By Sarah Bowers
The South Carolina Ag+Art Tour is the nation’s largest free farm and art tour and is an incredible opportunity to visit and support local agriculture as well as local artisans! It began in 2012 with one county, York, and has continued to grow throughout the years. This year Ag+Art includes eleven different counties hosting across 7 weekends in May and June.
Newberry County first hosted the event in 2017 and has been a host county ever since. While the event took a short break in 2020, it continues to grow each year with new counties, farms, and artisans participating.
Newberry County is hosting Saturday, May 20th (10am-4pm) and Sunday, May 21st (1pm-5pm) and has six farms lined up and ready to welcome you!
Bowers Farm (Pomaria) - is a multispecies, regenerative livestock farm where visitors can purchase a variety of pasture raised meats and learn more about easily replicated and scalable farming practices. They will have live music, tours given every hour, hayride, food and drinks for sale, and a chicken processing demonstration given Saturday at 1pm.
Carolina Pride Pastures (Pomaria) – provides the opportunity to visit with the alpacas, llamas, chickens, and ducks. Come and take tons of selfies, learn about all the animals, and get a chance to feed them. Don’t forget to shop their farm store for all things alpaca and llama.
Hi Bräu Beef Co (Newberry) - will be set up in their pasture surrounded by the cows. They will have fresh grilled Hi Bräu Burgers available for purchase and UTV rides around the pasture to visit the herd and learn a little more about the farm. Most importantly, they will have all of their delicious beef available for purchase.
Lever Farms (Pomaria) – will have delicious strawberries and beautiful fresh flowers ready for picking. They will also have other seasonal vegetables available as well. And fun fact, Lever Farms is the only Century Farm in Newberry County! (note: only open Saturday)
Rodger’s Heirlooms (Little Mountain) – is a certified organic seed producer for several specialty seed companies. They have a 4-acre organic garden plus a 2-acre ornamental garden. They specialize in teaching how to grow a diverse organic backyard vegetable garden and save your own seeds. Tours will be given at 10am and 1pm. These will last 2 hours and include demonstrations of how to collect and save seeds.
West Ridge Farms (Prosperity) – is a working cattle farm where they raise and sell grass-fed beef. They will have kid-friendly activities as well as ready to eat food and beverages for purchase on the farm.
These farms are ready! Are you?
Mark your calendar, map out your weekend, load up your car, and don’t forget your cooler!
We hope you’ll come out and support your local farmers the weekend of May 20th and 21st, and if you’re able, make sure to visit the farms hosting different weekends across the state as well!
Learn more about the event at agandarttour.com.
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