Farm Tours – YOU design your own tour……..
Our goals: that you will learn what you want they way you want, and will take home a bouquet of flowers and a bag of what is currently being harvested. YOU design your own tour to meet your needs… Do you learn by seeing, doing or talking ? You tell us what activities you want (check off list form to come), and how to you want to learn.. start with grafting a native persimmon to an improved type with larger fruit and fewer seeds, then move to looking at different types of fence corners; look at different types of season extenders, eat a fresh kiwi, fig, Jujube or zombie fruit (in season) all grown outdoors; pick a Kumquat (kept in the tropical greenhouse in the winter); learn FAMACHA eye lid color for worm load as we run sheep through the chute…. while your partner who has no interest in any of the above builds a stained glass sun catcher or makes a small mosaic with Cassie… or takes a walk with the kids then watches them play on the swing set / slide.
Season extenders: Floating row cover, cold frames, hoop houses, tropical greenhouse (with no back up heat, ‘solar battery’ or earth source), micro-climates and Wall-O-Water’s.
Outdoor fruit: Apples, pears, peaches, plum, tart cherries, zombie fruit (Che, cudrong, Chinese Mulberry), Jujebe, elderberry, June berry, Honey berry, blackberries, blueberries, Kiwi’s (northern), persimmons, pawpaw’s, figs, Muson (no spray) grapes, pecans, chestnuts and THORN-LESS Honey locusts for pod production .
Indoor fruit: Sweet cherries, peaches, plums, seedless grapes, figs, kumquats, lemon, lime, orange, avocado, raspberries.
Sheep: Katahdins, Dorper terminal cross, FAMACHA to use inner eye lid color for anemia. NSIP to track data, selecting for worm resistance. Portable shade. Rotational grazing to build organic matter, help control worms and eliminate the need for feeding grain.
Fencing: floating corners, H-Brace corners, woven wire, electric 14ga, 12.5ga high tensile, polywire on a spool, electrified netting. 3-D fencing for deer.
Rain water collection, passive solar design, active solar, wind power, PV/Solar electric, post and beam framing, traditional farming equipment from grain drills to field diggers, TroyBuilt and tractor rotary tiller. Mobile shade for livestock.
All tours take home flowers (pick your own bouquet) and what is currently being harvested (annual harvest dates calendar to come)
Up to 4 people on 1.5 to 2 hour walk around the farm and discuss what interests you: $100
Half day visit with advance planning for specific activities $200 for 1 to 2 adults (each additional adult $50, max of 4). Includes break out mini-project with Cassie for 1 to 2 adults or children for stained glass, mosaic or talk about her journey into growing flowers.