It’s been awhile since I last visited the charming Villages of Van Buren County in southeast Iowa but this month’s issue of Iowa Farm Bureau’s Family Living (which my husband edits) had some good suggestions of places new and old to visit there:
– Villages Folk School – Opened in 2009, this place (which appears to be on 1st Street in the village of Bonaparte) offers weekend classes in “traditional arts and crafts” from rug weaving and blacksmithing to artisan bread baking. There are some weekend classes in pastel painting and out-of-town students can stay at the pretty Mason House Inn in Keosauqua. Another option is the Bonaparte Inn, an 1890’s building in Bonaparte.
