A reimagined Centre County Farm Tour hopes to connect even more producers and consumers

Each year, the Centre County Farm Tour allows families around the area to tour approximately a dozen local farms over a day or weekend, meeting the farm families and learning more about local food systems. However, COVID-19 pandemic concerns around crowds and social distancing arose as the Centre County Farmland Trust began planning this year’s event — resulting in a new event format that can provide a larger sustainable agriculture and local foods-based experience to more people than ever before.

“We wanted to definitely keep our farm families safe and keep our tour participants safe, too,” the trust’s board president, Jennifer Shuey, said. “We started brainstorming: How can we change this up a bit? How can we not only react to the situation, but how can we maybe take this opportunity, really to reach out to even more people and share with them the message? For us, it gets back to preserving the farmland and to do that we need to connect our local eaters and community with our local producers.”

The outcome was a series of evergreen self-led driving tours across the county. The Centre County Farm Routes series launched with the first of three routes in August, with the second to debut in mid-September and the last by October. The first route, christened the Round Barn Route, features 16 farms and businesses from Centre Hall to Pine Grove Mills, each with a connection to the local food system. A map shows each stop and details what each offers, from dining to curbside shopping service. Some stops are drive-by only but still allow visitors to glimpse the farmlands that the trust works to protect.

“The first route is mostly on the edge of town, with a lot of really interesting things. The second route, to me, is interesting, because it skirts along the edge of what I call the growth boundary. The growth boundary is (a boundary) beyond which it’s difficult to build things, so the growth is squeezed into the growth boundary,” board secretary Dan Guss said.

“As you go along the edge of the growth boundary, you’ll see developments on one side of the street, and on the other side, farms. ... It shows you the contrast and why we have to preserve land. If you don’t preserve the farm, you’ll have what’s on the other side of the street (on both sides). That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but you need the farms, too. And then the third route is a little more pristine and not as endangered as some of the other land.”

A large part of the Farm Routes experience is the integration of a new app, which allows users to track their progress along the routes, earn points and badges and connect with the larger community. To participate, users download the TASSL app from either the App Store or Google Play; then, they can find Centre County Farmland Trust within the app, from which they can connect with other members and start earning points, called “carrots.”

“We have geolocations set up very similarly to Snapchat, so as you get close to one of the stops, whether it’s a drive-by or whether it’s a stop that you can stop at, like one of the farmers markets or one of the eateries, you can click in and you can check in,” board Vice President Alan Schaffranek said. “We’ve essentially gamified the farm tour. It’s almost like the Pokemon Go of farms.”

In years past, the Centre County Farm Tour only featured farms, but the Farm Routes experiences combine restaurants, farmers markets and more, for an opportunity to highlight the entire local foods community.

“Our tagline for this project and for the farm tour before it was really getting to know the hands and the lands that feed us,” Shuey said. “I think it’s really important for families to get out and experience and teach where our foods come from, especially in this time when things are so uncertain for everyone. It helps as a community to know that you’re helping neighbor to neighbor. These farmers are providing this fresh, delicious food for us and to know the farm and the people and who is growing your nourishment, I think, on so many levels, can be a hugely important lesson for people to learn.”

Download the first Farm Routes map at centrecountyfarmlandtrust.org. Show the map at stops along the route to receive discounts or free items from certain stops, and then download the TASSL app and join the Centre County Farmland Trust community to earn points and prizes with each route stop.

This story was originally published September 13, 2020 at 2:59 PM.