Fall in Iowa means harvest, football, pumpkin patches, and apple orchards. But it can also be an opportunity to get off the highway, travel some of Iowa’s back roads, and see just how many different products are being produced by farms and small businesses across the state.
That is the idea behind the second annual Choose Iowa Farm Crawl, which will take place October 9 and 10.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig says the event grew out of the state’s Choose Iowa program and allows consumers to visit participating farms and businesses firsthand.
Naig says 125 Choose Iowa member locations are expected to participate in this year’s Farm Crawl, with that list continuing to grow.
Rather than trying to visit every location, Naig encourages Iowans to pick a few stops that interest them and make their own trip out of the event. Participating locations will offer a variety of activities, including festivals, entertainment, samples, and special deals.
Information on participating locations is available at ChooseIowa.com, and the Choose Iowa app includes a map feature that can help visitors find locations and plan their route.
The Farm Crawl also highlights how much the Choose Iowa program itself has grown. Naig says the program now includes about 360 members representing a wide variety of Iowa-grown, Iowa-raised, and Iowa-made products.
That means the Farm Crawl is about much more than the traditional pumpkin patch or apple orchard. Consumers can find meat, vegetables, eggs, apples, pumpkins, honey and a variety of other products produced by Iowa farms and businesses.
Naig says the variety could even make the Farm Crawl an opportunity for Iowans to get an early start on their Christmas shopping.
While the Farm Crawl is designed to be a fun fall event, Naig says there is also an important economic and agricultural component behind it.
Purchases made during the crawl directly support participating farms and businesses, while giving those operations another opportunity to introduce their products to consumers.
Naig also sees value in simply getting more people onto Iowa farms.
For consumers who may have little direct connection with production agriculture, Naig says those visits can provide a glimpse into life on a farm, where food comes from, and the work farmers put into producing the products people purchase.
He says building that connection can help create a greater appreciation between farmers and consumers while also creating new customers for Iowa agricultural businesses.
The second annual Choose Iowa Farm Crawl runs October 9 and 10. With 125 locations expected to participate across the state, Iowans have time now to look through the list, choose a few stops, and build their own route.
Whether the goal is finding locally produced food, enjoying fall activities, starting some Christmas shopping, or simply exploring a part of Iowa you have never visited before, the Farm Crawl offers an opportunity to support Iowa farms and businesses while seeing a little more of the agriculture happening across the state.
