Oral History
The purpose of the Apple Orchard Oral History project is to conduct interviews of farming families and farmers to record their history and the history of Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area as it is evolving. The reason for this is to compile a history as told by the people who participated in its making.
The orchards in many of the Freedom’s Way communities have either disappeared or are disappearing, and the face of these towns is changing rapidly. Many local townspeople still identify themselves as from rural communities, although the rural landscape is becoming an illusion.
While we might hope to preserve our region’s farms, the reality is that within an all too short a period of time, most farms will have become development sites. The problem is therefore, how to preserve a vanishing history of the region’s apple orchards and farmers while a sufficient number of them are able to talk and record their lives and explain what farming has meant to them.
We will be teaching local citizens how to conduct oral histories; therefore, we are sending into the towns a phalanx of interviewers whose local associations will open doors. People are less reluctant to talk to a familiar person; conversely, a local person can often draw out a shy or humble participant, particularly if the subject matter is personal.
Our aim is to celebrate the farmers’ contribution to the fabric of the area’s communities, the scenic environment and the sense of what defines our towns.
Volunteers welcome. We provide kits and workshops to teach oral history taking.