Next month, locals will have the opportunity to visit six area farms to look behind the scenes, learning about everything from growing vegetables, flowers and herbs, raising farm animals and more.

Mountaineer Country Farm Crawl is scheduled for July 27 and 28.

“This is brand new for us,” said organizer Jennifer Brown. “There have been farm crawls in the Midwest for a couple decades. We heard about some in Preston and Hampshire counties, visited both and fell in love with the idea. We decided to bring one closer to home.”

Brown and her husband Bryan own Turtle on a Post Farm on Middletown Road, where they grow and sell tomatoes, squash, zucchini, onions, garlic, peppers and other produce. They recently also started growing hops, which when harvested will be sold to area breweries.

Turtle on a Post Farm is included in the two-day crawl and the Browns enlisted others by spreading the word.

“There was a lot of knocking on doors and sending emails,” Brown said. “A lot of farm owners are excited about it, but a little nervous to jump on board for the first one.”

But Brown foresees the mission to be a very successful one.

“It’s two days dedicated to getting the local community out and about, checking out the farming scene here in Harrison, Marion and Monongalia counties,” she said. “We’re trying to show people where their food is grown, how it is grown and what is going on in agriculture.”

The tour includes Turtle on a Post Farm and Wild Goats Farm in Harrison County, FernFaye Farm and Stone House Lavender in Marion County, and Operation Welcome Home and Mountain Harvest Farm in Monongalia County.

Wild Goats Farm features goats, alpacas, cows, emus and lots of other animals, available for petting. FernFaye Farm grows various flowers and Stone House Lavender grows varieties of lavender, available for picking with an on-site gift shop featuring a realm of lavender products.

“Operation Welcome Home works with veterans, offering free classes for them and anyone in the local community, learning how to farm,” Brown said. “Mountain Harvest does weekly produce boxes and participates in Morgantown Farmers Market.”

The tour is self-directed, and people can visit all the farms – or the ones they are most interested in – spending as much time at each as they want.

“Most farms will have something else going on, too, such as workshops,” Brown said. “We are members of the West Virginia Herb Association so they will be represented with workshops all day. Some others are doing things such as yoga, scavenger hunts, and demos. There will be produce or other wares available for purchase.”

Farms will be open both days from 10 a.m. through 4 p.m.

“We’re excited. “We’ll have some yard signs to help direct traffic to farms, especially those not on the main drag,” Brown said. “We obtained a grant through Veterans and Heroes to Agriculture to provide T-shirts and stickers.”

It’s been a major joint effort to make the area’s first Farm Crawl a reality.

“It’s a fun weekend for families to play with animals and play in the dirt,” Brown said. “And I also want to get kids out there to see the local agricultural economy and how many options there are for them here in our state.”

Learn more about Wild Goats Farm and Stone House Lavender by clicking the links to read previous stories by Connect-Bridgeport. Look for an upcoming feature about Turtle on a Post Farm.