Ozark Folk Center State Park Events June 23-29! Something for everyone in the Family!

Beginning with a Van Colbert old time banjo feature concert Wednesday evening, June 24, we are having a wonderful Stringband Week at the Ozark Folk Center State Park.

Van Colbert heard Grandpa Jones at a show in West Plains when he was seventeen. That inspired him to learn claw hammer style banjo. Van’s father and brothers played music together all through childhood. Van still plays in a string band with his brothers, The Colbert Brothers Stringband, at small festivals locally and statewide.  He is a member of the Davis Creek Rounders and performed on the Winter’s Bone soundtrack and is a member of  Blackberry Winter.

Friday night’s concert will feature Lukas Pool and the Moonlight Ramblers. The son of local musicians Scott and Shay Pool, Lukas has taken the sounds of the Ozarks across the country. As both a student and later instructor at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, Lukas’ claw-hammer style of banjo playing has earned him performance jobs with many notable musicians including Steve Martin (yes, that one). Lukas and the Moonlight Ramblers will perform their blend of traditional old time music as both Friday and Saturday night as part of the Stringband Weekend event.

Registration is still open for the Friday and Saturday Stringband Workshops. If you play a string instrument, this workshop will help you learn to play together with other folks.

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Learn to Cane Your Own Chairs

Interested in learning to re-cane your Grandmothers old chair? We are offering a class here at the Ozark Folk Center State Park July 7 – 11, 2015.

Don Damman has been replacing cane seats in chairs since about 1988. He does both, hand and pressed cane seats, rushing, fiber hickory, cane feather weave, and many others. He began seat weaving for practical reasons; for his family’s use. When others found out of his ability, people started asking if he would repair chair seats for them. Soon he found himself inundated with a two car garage full of furniture.

Yarb Tales – Elder Flowers
Elder, Sambucus nigra var. canadensis is in bloom right now all over north central Arkansas. Tiny flowers are borne in flat-topped, umbrella-shaped corymbs, in masses—they are cream-colored and sweetly fragrant—some can be as wide across as a dinner plate. Elderflowers begin to appear in our zone 7 areas in late May and last a couple of weeks. This is a small window of time in which to harvest the blooms. We are careful to harvest a small percentage of the flowers in order to insure a bountiful berry harvest for songbirds, wild animals and human use.

Sometimes the entire corymbs are used to make elderflower fritters. We quite enjoy homemade elderflower liqueur. We also dry the flowers to make teas and medicinal tinctures. The flowers are mild and astringent and have been used in folk remedies to soften the skin, for inflammation of the eyes, for congestion, headache and indigestion. Elderflowers have been used for tea for centuries and are safe and effective when taken to reduce fevers relating to colds, flu, chicken pox and measles. Note: Michael Moore reports that children with a history of high fevers or convulsions, should avoid the tea since it occasionally can spike high fevers.

When preparing the flowers for fresh use or for drying, gather the corymbs just after the dew has dried from the flowers on a sunny day. The fragrance will be at its peak before the day gets too hot.

Take the flowers to a shady, cool place to separate the flowers from the stems. Tiny green berries may be present. Unripe elderberries contain prussic acid, the precursor to cyanide. Be sure that any berries are omitted from the flowers to be processed.

Skillet Restaurant Specials This Week

Skillet Lunch Specials

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Friday Nights in June

Saturday Nights in June

Performing this Week
Noon program on the Bessie Moore Deck next to the School House