Take your pick: pickling practices, a petting zoo, food trucks, folk art and/or Hot Wet Goobers (on film). Toss in some Southern storytelling, organic gardening and live music, and you have Atlanta History Center’s annual Fall Folklife Festival.

DSC00950Activities take place from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday throughout the 33 acres of the museum and the center’s Smith Family Farm. Highlights include:

 Canning, pickling and preserving demonstrations by food blogger Kevin West (Saving the Season). Plus gardening demonstrations, organic living tips and advice on environmental friendliness. Slow Food Atlanta will teach how to grow good stuff and what to buy locally. Smith Family Farm.

 Sachet-making, candle dipping and blacksmithing demonstrations. Smith Family Farm.

 Storytelling by Betty Anne Wylie, a longtime regional favorite. Tullie Smith House.

 Traditional tunes and contemporary bluegrass, rock and folk by the bands Sourwood Honey and Peachtree Station. Mable Dorn Reed Amphitheater.

Inside the museum, take a self-guided tour through Shaping Traditions: Folk Arts in a Changing South or visit the theater for any of several 10-minute Southern foodie films, including the aforementioned Hot Wet Goobers, Cured or The Rise of Southern Cheese.

The Happy Belly and Honeysuckle Gelato food trucks will be parked nearby. Craft beers (like Monday Night Brewing’s Fu Manbrew Belgian-Style Wit) are available at a cash bar.

Museum members get in free. For nonmembers, it’s $16.50; $13 for senior citizens and students. Buy ONLINE to save.

For a full list of festival activities, go HERE.

About Kathy Janich

Kathy Janich is a longtime arts journalist who has been seeing, working in or writing about the performing arts for most of her life. She's a member of the Theatre Communications Group, the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, Americans for the Arts and the National Arts Marketing Project. Full disclosure: She’s also an artistic associate at Synchronicity Theatre.

View all posts by Kathy Janich