Hanover County is throwing open the gates on 11 working farms this Saturday for its first-ever Fields & Farms Tour, a free, self-guided event running from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. that promises close encounters with alpacas, Highland cattle, ponies and more. Some of the properties on the route have never been open to the public before, giving visitors a rare look at the agricultural backbone of the county.
The tour is a countywide effort to spotlight Hanover’s farms, and it grew out of something much smaller. As reported by Axios, the event originated as a Virginia Rural Leadership Institute project before expanding into the full countywide collaboration it is today. Organizer Ann Glave said the effort grew into a countywide push to spotlight Hanover’s farms, according to Axios, and similar language appears on the event’s official site, which notes that what began as a leadership project for Glave through the Virginia Rural Leadership Institute turned into a collaboration involving county farmers, agricultural partners, local businesses and community supporters.
Admission is free, though the event's own site notes some farms, activities and vendors may charge for optional products or experiences. Visitors are encouraged to build their own itinerary rather than follow a fixed route; per Axios, guests can plan to visit up to four farms in a single day, choosing their own path through what the Hanover Fields & Farms website calls a choose-your-own-adventure through the county's fields.
Animals, Row Crops and a Working Equestrian Center
The animal encounters are likely to be the biggest draw. Thistledew Fold will offer Highland cow encounters, with a herd of 20 Scottish Highland and Highland-cross cattle on hand, as detailed by Style Weekly. Meadowgate Alpacas will offer up-close meetings with its alpacas, the same outlet reports, while the Randolph-Macon Equestrian Center will host ponies along with an early-afternoon riding demonstration, according to Axios and Style Weekly's reporting on the site.
For visitors interested in the business side of farming, Creamfield Farm offers a different kind of experience. The site has operated as a large row-crop farm for more than 100 years, growing corn, soybeans, wheat and other crops, and it gives visitors access to modern farming equipment, according to the same Axios report. The farm's entry on the Hanover Fields & Farms site echoes that description, calling it a large row-crop operation producing corn, soybeans, wheat and other crops using precision-farming tools.
Flowers, Produce and a Hanover-Exclusive Newspaper
Woodside Farms rounds out the lineup as a vegetable and flower farm, per Axios's reporting. Across the full roster of 11 destinations, the self-guided event connects visitors to working farms, gardens, an equestrian facility and flower farms, according to the Hanover County tourism office, with activities ranging from meeting alpacas and Highland cattle to walking through flower fields, learning about precision agriculture and picking up fresh local products.
Tying the whole day together is a special farm-tour newspaper, modeled after a newspaper produced for the county's last farm tour back in 1981. The publication will be available at each participating farm on the day of the tour, according to the Hanover County tourism office, and per Axios's reporting it contains stories about the families behind the participating farms, organized by themes and locations. Glave told Axios the newspaper is the only one of its kind among Virginia farm tours.
How Hanover's Debut Compares
Hanover's 11-farm lineup places it in the company of other Virginia agritourism events building momentum this fall. Rappahannock County's 17th annual Farm Tour recently featured 13 farms and gardens, according to the Rappahannock News, while a Northern Virginia Magazine roundup this week spotlighted 11 Northern Virginia farms offering fall activities such as pumpkin picking, animal feeding and stargazing.
For Hanover, Saturday marks the county's first-ever attempt at this kind of coordinated farm tour, giving residents a single afternoon to see alpacas, Highland cattle, ponies and working row crops side by side. With admission free and the itinerary left entirely up to visitors, the event offers a rare chance to meet the local animals, farmers and growers who keep Hanover's agricultural life running.
