Polk County’s second annual PolkFresh™ Farm Tour will take place Saturday, June 25. The tour offers opportunities to learn about small-scale agricultural initiatives in the community.

Participants will have the opportunity to pet goats and sample from vineyards and wineries. Learn about raising grass-fed, hormone-free Texas Longhorn Cattle, Boer Goats, Berkshire Hogs and the American Bison. Choose a free-range chicken and have it prepared for your dinner on-site or hold baby chicks for a photo op. Learn about the small-scale farmer who lives by the philosophy of growing local to sell local through sustainable horticulture initiatives.

A vehicle pass may be purchased (all funds cover the cost of the tour and benefit the Mill Spring Agricultural Development Center), with which any number of people in the vehicle may visit as many participating farms during each farm’s specified hours as desired. You may also use the PolkFresh vehicle pass the next day, Sunday, June 26, to visit ASAP’s Family Farm Tour, which extends to Henderson and Buncombe counties and beyond.

Passes will be sold before the event at all four weekly farmer’s markets, daily at the Mill Spring Ag Center in Mill Spring or at the Manna Cabanna in Saluda. Download the farm tour program and map at www.polkcountyfarms.org and purchase your pass the day of the event at anyone of the farm stops. Farm tour participants are encouraged to bring a camera, a cooler and cash to make purchases that day, as well as to wear farm-appropriate clothing.

Almost every stop is sampling their products. Farm fresh lunch specials are also available at Adawehi’s Beneficial Food Store and a Farm Tour box lunch special is available at AP Williams Deli and Dairy Bar in the heart of farmland on Hwy. 9 in Green Creek. Or, take your own picnic and lunch riverside or field-side in the shade at any one of the farm tour stops that day.

You may find participating farmers, their profiles, demonstration activities and times at www.polkcountyfarms.org.

– article submitted by Carol Lynn Jackson, Office of Agricultural Economic Development