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).
As a farmer in the Pacific Northwest, I don’t often take two weeks off in June—especially not to travel
Summer is a vibrant season for vegetable farming in most areas of the U.S., with a variety of produce thriving in the warm weather. While you should ask before arrival if you can have or buy veggies from the farmer's garden, you might also ask what is in season as different parts of the county vary in seasonality.
There are many ways to commemorate your next farm stay experience but we must say, shopping at the farm store is one of the tastier (and fun!) ways to bring the farm home with you. Farm stores come in all shapes and sizes from bread buggies to farmer's markets to subscription CSA boxes -- each farm has their own unique way of sharing the goods they produce.
Hawkins Family Farm, North Manchester, IN
When it comes to farming, winter tends to be a welcome respite -- depending on where you live of course -- where planning for the next season by cozy fires is the standard. After so much time indoors though, many farmers look forward to "springing into action" when the cold begins to subside and they begin planting their seedlings in greenhouses and, of course, readying themselves for the onslaught of baby animals that are about to arrive!
This post originally appeared on the Scurlock Farms blog on October 18, 2022. It is reposted with permission.
Today we'd like to introduce you to Gene and Julie from Blooming Joy Farm in Ronan, Montana. This farm and its hosts receive glowing reviews - with gorgeous scenery, a relaxing atmosphere and hospitality that's "above and beyond"! Read on for our Q&A with Julie:
For five generations, the Harris family has been raising cattle on their farm in Bluffton, Georgia. Read our Q&A with the farmers at White Oak Pastures and learn the history behind their radically traditional farming!
Scurlock Farms is a multi-generational labor of love. Currently owned by Dan and Sheron Scurlock, they have taken Sheron’s family farm to new levels and have touched the lives of visitors from around the world and the hearts of the community they pour so much into.
Fat Sheep Farm is owned and operated by farmers Todd and Suzy Heyman-Kaplan. Their farm is located just south of Woodstock, Vermont, folded into the picturesque New England countryside like the farms you see in magazines. We asked them a few questions we thought travelers might want to know about their farm and why they offer a farm stay in lovely cabins they built on property overlooking their fields.
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