, March 22, 9 a.m. to noon OR Saturday, April 5, 9 a.m. to noon
  • Blacksmith (Meet at Visitor Center)
  • $125 per person ($112.50 member)
  • Ages 18 and up

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.

Purchase

Advanced Blacksmithing: Boot Scraper

  • Saturday, March 22, 1-4 p.m.
  • Blacksmith (Meet at Visitor Center)
  • $128 per person ($115.20 member)
  • Ages 18 and up
  • Participants should have taken Blacksmithing Basics or have other previous knowledge of blacksmithing

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 

Advanced Blacksmithing: Items for the Home

  • Saturday, April 5, 1-4 p.m.
  • Blacksmith (Meet at Visitor Center)
  • $128 per person ($115.20 member)
  • Ages 18 and up
  • Participants should have taken Blacksmithing Basics or have other previous knowledge of blacksmithing

You will make at least two of the following decorative projects: candleholder, napkin ring, hook, decorative towel holder, letter opener. You will learn and practice these skills: drawing out metal, making decorative bends, forge welding (if doing rings), and more.

Purchase

Broommaking: Round Brooms

  • Saturday, April 12, 9 a.m. to noon
  • Broom Shop (Meet at Visitor Center)
  • $148 per person ($133.20 member)
  • Ages 18 and up

Get swept up in our broommaking class! Use 19th century broommaking equipment to craft a small round cake tester on the foot-powered binding machines. Then apply those techniques to making a round hearth broom and a round kitchen broom. You are guaranteed to be a sweeping success!

Purchase

Advanced Blacksmithing: Camp Tripod

  • Saturday, April 12, 1-4 p.m.
  • Blacksmith (Meet at Visitor Center)
  • $148 per person ($133.20 member)
  • Ages 18 and up
  • Participants should have taken Blacksmithing Basics or have other previous knowledge of blacksmithing

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.

Purchase

Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage Area logo

The Historic Skills Classes program is funded in part by the Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage Area.

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