When booking your next family holiday, perhaps you would like to try something a little different, more hands on, and that will bring you closer as a family while learning fun and useful things. Agritourism is growing in both popularity and availability- it is not only an educational experience, but a truly unique and interesting one that the whole family can enjoy.

For many, farming was the way our ancestors made a living, and there are still quite a few Americans today who farm full time. Family farms, however, are fast going the way of horse drawn carriages and mechanical watches- it gets harder every year for small, family owned farms to make a living while large brand owned businesses are in the game and making regulations difficult. Enter agritourism. Not only does this allow family farms to stay afloat, but also gives today’s families and children who often have zero idea what manual and physical labor is, insight to the inner workings of farm life, days gone by, rural living, and a whole day being outside- without a video game in sight.

We recently took such a trip to Hull-O Farms in the Catskills of upstate NY. This is not a petting zoo- you can actually take part in farm chores. You will learn to milk a cow, feed the chickens, find the eggs from the coop, bottle feed baby goats, and more. Your family stays right on site on farm property, eating with the other guests in the large kitchen food prepared by Mrs. Hull herself (many recipes honed after being handed down for generations) and often grown on the farm. The family is the 6^th generation of farmers who have lived on the property. Mr. Hull (AKA “Farmer Frank”) [Read more…]