July 10, 2025
Robert Goertzen
Most of us focus our attention on our daily routines and on the people who are close to us, our neighbours, our friends and our family. It’s not uncommon to be familiar with places in our city, knowing where they are located, but not ever stopping to visit. Until I joined the staff at Mennonite Heritage Village, the museum was a place like that for me. I had visited the museum with my parents as a child. I had been there once or twice as a young adult during Pioneer Days. But mainly, I drove by on the highway hundreds and possibly thousands of times over the decades, without any idea of the sites on the grounds or the activities occurring throughout the various seasons. What was I missing?
Did you know that several dedicated volunteers maintain our working windmill with regular maintenance and cleaning of the many moving gears, shafts and sails? This allows it to continue to function as a flour mill. During event days, the sails are engaged, and the entire windmill becomes a very big machine, harnessing power from the wind and making it possible to use the grindstones on the second level, to turn wheat into flour. Several times a year, this flour is sifted and bagged for use in our famous stoneground whole wheat bread recipe at the Livery Barn Restaurant. It is also packaged for sale in our gift shop.
Did you know that the General Store on our village Main Street is an actual, operating store open seven days a week from May 1st to September 30th? The store carries local artisan handmade items for sale and is staffed by the same artisans on a rotating basis. You can stop by any day during museum hours to shop and speak with the artisan on site that day. No admission is required. Step back in time to the early 1900’s as you hear the creak of the wooden floor, shop for that special handmade gift, and imagine your great grandparents making their monthly trip to town to pick up supplies for their home.
Did you know that the Steinbach and Area Garden Club looks after the museum orchard and gardens? Each spring they prepare the soil and plant traditional vegetables like our grandparents did. We have three garden plots dedicated to growing rhubarb for the tasty plautz dessert in the Livery Barn Restaurant. And many of the vegetables find their way into our restaurant-made soup recipes. When you eat at the restaurant with family and friends, you are enjoying home grown goodness.
Did you know that we have a gravel walking path around the pond and that the shoreline has been rebuilt with the assistance of the Seine Rat Roseau Watershed District to prevent erosion and to create a natural habitat that invites exploration and enjoyment of nature? Whether you are enjoying a peaceful walk through the village homesteads and gardens or strolling through the grove of saskatoon and chokecherry bushes to follow the path around the pond, you will encounter the chirping of crickets, the songs of small birds, and the sights and smells of nature all around you.
