The Clallam County Farm Tour returns in full for its 21st year this weekend after a one-year hiatus.
Six venues will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in Agnew and Dungeness, offering hayrides, music, farm food and educational demonstrations.
The self-guided tour is $10 per carload, payable at any of the farms on the tour. The ticket then can be placed on the windshield for entry into all other farms. Those who bicycle to the farms will be given free admission. Organizers ask visitors to leave their pets at home.
“We’re glad to be back this year,” said Tom Sanford, North Olympic Land Trust executive director.
“It’s the day of the year where people get to go out on their farms to celebrate the amazing place this is here.”
Organizers consolidated the tour last year to one stop — Dungeness Valley Creamery — because of the McDonald Creek Bridge closure that impacted access to many of the farms.
With the bridge reopened, this year’s event features:
• Lazy J Tree Farm, 225 Gehrke Road.
• Agnew Grocery & Feed, 2863 Old Olympic Highway.
• Finn Hall Farm, 940 Finn Hall Road.
• Five Acre School, 515 Lotzgesell Road.
• Dungeness Valley Creamery, 1915 Towne Road.
• Jardin du Soleil, 3932 Sequim-Dungeness Way.
Each location offers different experiences, such as agriculture projects at Five Acre School, ice cream at the creamery, lavender oil distillation at Jardin du Soleil, antique dairy equipment on display at Finn Hall Farm, hayrides at Lazy J Tree Farm and farm animals at Agnew Grocery.
As many as 2,000 people are expected to visit the farms and venues during the event, Sanford said.
“It tends to be a lot of young, local families connecting with their heritage,” he added.
“There’s a reason the Irrigation Festival has been going as long as it has. We’re a farming community at heart.”
On the tour
• Steve Johnson, co-owner of Lazy J Tree Farm, said he sees the annual event as an opportunity to connect the community with farms and support their efforts.
“I know since the economy crashed we haven’t seen a lot of loss of lands but now as things have gotten better [economically], development is growing again,” he said.
“Farmland is easy to exploit. It’s flat and it’s cleared already.”
Johnson has worked at the family farm since he was 16, which his father George Karl Johnson started in the mid-1950s. His farm is open year-round, offering Christmas trees from 40 acres, compost, mulch, top soil, and produce such as apples, potatoes, garlic, and more.
With a slightly warmer summer, apples and potatoes are on schedule or about to be for the the tour, he said.
At this year’s tour, Lazy J Tree Farm offers music all day along with hay rides, talks about their products and history of the farm, food, and a sand pile for children.
• Agnew Grocery & Feed, which opened in1926, will display antique tractors and offer a petting zoo, live music by local musicians, a U-pick pumpkin patch and local goods and drinks, including sandwiches from Olympic Bagel Co.
Neighboring Johnston Farms will have a fresh produce stand.
• Finn Hall Farm, an historic farm homesteaded in 1920, serves as a reminder of the area’s once booming dairy industry. Antique farm and dairy equipment will be on display.
Visitors also can tour a refurbished caboose, the “crooked” house and the Farm House Studio, as well as collect apples from the orchard.
Live music is planned from noon to 2 p.m.
• Five Acre School, a private school serving students from kindergarten through sixth grade, is on 5 acres next to the Dungeness Wildlife Refuge in the state’s first commercial straw bale building.
Created and founded by Bill Jevne and Juanita Ramsey-Jevne in 1994, Five Acre School is celebrating its 24th year with current owners Brian Walsh and Autumn Piontek-Walsh and Director Lauren Denton.
Visitors can take short walks through the wildlife refuge, see agricultural projects in action, the playground and preserved wetland. The farm tour also will offer cider pressing and a community bake sale.
• Dungeness Valley Creamery, which was built in 1922, was originally a conventional dairy. In 2006, the owners began bottling and selling whole raw milk under the current brand name of Dungeness Valley Creamery. It is now the state’s largest and longest running raw milk dairy, producing 350 gallons per day from a herd of 75 milking jersey cows.
During the Farm Tour, visitors will be able to tour the barn and milking parlor while a hay ride takes them around the farm’s 38 acres. Interactive classes on making butter, yogurt and kefir will be demonstrated throughout the day and a petting zoo will be available as well as food Pacific Pantry. Bread and Gravy will provide live music.
A walking tour will feature a 72-panel solar photovoltaic array and a look at the new fully automated barn cleaning system.
• Jardin Du Soleil Lavender Farm, a certified organic lavender farm was planted in 1999 on land that was part of a dairy farm established in the 1880s. Visitors can take tours of the 10-plus acres and hear about how to care for and process lavender.
Demonstrations of the distillation of lavender essential oil are set at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Children can find hidden treasure, run in the maze and make farm crafts to take home.
Resource booths are planned and Pacific Pantry will serve food made with locally grown ingredients.
For more information and a map, visit www.north olympiclandtrust.org.
