Join with nature, uncover Louisiana whereas touring this summer time
Sunflowers and zinnias line the streets of Petite Anse Farm in New Iberia, however they don’t seem to be simply there to behold. Appropriate for the warmth of southern Louisiana summers, the hardy flowers are able to be picked.
Farm house owners and operators Andrew “Andy” and Jennifer Graycheck give their guests a pair of scissors and a black bucket and inform them what species of crops they’ll discover within the fields in entrance of them.
Guests have come to fill the bucket with Autumn Magnificence, Plum Sunflowers, Oklahoma White Zinnia, Child’s Breath and the rest that grows on the property.
About 50 miles north, throughout Acadiana, at Bien-Aime’ Farm in Church Level, of us are filling buckets with juicy blackberries and blueberries.
Between rooster coops, rabbit pens and rows of fruit and greens stands an outdated tractor that kids can climb on for images. Others queue for snow cones from the log cabin the place farm house owners David and Katie Baird make their cane syrup.
“We’re attempting to make it an expertise,” stated David Baird. “In all places on the farm it is an expertise. We would like them to nearly neglect about the whole lot else and simply decide.”
These “You Decide” farms are a part of a rising agritourism business in Southwest Louisiana and throughout america.
The US Journey Affiliation describes agritourism as a multi-billion greenback business that has immediately generated greater than 9 million jobs and remains to be rising. The US Census of Agriculture exhibits an growing pattern in direction of agritourism and associated leisure actions corresponding to Bien-Aime’ and Petite Anse.
“It is actually cool that folks can see the place their meals is coming from and simply be in nature,” stated Katie Baird.
Study whereas strolling on their “beloved” farm
It began for the Bairds with a small raised mattress of peppers of their Arnaudville yard. Lots has modified within the final seven years. In the direction of the top of 2020, they moved to roughly 13.5 acres in Church Level, proper subsequent to Lewisburg’s water tower, and began planting instantly.
“We have simply been hit somewhat exhausting by the farming bug,” Katie stated.
“We solely study as we go,” added David.
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This studying happens primarily by way of remark, trial and error, and the Bairds are eager to share their hands-on method.
“Personally, I rapidly discovered that you could purchase any e book and examine farming, however nothing replaces getting your arms within the floor,” David stated.
So that they began providing berry choosing days in June and invited individuals to do precisely what the identify suggests. After registering on-line, they estimate there have been in all probability 70 adults plus kids on the farm that day.
The expertise provides as a lot to the Bairds because it does to the guests. Katie likes the accountability of getting individuals on the farm.
“You possibly can ask me if we’re natural at a market, however it’s also possible to see for your self,” she stated.
Constructing a group on the Little Cove farm.
The Graychecks have lived on the land subsequent to Jennifer’s grandparents’ property in New Iberia since 2013. Whereas working full-time as a panorama architect, Andy additionally labored at house, bulldozing the land and transferring earth to create ponds for irrigation and build up the land to forestall flooding.
“As a panorama architect, I wished one thing to advocate for and apply conservation,” he stated.
The earthworks compacted the soil and to reverse this they determined to plant sunflowers in early 2020. Identified for scavenging heavy metals from the soil, sunflowers have deep roots that break up layers of soil and regenerate the land.
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“We did not have a imaginative and prescient of beginning a pick-your-own farm,” Jennifer stated. “We simply constructed our personal homestead.”
Then in March, like everybody else, they have been house for months because of the governor’s order on COVID-19.
They determined to reap, bundle and promote their new sunflower crop as a household. Folks might come and decide up their bouquets with out bodily contact, and enterprise grew from there. They began the pick-your-own choice in spring 2021.
“It did not begin out as a enterprise, nor was it supposed,” Andy stated. “It was a approach to construct group and brighten individuals’s day at such a troublesome time.”
At the moment they open the courtyard to guests in Might and June after which once more within the fall. They’ve added new crops to the record every year, planting bee balm and wild mustard most lately, after which planning pumpkins for this fall.
“This has simply change into an affair of the center,” Jennifer stated. “It is undoubtedly all an experiment.”
Their guests inform them how fortunate they’re to be exterior among the many flowers, even when it is scorching, and that the expertise is therapeutic.
“It’s for us too,” Andy stated. “That is too good to not share.”
Contact Leigh Guidry, Kids’s Points Reporter, at Lguidry@theadvertiser.com or on Twitter @LeighGGuidry.
