by North Carolina’s Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler from his April column “From the Tractor” for the department’s monthly newsletter the Agricultural Review:

Last month in my column I mentioned the beginning of Spring and some of the on-the-farm activities happening at research stations across the state. The research stations do great work and are focused on the future in their efforts to help farmers produce more with fewer resources.

I’m going to stick to the Spring theme this month by highlighting some of the upcoming consumer-focused activities to look forward to at the nearly 1,000 agritourism farms in the state.

Agritourism continues to thrive.

In fact, the state saw a 28% increase in the value of agritourism from 2017 to 2022, according to the most recent Census of Agriculture.

I would guess two of the biggest factors behind that growth are that people are looking to make a deeper connection to where their food comes from, and they want to have experiences that are different than their own day-to-day lives. Agritourism farms offer both, plus you can have a fun time.

Every farm is different and offers different experiences to visitors. Some examples include farm tours, pick-your-own crops, farm-to-table dinners, photography sessions, school field trips, fishing, on-farm stays, flower arranging workshops, week-long summer camps, one-on-one animal interactions such as petting opportunities and goat yoga, and more.

The activities are only limited by the imagination of the owners and it is interesting to see what different farms offer. To help people find on-farm-activities, you can go online at VisitNCFarmsToday.com or download the VisitNCFarms app to start exploring agritourism farms.

It is a great way for families to get outdoors and experience farm life or for grandparents to share memories and experiences from their childhoods.

Video above is courtesy of NC State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences