
{"id":5596,"date":"2009-04-23T10:08:32","date_gmt":"2009-04-23T18:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=5596"},"modified":"2009-04-23T10:08:32","modified_gmt":"2009-04-23T18:08:32","slug":"farm-tour-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/04\/23\/farm-tour-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Farm Tour Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Emily Buehler<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This weekend is the 14th annual Piedmont Farm Tour, a chance to visit 40 of our area\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s small farms. With over 9,000 visits to farms by over 300 families last year, our tour is the largest in the country! And it boasts everything from grass-fed beef and free-range chicken operations to biodynamic fruit production. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s even a shrimp farm and a fiber farm on this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tour! Pick up a copy of the brochure to read about all the farms.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Last year on the tour, I stood with farmer Cathy Jones at the edge of a field at Perry-winkle Farm. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No one wants to hear about vegetables anymore,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she lamented as we watched visitors gather around the pigs in the next field. While pigs and goats may get the most visitors, a scenic drive to a vegetable farm makes a great day. Some of the many excellent choices:<br \/>\n1. Bluebird Meadows: They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just getting started and already their CSA is sold out! Be sure to drive out on beautiful Walnut Grove Church Road.<\/p>\n<p>2. PLANT at Breeze Farm: Dreaming of farming yourself someday? Visit the new farmers at Breeze Farm, and next year you might be signing up for a PLANT class too.<\/p>\n<p>3. Four Leaf Farm: Think you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have enough land to farm? Then see how Tim and Helga grow everything from pea shoots to kiwis on only one-fourth of an acre.<\/p>\n<p>4.Timberwood Organics: This is where I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be heading on Farm Tour weekend. I want to know how they still had spinach to sell after the nine-degree frost last December!<\/p>\n<p>5. Dancing Pines Farm: Bill and Joanna work full-time and still make this incredible farm happen. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be inspired.<\/p>\n<p>6. Maple View Farm: As if local ice cream weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enough of a draw, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all dying to find out more about the new Maple View Agricultural Center.<\/p>\n<p>7. Eco Farm: Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let all the animals fool you. The folks at Eco Farm are great vegetable growers as well!<\/p>\n<p>8. Perry-winkle Farm: I admit, I wanted to see the chickens\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Egg McMansion\u00e2\u20ac\u009d too. But seeing Mike and Cathy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cared-for gardens really warmed my heart.<\/p>\n<p>9. Turtle Run: The most fun I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever had on the Farm Tour was following Kevin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tour around Turtle Run (although I was too big to ride in the Mulch Mobile).<\/p>\n<p>10. Piedmont Biofarm: If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never been to the Plant at Piedmont Biofuels, visit now. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll tour Screech Owl Greenhouse and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll want to go back for a plant tour too.<\/p>\n<p>The farms are wonderful, and the Farm Tour also provides an excuse to visit towns in your county that you never get to. Heading north? Have lunch first in historic Hillsborough. Heading south? Stop by Chatham Marketplace or the Pittsboro General Store for a break. Going out to Saxapahaw? Great food can be found at the Saxapahaw General Store \u00e2\u20ac\u201d I know it looks like a Shell Station, but trust me. Whatever you do, get outside this weekend and tour farms!<\/p>\n<p>Brochures and buttons are available at all three Weaver Street Market locations, the Durham Farmers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Market, Chatham Marketplace and Harmony Farms in Raleigh, or online at <a href=\"http:\/\/carolinafarmstewards.org\">carolinafarmstewards.org<\/a>. Questions, call the CFSA at 542-2402.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Emily Buehler This weekend is the 14th annual Piedmont Farm Tour, a chance to visit 40 of our area\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s small farms. With over 9,000 visits to farms by over 300 families last year, our tour is the largest in the country! And it boasts everything from grass-fed beef and free-range chicken operations to biodynamic&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-land-and-table"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5597,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5596\/revisions\/5597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}