This article originally ran in the Ruston Daily Leader on Sept. 28, 2010, and you may also view this article at the Fount's web site.

Have you ever baled hay, picked peas or milked a cow? If the answer is no, you’re not alone; the last two generations of Americans have not had that experience. Experts say that we are two to three generations removed from farm life. Children and their parents have never visited a working farm or other agricultural enterprise.

During the 60s my family’s farm in Winn Parish provided my cousins and their friends an opportunity each summer to “experience” farm life. They left their homes in towns and cities to come and stay on the farm with my parents and grandparents to learn how to care for animals and harvest crops.

Through their eyes, I saw farm life and chores in a different way. They were thrilled to participate in what I called “everyday, must-do chores.” I recall one of my cousins loved to shuck corn. So each summer I encouraged her to shuck as much as she could because my job in the winter months was to shuck corn and feed the corn to our horses and pigs. Although, I still considered it work, she considered it an “experience,” and I loved to help her get all the experience she wanted.

Looking back, I never remember my parents using the term, “value-added,” on our farm. As you know, today that’s the term associated with changing the appearance of  a product to make it more valuable, i.e, removing the husk from corn. Husk removal changed the appearance of the corn, it added value. Shelling the corn added even more value.

Our value-added activities were not limited to just corn. Some of our visitors joined us before the sun was at its highest peak in the morning to pick peas and then in the late summer evenings we picked berries. During the hottest parts of the day, we returned to the farm kitchen to add value to those products by making jelly and jam for ourselves and for others. We froze peas for future meals in the winter.

There are still people who want to experience the farm. Today, agriculture plus tourism has created another form of rural tourism: agritourism. Agritourism has its roots in Europe where people have for centuries visited farms and enjoyed the bounty of harvested crops. In the early 1800's a form of agritourism began in the United States when people living in crowded cities escaped to the quiet and peaceful existence of farm life. They traveled to visit with relatives and take a respite from the city.

Today, many farmers across the United States are diversifying their operations to include agritourism. Agritourism takes many forms. Some farmers are opening their farms to school tours; others are growing grapes and making wine; some are planting corn and charging people to enter a corn maze.

To learn more about agritourism, contact me. Visit the Agritourism section of the LSU AgCenter website and the Agritourism blogsite for additional information.