Agritourism is growing in North Carolina, and to find out just how much well, I’ll pose that question right now to Ag Commissioner Steve Troxler and Commissioner, springtime is definitely here. The pollen is proving it, and along with it comes folks getting outside to enjoy the warmer temperatures. And a lot of folks are heading out to farms, farm markets and the like. It’s what we call agritourism, and it’s really growing, isn’t it?
It is, you know, the last census in 2017 to now shows that we’ve had a 28% in the value of agritourism in North Carolina, and we’ve got nearly 1000 agritourism farms in the state. So this is your year to enjoy an old farm activity and Mike, I can tell you, you know what I had this weekend? I had my first strawberries. Fresh strawberries grown right here in my back door, and you have to get your taste buds right. You remember how good they are. But when you get that first taste of that fresh strawberry. It is something special.
Yeah, that is the taste of spring, isn’t it? I mean, you know, it’s arrived when the strawberries are out there. Let me ask you, did you pick these yourself?
No, well, I actually have a good friend that’s got a large strawberry and agritourism operation, and he just showed up with a bucket full of strawberries, and Sharon and I finished all of them this weekend.
That is a good friend.
Strawberries, you know, the you pick lots, are out there as folks can go out into the field and pick them themselves. And a lot of folks make that an annual tradition, but there’s a lot of other things that fall under the umbrella of agritourism.
Well, you know, and it happens all during the year. There’s some people that have farm tours, of course, pick your own crops, farm to table dinners, photography sessions, school field trips. You can even go to a farm and go fishing, and some even have old farm stays, and they’ll teach you how to arrange flowers and a workshop. So there are all kinds of great experiences that people can go out and have on the farm.
I think you mentioned a 28% increase in agritourism in the state since 2017. What do you think has brought this about?
Well, you know, I think that people really do want to know where their food supply comes from. And they’re interested in knowing who was growing that food. Of course, that’s a farmer, and we’ve got so many really dedicated farmers in North Carolina, there’s an opportunity there for them to go out and say thank you for what farmers do every day.
And when you say that, people want to know where their food comes from this is really a way for folks to tell that story, isn’t it?
It is. The farmers that own these farms can tell the story of, you know, the dedication that it takes to grow the food and sometimes the hard times that they have to go through to be able to bring our crop out of disastrous conditions. So there’s so much to be learned, and we need to take our kids and grandkids out to these farms so that they don’t forget where that food comes from.
If folks want to find the local agritourism farm or some other event that they’re looking forward to make that connection. How can they go about finding those?
You can go online and visit and go to visitncfarmstoday.com or download the visit NC farms app to start exploring these agritourism farms. And in springtime, it’s time to eat fresh fruits and vegetables. It’s time to get educated. Come on out to the farm and enjoy.
Absolutely. Commissioner, is there anything you’d like to add?
Well, you know, we’ve come through a bad, bad year last year in North Carolina agriculture. So if people can go out and buy their food locally, the dollars stay in the communities that have had devastation. So I encourage them to do that, and I encourage them to go to the mountains of North Carolina and volunteer to help clean up, rebuild and put less of North Carolina back on his feet.