Crawl On!

This Sunday, October 4th is the big day...Farm Crawl 2009!

For the uninitiated, Farm Crawl is a group of diverse, small family farms in south-central Iowa who get together every year and host simultaneous open houses. The farms are situated in a rough circle around the bustling metropolis of Melcher-Dallas . The route includes a goat dairy, corn maze, pumpkin patch, vegetable farms, an apple orchard and a locally-harvested pottery.

We here at Blue Gate Farm are the slightly twisted instigators of this event which we modeled after our favorite Art Crawl in Houston. We started with 5 farms in 2007 and are now up to 7 farm locations and featuring 9 local families. There were some doubts in that first group (most of them our own), but everyone decided it was worth trying, hoping we would at least get 50 people to come out for the afternoon. Imagine our suprise when more than 500 people showed up that first year. We were all a little overwhelmed and absolutely thrilled.

The event has continued to grow and develop, while still remaining small enough that our country roads can handle the increased traffic. Interest has grown and at least one other event in has been modeled after our Crawl.

So if you're within driving distance...come on out for a day in the country. Pet a goat, eat an apple, see the baby chicks, get lost in the corn, talk to the turkeys get your picture taken with a giant pumpkin and take home a souvenir pottery piece...its all here, in the beautiful rural Iowa countryside!

For more info, directions and a listing of the individual farms, check out the website at www.farmcrawl.com