Museum schedule, from pie-baking to cow-watching to Pinedorado

With El Sol sinking into the Pacific 45 minutes earlier now, fall cannot be far behind. Naked Ladies (Belladonnas) are dancing on their slender stalks amid the 4 o’clocks, which don’t actually open their petals until 8 p.m. in the Historical Museum’s Heirloom Gardens.

Le Duchesse de Brabant still blooms fragrantly on the thorny 100-year-old bush near the Burton Drive entry. So it must be time for the autumnal equinox on Sept. 22, and the big October events to benefit the operation and maintenance of the museum and the historic blue Maggetti House next door.

Benefit Harvest Dinner

Now is the time to beat the deadline for the Benefit Harvest Dinner, to be held this year at our business partner venue, Robin’s Restaurant on Tuesday, Oct. 11. Admission at $100 per person will provide you with a luscious choice of entrees, a medley of appetizers and salad, as well as a medley of desserts, all paired with fine wines. Reserve before Sept. 27 with Chairman Penny Church, 805-927-1442, at the museum, or on our website.

Reservations are necessary, also, for the guided Ranch and Farm Tour, Monday Oct. 10. This year we have added a tour of Harmony and the Creamery Museum, with wine tasting and lunch there.

More details for the $100 event will be available on our website.

Pie Contest

For the past six years, we have featured the Pie Baking/Tasting Contest during the Harvest Festival on the museum grounds. The free Harvest Festival will be from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8, and details about attending and registering a booth will be in next week’s Cambrian.

This year, the Pie Contest will be featured during a dessert social from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 9; bring a dessert to share (a la potluck), with friends and neighbors. The contest is sponsored by Robin’s Restaurant and The Cambrian’s Culinary Corner, with the entry fee still only $5, as is tasting five samples from the finest home cooks. Your pies may win one of three prizes valued at $100. Entry blanks will be available at Robin’s, in The Cambrian, at the museum and online. Call Consuelo Macedo for information, 805-927-3159.

Cow Parade

As a commitment to the community, we sponsor and host other nonprofits. This year, we are honored to be a resident site for one of three bovines in the Cow Parade — not a parade at all, but a display of more than 101 life-size critters artistically decorated and tethered throughout San Luis Obispo County this year.

The Cambria Tourism Board has coordinated placement of three in Cambria, where they will be on display from mid-September through mid-April. Our guest is titled “Vineyard Diva” and was crafted by Mary Clark-Camargo of Eagle Rock in her typical mosaic style from a design she submitted to the Cow Parade Committee. Come and get your photo op in the front yard!

Pinedorado

This Saturday, the Historical Society is proud to present distinguished representatives of local families who are descendants of some of this area’s earliest settlers since the time of Native American Chumash and Salinan tribes, and the Mexican land grantee, Don Juliano Estrada. They will be honored in the Pinedorado Parade on Saturday, entry number 32: John Taylor, Jim Evans, David Fiscalini, Dick Nock and Patty Nock Marlo (Phelan family); Bill Bianchi, Walt Fitzhugh and Carol Soto Lowry.

Joyce Williams will be honored with the former Pinedorado queens and princesses; she would represent the Fernandes, Mariano and Perreira families. Jeremiah Johnson, Cambria’s first actual resident will be portrayed aboard the Native Daughters of the Golden West float, number 20, which depicts a sampling of early Cambria businesses. Many photo ops for all!

This story was originally published August 31, 2016 at 9:36 AM with the headline "Museum schedule, from pie-baking to cow-watching to Pinedorado."