Tour des Farms

What is the Focus?

A bicycle farm tour that highlights the value and contributions agriculture brings to Connecticut and its communities.

What Does NRCS Offer?

Planning assistance.

What is an Example of the Tour des Farms?

GLASTONBURY, CT – On a crisp, over-cast Saturday morning in October, over 70 enthusiastic individuals brought their curiosity and bicycles to South Glastonbury to participate in the First Annual Connecticut Tour des Farms. Riders pedaled their way through the heart of central Connecticut’s orchard country while seeing, smelling, and tasting a variety of locally grown fruits and vegetables, as well as local baked goods, preserves, ice cream, and cider.

The self-paced, 18-mile loop bicycle tour lead riders from orchards, pumpkin patches, farm stands, and grazing areas to an organic farm and one of the oldest cider mills in the nation. Participants received Farm Bucks (to spend at the farms), handouts, and minor tune-ups from a volunteer mechanic. The course brought riders along the Connecticut River where they viewed old tobacco sheds and the rich floodplain soils that have supported its inhabitants for centuries. All riders left knowing a little more about the farming community in Connecticut.

Who are the Partners?

• Connecticut Bicycle Coalition
• Connecticut Farmland Trust
• Eastern Connecticut Resource Conservation and Development Council
• Town of Glastonbury

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