TAR HEEL LESSONS
Do you know …
Getting To Know…
that the Venus Flytrap, or Dionaea muscipula, is native to North Carolina? It’s actually our state’s official carnivorous plant, designated so in 2005. The rare, mysterious plant has hinged, jaw-like leaves with a sweet smell that attracts insects. Sensitive hairs signal when prey is near and then–snap!–its leaves shut! The trapped insect is slowly dissolved by acids and digested by the plant. Flytraps can be found on the coastal plain within a 75-mile radius around Wilmington. Prime viewing time runs from late May through August. Good places
Thomas Day
36 JUNE 2010 Carolina Country
to spot them include Carolina Beach State Park, North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher in Kure Beach and Airlie Gardens in Wilmington. The flytrap currently faces a high risk of extinction in the wild. Fortunately, it is easy to grow at home. For care tips, as well as occasional videos showing flytraps in action, visit www.flytrapgrowing.info.
tar heel lessons
through the fields to learn about soil conditions and are educated at a barn puppet show. The farm also offers Geocaching tours, high-tech treasure hunts where teams use GPS units to locate buried targets. Last year, 25,000 people visited the farm in Mount Ulla. For more information, call (704) 636-4005 or visit www.pattersonfarminc.com.
What coat do you put on only when it is wet?
Patterson Farm, a 1,000-acre third-generation business in southwestern Rowan County, has been in the agri-tourism business for 16 years. It recently added a children’s summer program called Learn and Grow Discovery Farm. Kids learn where their food comes from as they “work” the farm through 13 interactive stations. Through fun simulations, they milk a cow and harvest honey. On school tours, children pick strawberries in the spring, tomatoes in the summer and early fall, and pumpkins in the fall. They ride wagons
Chuckle
Editor’s note: A new exhibit on Day is at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh. “Behind the Veneer: Thomas Day, Master Cabinetmaker” presents more than 70 pieces of Day’s furniture and explores interesting aspects of his life. Visit Facebook, call (919) 807-7900 or visit www.ncmuseumofhistory.org. There’s also a new book out on Day, published by UNC Press of Chapel Hill. “Thomas Day: Master Craftsman and Free Man of Color” tells how Day carefully plotted his course for success and survival in antebellum southern society, and details more than 160 pieces that Day produced between 1835 and 1861. Call (800) 848-6224 or visit www.uncpress.unc.edu.
Hands-on learning at the farm
Farm photos courtesy of Patterson Farms
North Carolina Museum of History
a guide to NC for teachers and students
Wet paint!
Born in 1801 in Dinwiddie County, Virginia Known as furniture artisan and entrepreneur in Milton Accomplishments: Thomas Day was born to free black parents, and he later owned and operated one of North Carolina’s largest cabinet shops prior to the Civil War. Many restrictive laws applied to free people of color at this time, except the right to own property. By capitalizing on this freedom, the African American built a life for himself and his family and ran a thriving business during a time when most blacks were enslaved. Despite considerable obstacles, the ambitious master craftsman gained the respect of white clients who were the movers and shakers of the Dan River region in North Carolina and Virginia. He created furniture in popular 19th-century styles–from the very “neat” and plain to the ornate Rococo Revival–and is also known for successfully mechanizing his operations with steam-powered equipment. His furniture still represents the best of 19th-century craftsmanship, and his pieces are highly sought after by collectors.