Pioneer Women At Aurora Farmers Market

A senior lady came to the Pioneer booth and told Katherine Belrose – ‘Oh, my mother used to have one of those‘. She pointed out in the direction of the spinning wheel and a woman spinning the woolen yarn.


It looks like the pioneer presentation at the Aurora Farmers Market brought lot of good memories to many who visited the pioneer booth.


I grew up in a small town myself. A small town dating from 14th century with about 3000 people. Therefore, going from making a butter with a dash butter churn, cleaning carpets with a carpet beater, making own cheese, washing clothes using the washboard and to sit in front of the computer and blog today – I think I have seen enough of technological advancements in just 35 years. Such practices were very common in our family when I was growing up.

‘If we treasure our own experience and regard it as real, we must also treasure other people’s experience.’ – A quote by John Charles Polanyi

I have seen a spinning wheel many times, but that was regional. Mostly those who lived in the mountains and had sheep farms were spinning the wool yarns. In our area we had flax farms to make linen and flax seeds and by the time I was born our town already had the linen processing factory.


At some point I found myself mesmerized in Katherine’s booth and I was capturing moments that once were reality in my life – the butter, the washboard. Now, may be some can see why I treasure the Petch house so much.

More pictures, just click on any image and keep clicking.