Yankee Southern Transplants in the Upper Midwest: Fall festivals

Wisconsinites love their festivals. I learned that there are all kinds of festivals that go on just about every weekend all year long, celebrating cherries to apples to beer to wine to harvest to summer solstice, Oktoberfest....the list goes on. Not to mention the ice sculpture festival and plenty of winter fests right through the dead of winter! Last weekend we had a Saturday packed with fall festivals.

Oneida Big Apple Fest 2014

You may have read a little about the Oneida Nation in one of my previous posts. The reservation is right in town, really, and it makes for a diverse and interesting experience. The Oneida were not the Native Americans that historically inhabited this region, but settled here later due to the similar climate and soils to their native upstate New York. When on the Oneida Nation, you often see street signs and signs for government buildings in both languages. I have learned that there are 3 clans within the Oneida Nation- the bear, turtle, and wolf.

The Oneida Nation Apple Orchard is located right on the edge of town with over 20 varieties of apples for the picking as well as other produce and homemade canned goods. On September 20, they had their annual festival with a farmers market, music, horsemanship demonstrations, apple pie baking contest, petting zoo, and tours of some restored Oneida log cabin homes. The weather report was not great for the day, but the rain held off and we had fun picking 23 pounds of apples, mostly Cortland and Macintosh varieties! Plans are in the making for a fresh batch of apple butter and Mom's apple crisp.

Rails & Ales Brewfest- National Railroad Museum

After researching some popular attractions in the area online, I found out about the National Railroad Museum. As a transportation and travel enthusiast, I was definitely interested in checking it out. Once we saw Rails & Ales Brewfest on the calendar, we knew we couldn't miss it.

Rails & Ales is the annual fundraising event for the Museum. They invite local beer, wine, and food vendors to set up amongst the trains in the museum. The admission fee afforded unlimited tastings and access to the raffle prizes and silent auction. Scott got to try a number of new micobreweries in the surrounding area, so he was pretty happy with the set up (and the unlimited nature of the tastings!). I primarily stayed with wines for the evening since there were plenty of new wineries to try, although I did sample a couple of the fruity beers. There was a delicious bread vendor that I may or may not have visited several times, as well as some pizza, chicken kabobs, and jambalaya.

I was surprised to find that the trains are not kept behind railings and glass, but rather you can climb up inside most of them. We saw several massive steam engines and some sleeper and dining cars, many of which were from the 1930s-50s. Definitely a cool evening to be in the presence of some really awesome trains and some delicious adult beverages.