Area farms, wineries, markets open June 25  

On Saturday, June 25, Polk County and nearby residents can see where their food comes from, and make connections with those who produce it, on the PolkFresh 2016 Farm Tour.

Because the farms, wineries and other locations cover a wide area, Farm Tour coordinator Erica Shanks noted that the sites comprise three clusters — Saluda, Green Creek and Columbus/Mill Spring.

To see the farms, wineries and other locations on the tour, and to see maps and purchase tickets, go online to growrural.org.

This is the sixth year the tour has been scheduled. Last year’s scheduled tour was cancelled due to concerns over avian flu. This year’s tour will happen rain or shine.

This year’s tour represents a partnership between Polk County’s Agricultural Economic Development office and the recently-formed Growing Rural Opportunities (GRO), a Polk County-based initiative to help make farming more practical, and to encourage younger farmers to work the land. The tour is funded by Polk County.

“We want people to know where their food comes from,” said Erica Shanks, Farm Tour coordinator through Polk County.

“It gives us the opportunity to showcase farms,” noted GRO’s executive director, Patrick McLendon.

McLendon remarked that while guests become educated about local food sources and who provides them, farmers also make connections, and have the chance to earn additional income through sales of merchandise on the tour, and afterward.

Affirming what is not obvious to all consumers, McLendon emphasized that if consumers want farms, those farmers must make a living.

McLendon, an Americorps volunteer at the time of the first farm tour, recalled, “That first one was pretty exciting for us. We’ve grown and honed the farm tour. The exciting part is the young farmers.”

Among those younger farmers are Aaron Bradley and his wife Nicole, fifth generation farmers at Bradley Farms on Howard Gap Road outside Saluda. The farm provides grass-fed beef, eggs and meat from pastured chickens and meat from pastured pigs.

“Experience and education,” are the main takeaways for guests, Aaron Bradley said. “People can actually see how things are done.”

One thing guests will observe at Bradley Farms is a healthy balance between agricultural production and wildlife habitat—not evident on large factory farms.

Pointing out the improvements made in fields where his chickens have already been pastured, Bradley noted, “We want to build as much wildlife habitat as agriculture. It’s all symbiotic. We’re not smarter than nature.”

This year’s tour includes a great variety of sites: Columbus Farmers’ Market, the Mill Spring Agriculture Center and Farm Store, Meanwhile Back in Saluda (a wine and beer outlet featuring local and regional selections), Blue Ridge Mountain Trout, Ashley Meadows, Bradley Farms, Robinson Community Garden, Overmountain Winery, Parker-Binns Vineyard, Russian Chapel Hill Winery, Indigo Farm, Go Garlic, Manna Cabanna (local organic market), Holbert Honey, Adawehi Healing Center and greenhouse, TK Family Farm, and Mountain Brook Vineyard.

Tour guests may visit farms from 9 a.m. through 2 p.m., and wineries from 1-6 p.m.

In addition to guests purchasing tickets online, they may, Shanks said, purchase them beforehand at the Tryon and Columbus farmers markets, or at Meanwhile Back in Saluda and the Mill Spring Farm Store.

Tickets for the Farm Tour will also admit guests to the June 26 Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (A.S.A.P.) on the evening of June 26, and to the A.S.A.P. event from 1 – 6 p. m. Sunday June 26. Tickets for the A.S.A.P. event will admit holders to the Farm Tour.

If guests arrive hungry, they will find treats available, including some free tastings.

In addition, “We’ve encouraged all the farms to have something for sale,” Shanks noted.

Overmountain Vineyards will have grills, where tour guests may prepare food purchased at some of the tour locations.

Also involved in the tour planning are Dawn Jordan, director of the Polk County Office of Agricultural Economic Development, and Ansley Roberts, farm and consumer outreach specialist for that office.

An online map will help guests find their way to various locations on the tour.

“I’m really proud this year of the online map,” McLendon said.

Proceeds from the Polk Fresh Farm Tour go to Polk County farmers. McLendon noted that money raised will enhance the farmers’ tool share program, which allows farmers to collectively own and use tools and other implements (such as feeders), instead of each farmer having to invest in large amounts of equipment used relatively infrequently.

This year’s proceeds will fund a medium-size tractor available to many farmers for the times when each needs it.

“For one person to buy it, it doesn’t make sense,” McLendon noted, observing that many farmers are land rich, but not financially secure.

“It’ll be a really great day,” McLendon asserted.