Tickets for this year’s Sept. 19 Farm Tour are on sale now and with a large range of diversity offered, we just need visitors to make it a huge success. The Farm Tour hours are 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Winery Tours are from noon to 6 p.m.

 

Whether your interests lie in getting closer to your local food sources, learning tips and tricks from people in the know, entertaining kids and grandkids for the weekend, supporting friends and neighbors who are opening their establishments to the public or exploring our lovely back roads, one thing’s for certain. This is the year to make it a priority to appreciate all the diversity of food we have in the Foothills.

 

This year marks the sixth annual Polk Fresh Farm Tour and our participants now include a full group in Saluda. We are excited to include our neighbors up the hill for the first time ever in this year’s tour as well as other new farms which include two young farming families and all five of our wineries.

 

Here are the farms selected for the 2015 Tour. We will be getting up close and personal with each of them in the weeks leading up to the tour so follow our stories and see why each of these 17 farms were chosen to represent our Foothills region: Adawehi Gardens, Ashley Meadows Micro-Farm, Blue Ridge Mountain Trout, Buttercup Cottage, Columbus Farmer’s Market, Craig Family Homestead, Emerald Springs Farm, Green Creek Winery, Mill Spring Ag Center, Mountain Brook Winery, Mountain Valley Farm, Overmountain Vineyards, Parker-Binns Vineyard, Phil Holbert Honey, Robinson Community Garden, Russian Chapel Hills Winery, and TK Family Farms.

 

Tickets for this year’s tour are available at Meanwhile Back in Saluda’s Local Food and Wine Shop in Saluda, the Mill Spring Farm Store in the Mill Spring Ag Center, Overmountain Vineyards and Winery in Green Creek and online through Eventbrite. Tickets are per carload, unlimited occupants. We are also offering a motorcycle and Farm to Cycle Tour tickets are available includes a guided cycle tour plus dinner.

 

In addition to our PolkFresh Tour, all ticket holders are invited to visit the ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project) Tour that covers the rest of Western North Carolina and includes nearly 40 additional farms. Their tour occurs on both Saturday and Sunday from 1-6 p.m.

 

Support local agriculture. Proceeds go to Polk County farmers. For more information on the tour or to volunteer for this event please visit www.polkcountyfarms.org for tour updates or contact mindywiener@gmail.com.

 

– Submitted by Mindy Weiner