Photo: Kate Rivera, Leaping Lamb Farm
Fall is my absolute favorite time of year. The weather is perfect and the colors are glorious.
There is pumpkin-flavored-everything. Every. Thing.
It's easy to immediately think of New England for fall travel, and who can argue? They have all that amazing autumn foliage for leaf peepers, and something about the region just screams crisp air and ruddy cheeks. It says, bonfires, like at Liberty Hill Farm in Vermont, or an afternoon spent antiquing before spending the night at Cold Moon Farm. Break out the scarves and boots and let me tromp around the barn!
Photo: BryanHanson, MorgueFile.com
Fall is cranberry harvest time all across the United States. Here in the Pacific region, there are cranberry bogs to be found in the town of Grayland, Washington, which is a little under two hours from The Inn at Crippen Creek Farm in Skamokawa. Imagine a day snapping photos along the Washington coast, and winding down with a 5-course gourmet meal on the farm, cooked for you by the professional chef-owners.
Alas, I can't spend the entire day with my head in the clouds... just one more peek at our regional guides and I land on the South, with an eye on Kentucky for some antebellum charm. An afternoon spent harvesting apples at The Farm LLC, followed by some stargazing, brings my daydream to a pleasant close.
Where would your autumn daydreams take you?
We recently told our personal Farmstay story at the GAN conference in Scotland and along the way we experienced Scottish farms big and small telling theirs. It was abrilliant experience.
After spending years welcoming guests to our own farm and now working with hundreds of farms across the Farmstay community, I've learned something simple:
Across the country, farms are welcoming guests in growing numbers, from short visits to longer stays, offering a close look at everyday farm life. It’s an invitation to see where food comes from and to experience farm life. Those who have chosen to do this have done so thoughtfully. There is no performance or theme, but instead a form of welcoming, a chance to share the land and introduce the families who care for it. From the outside, visiting a working farm can feel a little unexpected. The farmer has laden the breakfast table with jams they made and eggs fresh from the chicken coop. You step outside your door to pick fresh fruit from the orchard, or maybe you’re invited to try your hand at milking a dairy cow or holding a bottle of warm milk for a calf. The lights are on for your late arrival, and a friendly note on the table welcomes you to the farm. This is a visit to a family’s home in the countryside. At Farmstay, we work with farms and ranches across the country that welcome guests in many different ways. Some are just beginning their hospitality journey. Others have been opening their gates for decades, shaping hospitality through lived experience rather than any single formula. This is a small glimpse of the many farms that do this kind of hosting especially well (the first three farms on our list were early U.S. pioneers in farm hospitality, welcoming guests as far back as the 1950s).
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