This Saturday’s Clallam County Farm Tour ranges from fields and flowers to sheep and lavender — and across the past century.
“Clallam Agriculture: Then and Now” is the theme for this 17th annual tour, which promises activities highlighting farm life over the past 100 years.
Eight sights
The tour will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at eight sites, including Sequim’s Jardin du Soleil lavender farm, established in 1999, and the Bekkevar Family Farm, built in Blyn in 1910.
Tour admission is $10 per carload, payable at any of the farms, while those who pedal their bicycles get in free. Either way, dogs should be left at home.
Come suppertime, Nash’s Organic Produce will host a community potluck and then a barn dance open to couples, singles and families.
Tour lineup
Here are the farms, with more information to be found at http://Clallam.WSU.edu and at Farm Tour Central, a booth at the weekend-long Fiber Arts Festival at the Museum & Arts Center, 175 W. Cedar St., Sequim:
■ Lazy J Tree Farm, 225 Gehrke Road, Agnew, will have hayrides through orchards and fields; beekeeping and honey displays; a giant sand pile with toy trucks, buckets and shovels; and local musicians Mike Kamphaus at 10 a.m., Getta Rogers at noon and Howly Slim and Sandy Summers at 2 p.m.
■ Freedom Farm, 493 Spring Road, Agnew, houses a school of natural horsemanship, offering lessons in basic riding skills to dressage, jumping, bareback riding and Western riding. Farm tour day will bring horse-and-rider skits, demos and games, horse-tail decorating and pony rides.
■ Dungeness Valley Creamery, 1915 Towne Road, Sequim, will have the crew showing visitors how to make butter, yogurt and kefir along with a petting zoo, hayrides and 15-minute nutrition classes on live grains and fats, cultured foods, juices and healthy sweets.
■ Nash’s Organic Produce, 1965 E. Anderson Road, Dungeness, will have a kids’ zone where youngsters can hear stories, make pumpkin sculptures, weave willow crowns and harvest their own spinach.
The live music will come courtesy of guitarist Gil Yslas at 10:30 a.m. and Cort Armstrong and Tyler Richart at 1:30 p.m.
When farm tour day is done, Nash’s invites everyone to a community potluck with music by the FarmStrong band at 6 p.m. and the barn dance with the Annie Ford Band at 7:30 p.m. Dance admission is $10 for adults or free for those 16 and younger.
■ Jardin Du Soleil Lavender Farm, 3932 Sequim-Dungeness Way, will have field tours, demos of herb distillation and Master Gardeners and composters offering practical advice.
■ Lökalie Gaare, the “Lucky Sheep Farm,” 702 Gunn Road, Agnew, has Border collies showing off their herding skills, sheep-shearing demos and spinners and other fiber artisans showing how they turn wool into clothing.
■ Annie’s Flower Farm, formerly The Cutting Garden at 303½ Dahlia Llama Lane, Dungeness, will offer short classes on making Victorian posies, using the language of flowers, pressing flowers, seed saving and cooking with herbs.
A bee walk is set for noon, and throughout the day, visitors can gather dahlias and other blooms for their own bouquets.
■ Bekkevar Family Farm, 273054 U.S. Highway 101, Blyn, has antique farm equipment on display and a working operation producing beef cattle, hay and hogs.
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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.
