Roughaging It: Getaways Where You Do the Picking

New York Times Style Magazine
Spring 2007

By S. Kirk Walsh

Agritourism takes the bed-and-breakfast model one step further, providing a rural respite on working farms, where travelers can pick berries for breakfast and learn to milk a cow. At MaryJanesFarm (www.maryjanesfarm.org/bb) in Moscow, Idaho, visitors sleep in walled tents [left] equipped with antique propane ranges and outdoor showers. Weatherbury Farm (www.weatherburyfarm.com) in Avella, Pa., offers suites in a renovated livery stable overlooking its cattle-grazing meadow. At both establishments, guests are invited to participate in farm chores. "We want people to understand the source of their food," says Marcy Tudor of Weatherbury Farm. In Philo, Calif., the Philo Apple Farm (www.philoapplefarm.com) also offers cooking classes. Says Sally Schmitt, an owner: "There's a nostalgia about farm life."