Good authors do this, right?
Yes, Susan, they do.
The town I live in was founded by Moravians, and the original settlements still stand. Some of the houses have been lived in continuously since they were built, pre-Revolution. In the late 1960s the tourism board began to wise up, and stopped razing the historic buildings, re-routed the main street into town proper so that it no longer went through the old settlement--which is still a functioning college and church, but now includes tourism-oriented businesses. The baker bakes bread by a 16th Century recipe, with 16th Century utensils and fireboxes, all within view of visiting tourists, and sells breads and cookies in the shop. Women pour candles in replica molds, work in the herb garden to harvest and dry herbs, and make wreaths, potpourris for various uses (moth chaser, headache remedy, etc.) and tisanes. Tour guides dress in authentic costumes as they man museum and shop counters, and guide tourists around. There is also a functioning forge, with an authentically dressed blacksmith, who makes iron hinges, pulls, bells, and other items for use in the village, as well as for sale and for technique demonstration.
When I had writer friends visiting from England, they stayed in the B&B in the village. He was overjoyed to have discovered the smithy while she and I were off shopping. We all went down, and I watched while the two of them absolutely made this man's day--probably his whole month--by spending more than an hour asking him intelligent questions about his tools, his technique, his materials, and his products, as well as his own background. And she took notes! The smith was in heaven. And come to find out? While a smith was a prominent character in her book, all the stuff she'd learned and taken notes on was never mentioned. It merely informed the character and lent an easy familiarity with the subject and the tools and methods of the trade.
That was the long answer, sorry. The short answer is, it's all fodder, and you never know when a bit of knowledge is going to come in handy. Enjoy your outing.