82-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 6, 1993
On February 17
Sample Brunch At Morning Meadows Farm
LOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Fanning Staff
MARIETTA (Lancaster Co.) —
“A farmer’s wife learns to do
everything she has to,” said
Barbara Frey.
That’s why Barbara has patched
plaster, sanded, painted, papered,
and turned Morning Meadows
Farm into a showcase of a Bed and
Breakfast.
Morning Meadows Farm is one
of several bed and breakfast farms
open for the public to tour during
the Pennsylvania Dutch Food Fes
tival, held February 15 to 20. Each
day, a festival of events is held in
various areas of Lancaster County.
On Wednesday, February 17,
Morning Meadows and three other
bed and breakfast farms will be
open to the public. For a $3 ticket,
guests may sample brunch foods at
each of the locations.
A gracious, outgoing hostess.
Barb said that she had always
dreamed of having a bed and
breakfast even though she had nev
er been a guest in one before she
opened her own seven years ago.
At that time. Barb was working
full time and continued to do so
while she operated the bed and
breakfast on a part-time basis. Two
years ago, she quit her job to
devote full time to the bed and
breakfast.
Artistic flair is evident through
out the house, which Barb
describes as Victorian-country
style.
Barb does all the decorating and
floral arrangements. She said that
when she first opened her bed and
breakfast, she was limited by
money for decorating.
“So I did my own decorating,
thinking that some day when I had
enough money, I would go out and
buy nice things,” Barb said.
It’s years later, but instead of
buying new things, Barb continues
using her own decorating skills
because, she explains with a tinge
of amazement in her voice, “Peo
ple say they love my stuff.”
Barb has had professional
decorators as guests in her home.
They tell her that they can’t believe
that she has never been trained
professionally.
Color and design are evident in'
elaborate flower arrangements on
walls, mantels, table centerpieces,
and shelves in every nook and
cranny of the house plus outside on
the brick patio and the country
Barb, left, daughteY Bambi, and grandson Joshua sample brunch foods that will be
servectdurlng the Pennsylvania Dutch Food Festival. For a $3 ticket, you may sample
brunch foods at four bed and breakfast inns on February 17 and tour several area food
processing plants free of charge.
and Barbara Frey operate a bed and breakfast on their Morning Meadows Farm * n Marietta.
Hart
porches.
Sometimes guests request that
Barb duplicate one of her arrange
ments for them. Because Barb
enjoys floral design, she is happy
to fill their requests and has mailed
them as far away as Hawaii.
Many of her skills have been
honed by necessity, according to
Barb, who said that she peeded to
leant to make lemonade out of a lot
of lemons that life had given hdr.
Years ago, a divorce had left her
with four small children to raise.
Twelve years ago, she married
Harold Frey and the two families
combined include seven children.
Now the children are adults and on
their own, but the skills and end
less energy needed during their
growing up years have trained
Barb to work efficiently and happi
ly. Qualities that enable her to
entertain guests with ease.
The Freys find that guests often
choose their home because they
want to visit a working farm. In
fact, the Freys advertise that they
ha n a small barnyard of pelting
animals for children to enjoy. A
sheep, Dandelion, feeds on the
green grass in front of the entrance
On the weekend of Valentine’s Day, guests will sip hot chocolate by the fire In the
parlor at Morning Meadows Farm.
to their home,
While Barbara pampers the
barnyard animals, Harold and his
identical twin brother, Herbert,
lake care of the for-profit animals
and the field work.
Harold had purchased the farm
with its 240 acres in 1965. For
many years, he had a laying hen
operation, but in 1989, he con
verted the chicken houses to a
swine operation.
“It’s not ncarfy as time consum
ing as chickens,” said Harold of
the 2,000 pigs he fattens.
He also raises beef cattle and
rents an additional 800 acres on
which corn, soybeans, wheat, bar- (Turn , Q Page B 4)
trfoies
ley, and 100 acres of hull peas arc
raised. The peas arc raised for
Cope’s Dried Com, which lakes
care of mechanically harvesting
the peas.
Harold and Herbert also operate
Frey Brothers Trucking, transport
ing feed and grain.
As many farmers, Harold
laments the rising prices of equip
ment, but he likes to tell of one
occasion when inflation worked to
his advantage.
“In 1955,1 bought a tractor and
plow for $3,500. 1 used it for 12
years and then traded it in for
55,000,” he said.
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