Escape to the farm. As Escapes Month winds down, here's a shout-out to maybe our favorite escape: a day in the country to see where our food is grown.
We're temporarily living in the country at the moment, so we're planning our attacks on the apple orchards, blueberry fields and pumpkin patch. A quick vacation to California, including a field trip to the immense agricultural landscape of the Central Valley, is also on the horizon.
When was the last time you visited the country or picked your own produce? Resources for finding nearby farms after the jump.
If you're in California, check out Farm Visit's database of California farms. Farm Visit is a national website, designed to be an easy tool to find farms and u-pick operations in your state. They haven't built up the database very much yet though - with the exception of California, which has over 600 farms listed by crop and county. We're keeping an eye on this site - it looks like it has potential.
The big daddy of farm information, though, remains Local Harvest - a massive and incredibly detailed database of farms, CSAs, and farmers markets.
(Image credit: Wellhausen Farm, at Local Harvest)
I just spent a few weeks in rural Portugal with my husband and his grandmother. I'm a former 4-Her so I was in heaven watching the cows com to and from the pasture everyday (their bells sound like wind chimes). The family friends that still live in the village kept us well stocked with fresh veggies, meats, and homemade wine. Everyone has fruit trees and blackberries grew wild everywhere. It was pretty amazing. Even the most ordinary foods taste better when you can count the steps to where it came from.
view caitlinp's profile
Thanks for the link to the Farm Visits database. Boy, is that ever right up my alley. I'll let all my farmer friends know to add their farmstands to it: people ask me all the time about U-Picks and farmstands. Very helpful. (I write about and photograph farms.)
And it's true: you can't beat LocalHarvest: it's my favorite website ever.
view Tana Butler's profile
Wow, that LocalHarvest site is amazing! I think I'm gonna have to link it on the blog--everyone should have a resource like that!
view Jim of ChewOnThat's profile