Feed Your Soul Productions is busy coming up with another Farm Tour, and they are looking for anyone who is interested in seeing where their food is coming from, first hand.
It seems so strange that we are so disconnected from our food sources. After all, we are what we eat, and if we pay attention to the food that we’re putting into our bodies, chances are we’ll all be healthier and happier in the long run. Plus, paying a visit to a farm is fun! When was the last time that you got a chance to walk around a farm, tasting the produce as it is picked fresh from the tree or vine? Not to mention the animals that, in this case, get the freedom to walk around and graze (as they are intended to do).
“Out of sight and out of mind” is no way to go through life. Take the time to learn about your food. Take the time to experience the beautiful nature of our farms. Take the time to participate in the 7th Annual Foodie-to Farm Tour where you will be presented with “farmer-led field walks, in-field sampling, and chef-prepared local-centric meals.”
Don’t just take it from me, listen to what organizer Christa Glennie Seychew has to say:
“Our annual farm tour is my very favorite event each year. It’s so good for the heart! To walk the fields with a farmer and hear his or her story, to taste the food they’ve grown while you’re standing under the wide open sky, and to share that experience with a group of people—well, I just love it.
“Our area is so agriculturally diverse, and for our tour regulars it’s so exciting, from year to year, to see just how different the soil and climate of Eden is, then say, Niagara County, where we were last year. The difference between the farms and the choices they make about what’s right for their business, their family, their property, their consumer—it’s just so fascinating. This year we are headed to Eden and East Aurora, and we will visit farms that are all very different from each other, so the comparisons will create a lot of interesting dialog and learning opportunities.
“But this tour is really what you make of it. Some folks come along and are just starving for information and have a thousand questions. Some of them are chefs or bartenders who nap on the bus, soak up the sun and don’t really begin engaging until after lunch. We try to let everyone get what they came for during the outing, and since we are a small-ish group and have done over thirty public and private tours, we are pretty good at making that work.
“As Buffalonians, we are fortunate to live in a city surrounded by remarkable agricultural promise, and those who are operating rural farms are not only significant to the economic viability of our region and our access to food, they are as much a part of our community’s collective cultural fabric and overall quality of life as any gallery, bike path, craftsman, or other obvious cultural asset. It’s hard to understand that if you’ve only met a farmer at an outdoor market, or purchased their food at a grocery store, but once you’ve spent some time with a few of them out on their turf, it’s hard not to have an altered perspective.”
The event takes place on Sunday, September 21, 2014. Click here to learn about all of the details.
Lead image: Nathan Peracciny (Flavor Farm, Lockport 2010)