Learn to grow dahlia cut flowers at Peculiar Ambitions Educational Homestead during this year’s Harvest Celebration Farm Tour.
Backyard farm animals are entertaining and surprisingly easy to raise. Visit farm animals, purchase farm products, and learn how to raise your own backyard livestock at this year’s farm tour.
Ten farms will open their doors to the public on Saturday, Sept. 16 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to share the bounty of local agriculture in Clark County.
Farms will offer a variety of fun-filled events such as animal petting, hayrides, self-guided tours and pictures with alpacas.
Purchase fresh produce, U-pick, cut flowers, and other farm products; see alpacas, draft horses, chickens, lambs and other livestock and tour farmland, vegetable fields and flower gardens.
Educational activities will be offered including a guided hike on foraging for local wild edible plants, and classes on growing dahlias, processing alpaca fiber, finger knitting, raising backyard chickens, pork, beef and more. What makes this event even better? It’s free.
One of the main purposes of this event is to provide an opportunity to shake hands with local farmers and learn where to shop for locally produced farm products.
Agricultural land in this area is shrinking at an alarming rate. While urban growth is a good thing, no one wants to live in a community without the benefits of local farmland. Food bought at most big-box grocery stores is shipped hundreds if not thousands of miles and is almost always less nutritious than farm-ripened produce grown nearby.
Simply put, money spent at local farms keeps local farms in business.
“In order to support local farmers, you need to know where they are, what they are selling, and how and when to buy from them. This is where the WSU Extension Small Acreage Program’s Harvest Celebration Farm Tour comes in,” said Amber Lefstead, Extension Small Acreage
Program coordinator. “In addition to supporting farmers, this tour provides farm and homesteading education for all ages and all skill levels.”
Peculiar Ambitions Educational Homestead
Peculiar Ambitions Educational Homestead is one of the farms on the tour. It is owned by the Hanlin family, which consists of Reenie and Paul, and their two adult daughters, Eve and Ann.
For their first year on the tour, the Hanlins will host multiple workshops on introductory homesteading and farm-life subjects. Their goal is to connect others to the skills they need to raise their own food, grow cut flowers, and practice artistic farm-style skills such as pottery and fiber arts.
“It is not as hard as you may think to incorporate small-scale farming into your own backyard, even if you live a conventionally busy life,” says Reenie of Peculiar Ambitions. “Everyone is busy. We all have work to do, housework, kids to take care of, adult responsibilities, but it is still possible to grow and raise food on a small scale and stay connected to homesteading skills.”
Ann is an illustrator and a potter and will be selling her handcrafted and on-site fired pottery on the day of the tour. Paul is also a potter and will demonstrate the firing of a homemade gas kiln.
In addition to pottery and kiln pyromania, Paul is the farm animal lover and will talk about raising happy and healthy pork, beef and chicken on a small scale for both meat and eggs.
The Hanlin’s pottery friends will also be there, demonstrating the art of throwing pottery on wheels and selling pottery.
Eve is a Clark County Master Gardener, landscape designer, and dahlia farmer. She will be teaching a workshop on growing a dahlia cut flower garden, and leading an educational guided walk on foraging for wild edible plants. There will also be a self-guided educational tour of her greenhouse and vegetable garden. She will be selling cut flowers and plants.
Reenie is a knitter and fiber artist and will be teaching a youth-focused (but all ages welcome) finger knitting workshop, and will be selling her knitwear creations and yarn.
“We are so excited to be a part of the Harvest Celebration tour,” says Reenie. “This event is incredibly important to the preservation of agricultural practices in Clark County.”
After the Harvest Celebration Farm Tour, the family will continue to offer workshops on various upcoming dates. Workshop topics will include gardening, art and homesteading practices. You can learn more and follow the Hanlins by visiting their website PeculiarAmbitions.com.
About the Hanlin family
Since moving to Clark County from the East Coast in 2007, the Hanlins settled on a 20-acre homestead near Lucia Falls in Battle Ground. Every member of the family has their own “peculiar ambition,” inspiring the name of their business. Learn more about Eve’s landscape design business at GardensByEvelyn.com.
