Fresh Fork Market Farm Tour 2013

It's time to put your boots on, get up early, and go farm hopping with us! On Saturday, September 7th we will travel the Ohio countryside visiting a few of Fresh Fork Market's farms.

This year's agenda will be exceptionally fun. We have reduced the number of stops, reduced the time in the bus, and increased the activities at the stops. Here is what you can expect for the day:

8:00 AM: Light snacks and drip coffee on the farm. We will meet this year at the Cleveland CROPS Stanard Ave Farm. Here we can learn about mixed vegetable production, urban farming, and the CROPS mission, which is to provide employment and training to citizens with disabilities.

9:45 AM: Paint Valley Creamery. Here we can learn about dairying, including how to manage dairy cattle, feed them, and milk them. There will be an actual old fashioned milking demonstration and you may get hands on!

10:45 AM: Wholesome Valley Farm. Here we will load onto a wagon and take a tour of a mixed produce and pasture raised livestock farm. Expect to see chickens, pigs, and beef cattle. After the tour, guests may collect their own eggs and spend more time with the animals. Lunch will be served at Noon. Lunch will be a delicious (and large) traditional Amish meal made with ingredients from the farm.

1:30 PM: Kuhns Farm. We'll stop the farm of Leroy Kuhns to check in on our Thanksgiving turkeys and learn about an intersting pasture experiment where Leroy is allowing the turkeys to feed on small grains croppped below the corn planting. This is proving good for the birds and for his corn crop.

2:45 PM: Stutzman Farms. Here Monroe will demonstrate how he makes flour. We will discuss how grains are grown, harvested, and processed. Monroe will actively be processing grains that day for you to see.

4:30 PM: Sunsational Oil. We will visit a sunflower farm and learn how they harvest the seeds and press the seeds into oil. We will have light snacks and a toast at the end of the day.

We hope to arrive back in Cleveland by 6:30 PM but I'm advertising 7 PM to give us some wiggle room. Please allow some time in your schedules in case the trip runs behind.

Here are photos from last year's tour: http://www.flickr.com/photos/freshforkmarket/sets/72157632837635620/with/8515044227/

This event includes the following for $50:

- bus transportation roundtrip

- sit down lunch (please bring a few dollars to tip the wait staff)

- snacks and drip coffee in the morning, bottled water throughout the day

- Eggs and corn u-picks

- a day full of education and fun!

Be sure to register early. This event does sell out fast and once it is sold out, we can't increase the capacity of the bus.