Sheep will lose their winter coats at Phillipsburg Manor, the historic Hudson Valley farm and farmhouse in Tarrytown. The animals will be shorn by hand, the same way sheep shearing was done in the 18th century.
This year's annual Sheep-to-Shawl Festival takes place Saturday and Sunday, April 26-27, from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Visitors to living history museum Phillipsburg Manor can participate in the process of making woolen cloth, from picking and carding the wool, spinning and dyeing the yarn, to weaving it into cloth. Interpreters in 18th century clothing also demonstrate the labor-intensive process of making linen from the flax plant.
A special attraction for children are nearly a dozen newborn baby lambs born this spring on site, frolicking about the grounds.
Spring is a wonderful time to visit this working farm -- which recreates what farm life was like in Colonial times. It wasn't an easy life. Especially for the slaves known to have lived and worked here.
Philipsburg Manor is the country’s only fully staffed living history museum to focus on the history of northern slavery, especially slavery in New York State.
