Mmmm, farm-to-table food. Is there anything better — or fresher — out there?
Try farm-to-right-into-your-mouth. Or into a cooler in your car, so you can head on to another farm on the Georgia Mountains Farm Tour, taking place on June 25 and 26.
Now in its fifth go-round, the annual event organized by the non-profit Georgia Mountains Farmers Network (GMFN) is growing like kudzu in terms of popularity. Eight new locations are featured this year, bringing the overall total to 15 farms and four farm-to-table meal stops along the route that winds through a half-dozen counties in Northeast Georgia and even crosses just over the border into South Carolina.
Weekend passes are available for $30 per car if purchased by June 15. It's good for an entire carload of people to visit farms on both days. After June 15, a weekend pass costs $35. They can be purchased online at the GMFN web site, EatWellBuyLocal.org, or in person at the Clarkesville Farmers Market or at Northeast Georgia Locally Grown pickup locations (see: northeastgeorgia.locallygrown.net). Passes also will be sold during the tour at designated stops.
The tour raises funds for GMFN, which has worked since 2012 to support local sustainable agriculture through education and information sharing programs, marketing support and more. But the tour also is a way for city slickers and others interested in where food comes from to visit farms, meet farmers and buy produce at most of the locations (For a more in-depth look at the tour and the people involved, check out this 2014 AJC story).
And it's not just yan farms that are taking part. Or even just farms. Among this year's stops are a blueberry farm (Robert's Blueberry Farm in Clermont); a dairy (Glo-Crest, also in Clermont, which supplies fresh milk for ice cream made at Mountain Fresh Creamery nearby and which will offer tours of its milk-harvesting parlor), a honey maker (Blue Ridge Honey Company in Lakewood) and the new Valley Farm at Tocca Falls College that's part of a major it offers in Sustainable Community Development).
Each of the featured farms is open from 1 p.m. - 6 p.m. either on Saturday or Sunday. Similarly, two meal stops are open each day, and you must reserve ahead (check the web site for additional information). Thinking of making a whole weekend of it in the breathtaking north Georgia countryside? Two bed-and-breakfasts — Glen-Ella Spring and Sylvan Fall Mill — are participating, but also require reservations.
In fact, with so many stops spread out over two days and lots of terrain, advance planning is a good idea for everyone. Tour organizers suggest you try hitting three to four farms each day. And that you bring along coolers to tote home fresh produce and the like straight off the farm.
If it even makes it home, mmmm…..
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