Farm Tour

Have you heard of a farm tour?  I hadn't until just recently and since my desire to grow my own food continues to grow, this sounded like an awesome day adventure!  Several of the local farms in the Lexington area (the area of focus this year) participated in the Midlands Farm Tour, and it was awesome to see a glimpse of their process and life. I gifted my mom a ticket for mother's day and it was such a blast that she was able to join the kids and me!  

The Wright farm was our first stop.  They had a bouncy house (which I knew the kids would love), so I wanted to make sure we would make it there.  I had to distract Shiloh from constantly drawing in the sand/dirt along the way.

 

They also had a ton of baby ducks and... 

squealing piglets and thier mommas.

It seemed like all the farms had goats....including this little baby.

The girls enjoyed getting to pet her, that is until she started nibbling on their dresses.

Zoe doesn't like anything messing with her dresses!

Samples of BBQ and the amazing smell drew us in and we enjoyed a delicious lunch while we were there!  This was such a warm and joyful family that it was a great start to the day!

The next stop was a homestead of Humble Farm.  This amazed and overwhelmed me to think of keeping up with all that they do.  Much adoration from this humble girl.  I'm pretty sure this lady farmer has children, and she had a scavenger hunt for our girls of fruits to find growing around the property.  In the end, for their efforts, they got to each have a strawberry plant to take home, which was pretty fun!

They, also, had a super large fun tire swing!

 Which the rope may have or may have not come undone when my child was on it.

There was more goat loving...


Up next was an interesting farm that ended up being Mom's favorite, Terra Kotta Farms.

We saw how soon to be dinners were enjoying some grass and were moved to new areas everyday.

During the explanation of the chicken processing there was a tree nearby that captivated my kids (which meant less explaining from me of the process).  It was the perfect size for Zoe, my tree climbing lover, to practise her gymnastics skills!

Shiloh got some cute kitty loving as we were leaving!

On the way to the next farm we saw some ostriches on the side of the rode.  I mean really how often do you see such when your driving, so we had a brief stop of our own!

They must have been used to being fed because they came right up to us.  However, we were both not on our top selfie game!

I never realized that they made a sound, but on closer examination we found that the deep drumming like noise was coming from their throats!  A fun little stop!

   

The next farm did not have a ton going on but the kids did want their picture on this adorable bench.

Zoe did have a bathroom (or porta potty) stop, so we had some fun with more goats and pictures!

I'd say Shi would like a goat if she could have one!

Then Shiloh discovered that we were taking pictures!

Not in the original plan but we decided to head to the winery that was right on the way, Mercer House Estate Winery.  I'm so glad we did and if you ask Zoe it was her favorite stop!  Mainly because of this picturesque area that they got to play at while we waited on the tour.

It was beautiful and a great reminder of how much hard work goes into all farming.  We were the last tour on the golf cart, which did get cut short due to a dying battery....but happy for the short ride around part of the vineyard. I may have to come back with the hubby!

There was one more farm, Patchwork Farm, that we were considering that was a bit further out.  The kids weren't done, even after a long day, so we went for it.

In that it was the end of the day they were shutting down, but so kind in finding and gifting us some strawberry shortcake that the littles enjoyed on the porch, and giving us a tour of the old farm house that they were going to remodel.  It truly was like stepping back in time!  They have some u-pick farms (strawberry and pumpkins) that, despite the drive, I would love to participate in the future!  They had some sausage left to buy that I scooped up, knowing Beach would appreciate some goods!

Whew!  What a day!  Such a blessing to have such awesome weather, amazing company, meeting new friends and learning so much!  I LOVED it and want to do it again next year!