About a week ago Tami and I went on a county farm tour. We visited 6 farms and had a wonderful time meeting lots of different people and learning a little more about the local agriculture and what we want in the future. The tour included Evergreen Acres, Yankey Farm, Blue Top Farm, Clover Meadow Farm, LynnVale Farm and Studio, and Oakwood Farm. Each one was unique in its own way but we loved it all.
Evergreen Acres is primarily a Christmas Tree farm with rows upon rows of White Pine, Norwegian Spruce, and Scotch Pine. They also have pumpkins, corn, tomatoes and squash. It takes around 10-12 years for a Christmas tree to grow to selling size.
Yankey farm is primarily a pick-your-own pumpkin and corn farm. They also had several local beekeepers there with a display hive and a bunch of equipment for people to show. I spent about 20 minutes talking to a relatively new beekeeper. His first season only produced about 5 quarts of honey from his two hives, but this season produced 50+ quarts. Hobby bees are not a cheap way to get honey but it definitely seems very rewarding.
Blue Top Farm is a horse stable. Definitely not the route that I want to go in the long term, but I do love to be around horses. They also had a couple goats and a small pen of chickens. That is exactly what I want. I wouldn't mind having a horse, but if I do have a horse it will be a horse for working on the farm.
Clover Meadow Farm is an Alpaca farm. First of all I had no idea that Alpaca wool was SO SOFT. Alpaca yarn is softer than any baby yarn that I have ever felt. That being said, Alpacas are apparently one of the more expensive farm animals to buy. It is no longer legal to import them so it is necessary to purchase them from the relatively small US herds. Before the market crashed a couple years back, the average breeding female was selling for about $20,000. That is crazy. The prices fortunately have come down quite a bit over the past five years and you can get a small start up heard of 8 for about $10,000 now. I am not sure if I would ever consider getting Alpacas to breed but a couple of the cheaper neutered males for wool production has definitely crossed my mind.
LynnVale Farm and Studio is a flower farm and art studio. They sell their flowers to a variety of local florists and to people for special occasions. It looked like they had also did a lot of photography and some paintings in their studio.
Oakwood Farm was the last place that we visited. It is a small experiment farm funded by a grant from the County Water and Soil department. They are trying to experiment with different ways to improve local farming techniques that could help local farmers. Their focus was on horses and the two main things that they were trying to do is reduce animal waste runoff and build up, and also set up a rotational pasture system that reduces the need for feeding the animals purchased hay.
It was an incredibly educational experience that I would suggest to everyone. I realize that most people cannot come to this farm tour but you would surprised by the number of farmers that are happy to give tours if you just ask. Find a farmer and learn about the world around you.
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