Are you looking for a “down on the farm” experience?? Marmon Valley Farm, nestled amidst a rolling landscape full of glorious colors each season, will meet your country vacation needs.  Featuring over 450 acres, this family run retreat center includes trails and fields for hiking, walking or horseback riding, a lake, swimming, fishing, shopping, picnic grounds, streams and an animal farm park.  In operation for over 44 years, the center sits on land once familiar to Wyandot and Shawnee   Indians, as well as home to frontiersman, Simon Kenton.  Settled by the Marmon family in the early 1800s, the historic Marmon home still stands, where they opened their home to guests, thus beginning the retreat facility. By reservation only, group activities can include a wide variety of experiences such as chuck wagon farm cooked meals and barn dances!  Wake up to the crow of the rooster, pick fresh vegetables from the garden, feed the animals, or just kick back and relax!!  Special packaged weekend retreats are available.  There’s plenty to do down on the farm! Open year round.  Zanesfield, Ohio

www.marmonvalley.com. Contact: Logan County Visitors Bureau at  888-564-2626

In late spring the vast fields of Fulton Farms gleam red with the season’s first strawberries, and in the fall, an endless landscape of orange pumpkins await carving and baking. Owned by the Fulton family since the early 1950s, it is the largest contiguous produce farm east of the Mississippi, specializing in a wide variety of produce, including organics, it is best known for its extraordinary sweet corn and delicious strawberries.  The easily accessible farm market has fresh fruits & vegetables, gourmet foods, Ohio-made products and other unique gift items in the gift shop.  The Market Café offers Boston Stoker coffees, espresso, soups, desserts, ice cream, yogurt and homemade bread.  2393 State Route 202, Troy. 

Fees apply according to activities.   Arrangements for groups are required and should be made in advance for special luncheons, gifts items and tours.  (No fees to just browse and shop.)  Contact:  Miami County VCB at 800-348-8993.

The aquaculture industry is one of the fastest growing segments of the agriculture economy.  At Freshwater Farms of Ohio, Dr. Dave Smith, one of the innovative pioneers in this industry, and his family have created the largest indoor fish farm in Ohio, raising Rainbow Trout, perch and many other fish from eggs in a solar heated hatchery! Visit the all weather outdoor tanks, feed the fish and pet the friendly sturgeon!  Freshwater Farms sells their fish wholesale to restaurants, fine markets and directly to customers in their own market.  Their retail market is stocked with gourmet fresh and smoked trout, delicious smoked trout/cheese dips, frozen trout patties flavored with sun-dried tomatoes or Cajun spices, and Ohio-made products such as cheese, honey, maple syrup, pottery, hand blown glass items and soaps.  Faye loves to give samples of the smoked trout and cheese dips.  Tour the tanks and learn how these fish are raised.  Don’t forget to pet the friendly sturgeon!  Freshwater Farms also raises shrimp and they have an annual Shrimp Festival !! 

Reservations required.  Tour includes samples (fees apply).   www.freshwaterfarms.com 
Contact: Champaign County Visitors Bureau, 877-873-5764.

The Champaign County Farmers’ Market is open 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Saturday, May through October, at the corner of East Market and Locust streets near the shops and restaurants of historic downtown Urbana. Growing from just a few vendors to 30 in the last couple of years it was voted one of America’s four favorite farmers markets in the American Farmland Trust “America’s Favorite Farmers Markets™” contest in 2010.

Visit www.champaigncountyfarmersmarket.com

Entertainment for all ages can be found at “Darke County's Agricultural Playground”, Brumbaugh Fruit Farm located just outside the warm, inviting town of    Arcanum. This family-owned farm offers acres of fruit and peach trees, pumpkin patches, corn fields with a five-acre maze, pond with campfire sites, kiddie playland, animal petting area, hayrides, bakery and a quaint shop filled with specialty crafts, jams, jellies and some of the best caramel apples in Ohio!  Enjoy the day walking through the orchards, then relax with a cup of warm apple cider and a delicious apple fritter!  Special events are planned each weekend during their annual fall festival in September and  October. 

For more information, contact: Darke County Visitors Bureau at 800-504-2995 or
visit www.discoverourlegends.com

Champaign County Barn Quilt Tour
Champaign County’s agricultural heritage and the folk art of quilting are creatively stitched to form the annual Champaign County Barn Quilt Tour, held the second weekend of October. Like a beautiful patchwork quilt, the tour is several fall festivals in one, featuring stops at working farms and local attractions such as Cedar Bog and the Piatt Castles. And throughout the year, motorists take a self-guided tour through the beautiful countryside to view more than 70 vibrant quilt squares displayed on barns and other structures. A full color map is available at the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce, 877-873-5764.

For more information, visit www.champaigncountybarns.com