After days of rain, the sun emerged just in time for this year’s Clallam County Farm Tour, bringing with it flocks of people.
An estimated 1,500 visited the sheep, the horses, the Jersey cows and the dahlias on tour, which stretched from three farms in Agnew out to the Bekkevar Family Farm in Blyn.
Clallam’s Washington State University Extension office and the North Olympic Land Trust hosted the 17th annual event Saturday, sending volunteers to the locations: the Lazy J Tree Farm, the Lokalie Gaare (Lucky Sheep) Farm and the Freedom Farm just east of Port Angeles; Nash’s Organic Produce, Jardin du Soleil lavender, the Dungeness Valley Creamery and Annie’s Flower Farm in Dungeness; and Bekkevar, off U.S. Highway 101 east of Sequim.
The Dungeness Valley Creamery, a certified raw milk dairy at 1915 Towne Road, saw 800 visitors between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday, reported WSU Extension Director Clea Rome.
The Freedom Farm, with its Arabian and Morgan horses at 493 Spring Road, counted a similar number.
Annie’s Flower Farm, formerly The Cutting Garden, counted 360 visitors Saturday. In the spirit of the “Clallam Agriculture: Then and Now” tour theme, owner Sid “Annie” Sherwood offered old-fashioned crafts for children and their parents.
“I would say about 300 kids made perfume and/or created a Victorian tussie-mussie,” aka a petite bouquet, Sherwood said.
The tour’s success is thanks to the “tremendous hard work that the farms do,” said Rome, being hosts and putting on great activities that showcase the amazing diversity of farms we have here in Clallam.”
The harvest season is winding down now. Annie’s Flower Farm, for example, will be open, with you-cut flowers in its field of dahlias and other blooms, only until October’s end.
The farm can be found at 3031/2 Dahlia Llama Lane off Woodcock Road north of Sequim.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.