PRE-CONFERENCE FRIDAY TOURS
Note: There are additional fees for pre-conference tours.

Time	Title	Location
9:00 am – 4:30 pm	Fruit and Vegetable Production Farm Tour, with lunch	Shore Farm Organics in Yadkinville, Sanders Ridge vineyard and winery, and Plum Granny Farm
9:00 am – 4:30 pm	Livestock Farm Tour, with lunch	Yellow Wolf Farm, Noah Hostetler's dairy farm, Dobson Farm
1:00 pm – 4:00 pm	Sustainable Diversified Local Farms Tour*	Milk and Honey Farm, Carolina Heritage Vineyard and Winery
1:00 am – 4:00 pm	Edible Schoolyard and Gardens Tour*	Greensboro Children's Museum and Greensboro Montessori School
1:00 am – 4:00 pm	Old Salem and Reynolda Gardens Tour*	Old Salem and Reynolda Garden

*Lunch not included

NOTE: Extension Agents - Click here for details about special Friday programming just for you.

 

 

Sustainable Fruit and Vegetable Production Farm Tour 9:00am-4:30pm

We will start the day with a visit to Shore Farm Organics in Yadkinville, NC.  You will see how owner Nathan Pitts uses organic methods to grow a wide variety of produce and flowers, and uses season extension techniques.  Nathan sells via CSA, farmers' markets and to restaurants.  The tour will then head to Sanders Ridge, a vineyard, winery, restaurant and organic produce farm.   Learn how this multi-faceted enterprise supports local and organic food production.  A relaxing lunch will be served at the restaurant.  The tour will conclude at Plum Granny Farm, operated by Ray Tuegel and Cheryl Ferguson.  See their garlic, raspberry, ginger production and their high tunnels. 

 

 

 

Sustainable Livestock Farm Tour 9:00am-4:30pm

The tour will start with a visit to Yellow Wolf Farm, a small family farm in Harmony, NC, west of Winston-Salem.  At Yellow Wolf, an NC Choices farm, you will see how Stacy Martin raises Nigerian Dwarf, Alpine and Sanaan dairy goats, Boer cross meat goats, Tamwort cross hogs, White Dorper  and Katahdin Sheep, rabbits and heritage breeds of poultry.  The animals are pasture-raised on rotation, using guard animals; the farm does not use antibiotics, herbicides or pesticides.  Next, the tour will travel a few miles to visit the farm of Noah Hostetler, one of just a few certified organic dairies in N.C.  You will learn what it takes to operate an organic dairy and how the farm sells milk through the Organic Valley cooperative.  You’ll also hear about the farm’s popular side-business:  constructing mobile chicken houses.  Next we will head to nearby Dobson Farm.  Founded in the late 1700s, the farm has 90 dairy cows and 250 head of cattle.  You will learn about the history of this multi-generational farm and see how the dairy is converting to organic production.  The farm sells beef through Hickory Nut Gap Farm and has begun direct marketing its own brand.  We’re sure you will enjoy this fascinating tour of sustainable livestock.

Note:  For those interested in poultry, you might like the on-farm poultry intensive with Jim Adkins at Stauber Farm.  

 

 

Sustainable Diversified Local Farm Tour 1:00pm-4:00pm

We will visit two intriguing and beautiful farms on this tour of Yadkin Valley agriculture. First, we will head west to Milk and Honey Farm, a 43-acre homestead farm with a diverse mix of sustainable products.  Eric and Melissa Brown grow three seasons of vegetables for a small CSA and a farmers market.  They produce honey, candles, eggs, and shitakes.  They have a new fruit tree orchard and do hand milking of their goats and cows. Come meet these sustainable farmers, who are growing without chemicals and in tune withnature. Next we will head north to Carolina Heritage Vineyard and Winery, a certified organic vineyard.  Established in 2005, Carolina Heritage is a35-acre farm near Elkin that grows organic grapes, blueberries, apples and other fruits, as well as organically-raised honey bees.  Pat and Clyde Colwell have degrees in Viticulture and Enology from Surry Community College and will be happy to share how they raise their wonderful fruit in an ecological manner.

 

 

 

Edible Schoolyard and Garden Tour 1:00pm-4:00pm

This tour features two school garden projects that are sure to please educators, urban ag folks and foodies alike.  The first stop will be the new Edible Schoolyard Project at the Greensboro Children's Museum  (www.gcmuseum.com).  Tour-goers will get a behind-the-scenes view of this beautiful four season organic teaching garden and kitchen.  Supported by Alice Waters and the Chez Panisse Foundation, the project features forty varieties of vegetables, lots of fruit trees (apricot, cherry, pear and persimmon), herbs and mushrooms, plus chickens, a greenhouse and much more.  Next we will head over to the school garden at Greensboro Montessori School (www.thegms.org).  This long-standing program features an organic, permaculture garden with over 200 children gardening each week.  The children engage in planting, weeding, watering, harvesting and cooking, and each year have a sale of what they grow.  Come see and learn about this impressive program that connects children to the natural world and the foods they eat.

 

 

 

Old Salem and Reynolda Gardens Tour 1:00pm-4:00pm

This special tour will take you back in time to learn about farming and gardening techniques from early America.  This is a unique opportunity not to be missed.  We will start at Old Salem, the Moravian community founded in 1759, just five minutes from the hotel.  Our tour will be led by the horticulture staff of Old Salem and will include discussion of the intensive food gardening methods of the Moravians.  We will tour the garden beds, greenhouse and horticulture facilities.  We will then head over to the 130 acre Reynolda Gardens, adjacent to Wake Forest University.  The tour will discuss the history of the original country estate established by the Reynolds family in the early 1900s and attempts to make it a sustainable, diverse farm.  Visitors will see the four acre formal garden.  We will focus on the “Fruit, Cut Flower and Nicer Vegetable Garden” (established in 1921) and see vines, vegetables and espaliered fruit trees.  If there is time, we will briefly stop by Bathabara Community Garden, purported to be the oldest community garden in the country.  Come learn about ways of the past that can inform our future.