If you go
› What: TasteBuds Farm Tour.› When: Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 1-2.› Where: 11 regional farms, starting at Crabtree Farms, 1000 E. 30th St.› Admission: $20 car pass.› Phone: 423-493-9155.› Website: growchattanooga.org.Tour stopsFor a map of participating farms, go to bit.ly/farmtour2016.› Crabtree Farms, 1000 E. 30th St., 423-493-9155, www.crabtreefarms.org (buy your car pass here)› Wheeler’s Orchard, Dunlap, Tenn., 423-949-4255› Farm 58, Dunlap, Tenn.› Red Clay Farm, Cleveland, Tenn. (open Sunday only)› Lavender ‘N’ Rust Herb Farm, Rock Spring, Ga. (open Sunday only, basil demonstration at 11 a.m.)› CoLyCo Farm, Chickamauga, Ga.› Georgia Winery, Ringgold, Ga., 706-937-9463, www.georgiawines.com (open 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday, 12:30-6 p.m. Sunday)› Grindstone Gardens, McDonald, Tenn. (open Sunday only)› Beulah Farms, Chatsworth, Ga. (farm stand open Saturday only)› Tant Hill Farm, LaFayette, Ga., 423-637-9793› Pickett’s Trout Ranch, Whitwell, Tenn.
There are several reasons to strike out on the fourth annual TasteBuds Farm Tour this weekend.
It's a chance to get out into the country. You get an up-close look at local food production. You'll be helping to support local farmers.
All good and meaningful reasons to gas up the car and go.
But there are at least two other reasons you'll want to make this trip: Hay wagons and goats.
At its core, the TasteBuds Farm Tour gives participants a chance to expand their understanding of local agriculture and buy local products directly from the farms. You can walk the fields, meet the animals and learn about the challenges and rewards of food cultivation and production in the area.
Farmers on the tour are featured in the TasteBuds local food guide. The tour serves as a fundraiser for Grow Chattanooga, the nonprofit local food program that supports them.
The self-paced road trip into the region's foodshed stops at 11 farms in Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia.
Your first stop needs to be Crabtree Farms in Chattanooga, where you can purchase a $20 car pass and get maps and directions to the rest of the farms. Activities here will include wagon rides, garlic planting and a chance to meet goats Molly and Phoenix.
At Wheeler's Orchard in Dunlap, Tenn., you can compare 15 varieties of apples, 20 varieties of grapes and four varieties of blueberries.
"On Saturday, we'll be pressing fresh apple cider as well as picking and washing apples," according to the farm's profile on the event website. "You may even get to feed the donkey and goats some apple pulp if they are in a socializing mood."
At Red Clay Farm in Cleveland, visitors can watch a stone mill in action and see the assortment of fiber animals who call the farm home - llamas, alpacas, angora goats, cashmere goats and Jacob sheep. The farm also will have certified organic cornmeal, grits and soft red wheat flour for sale.
Lavender 'N' Rust Herb Farm in Rock Spring, Ga., will have basil demonstrations and have basil for sale. It's open Sunday only, though.
Also open Sunday only is Grindstone Garden in McDonald, Tenn. Farmers there will offer fall vegetables, spinning demonstrations and Shetland sheep wool products at the farmstand.
At CoLyCo Farm in Chickamauga, Ga., you can get fresh eggs from the chickens and what's being harvested from the fruit trees, blueberry and blackberry bushes.
Pickett's Trout Ranch in Whitwell, Tenn., will show off the natural cave and cool spring water that provides habitat for the fish and will have hand-carved woodcrafts for souvenirs.
Organizers suggest bringing cash and a cooler to collect produce and other farm products to take home or make a picnic of as you drive.