Every year, the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project organizes the Family Farm Tour. For twenty-five bucks, you get access for the weekend to about forty farms and dairies around the region that are trying to practice sustainable agriculture. We've always been interested in the tour, and the kids were old enough this year, so we loaded up the van and hit the road.
Because of logistics and the vagaries of a child's attention span, we made it to about eight farms over the course of two days. This doesn't seem like much, but we really spent a lot of time at each farm, poking around, sampling the wares, and just enjoying the weather and some crucial family time.
Above and below, some animals from Hickory Nut Gap Farm, one of our favorite places for fresh meat.
Spinning Spider Creamery had a very hands-on approach that the kids really enjoyed.
Farmhouse Meats had puddles, which the kids also enjoyed.
This is a great program that lets people get a better idea of where there food comes from, and also hints at the agricultural heritage here in the mountains. It's sad to see the old farms that are being lost to development, to new roads or WalMarts, and driving the back roads on the tour really drives that sadness home. I think the real lesson to be learned from the Family Farm Tour is just how precious this resource is, and how hard we should work to protect it.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
The Family Farm Tour
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