What is the Skagit Valley Festival of Family Farms?
Take a scenic drive at your own pace through the Skagit Valley with an easy-to-follow farm map and visit your choice of the participating farms — Event weekend ONLY activities.
Farm Locations
The Skagit Valley Festival of Family Farms takes place on 13 participating Skagit Valley area family farms located in Bow, Burlington, Concrete, Mount Vernon, La Conner, Rockport and Sedro-Woolley. Download the official map on the Farm Directory and Map page.
Note to Attendees:
- These are working farms, please use common sense and good judgment when exploring.
- Children under 10 must be accompanied by an adult.
- As a safety precaution, please cleanse hands after touching the animals.
- No smoking, please.
- Some activities are available on limited schedule and subject to weather.
- Admission and parking is free. Activities are free unless noted by a ($).
- This is an outdoor event, dress appropriately for the weather.
It's Free!
The Skagit Valley Festival of Family Farms offers free admission and parking to all. The majority of activities on participating farms are also free — paid activities will be denoted on the guide with a ($).
Donations Welcome
Although this event is provided at no charge to attendees by Skagit Valley's farming community, please consider donating a minimum of $1 per person attending the festival. (Donations sites are available at each farm). Your donation will go toward this collaborative educational program to help keep agriculture alive.
Kids Activities
The Skagit Valley Festival of Family Farms is a playground of wholesome, educational and unique activities that are just plain e-i-e-i-o! Where else can your child race a vegetable, walk an alpaca, make a scarecrow, pet baby farm animals and create vegetable art? Each of the participating farms provide unique, safe and fun children's activities for "kids" of all ages. Warning to parents: you may have as much fun as your kids!
Farm Stands, Produce, U-pick Fields and Retail
The Skagit Valley offers a bounty of vegetables, flowers, pumpkins, gourds, dairy, shellfish, meats and poultry. The first weekend of October is the peak of the harvest season! The Skagit Valley Farm Tour: A Festival of Family Farms offers a large variety of fresh, homemade, homegrown products you can take home to enjoy and share.
Stop by the farm stands, u-pick gardens and retail shops on participating farm premises for fresh produce, flowers, pumpkins, organic meats, eggs, poultry and cheese, shellfish, alpaca fiber products, beef, jams, pickles, salsas and much, much more!
Delectable Treats
Participating farms offer a variety of tantalizing treats as you tour their premises. Enjoy homemade baked goods, ice cream, milkshakes and smoothies, hot corn-on-the-cob, made-to-order gourmet coffee beverages, Skagit County Cattleman's BBQ ribs, organic hamburgers, hot mulled cider, fresh cheeses, and much more to tempt your taste buds.
Free Samples
Many participating farms offer free samples of their fresh, homegrown products. As you tour their premises, stop and taste the bounty of the Skagit Valley, including fresh valley-grown produce, just-shucked BBQ'd oysters and clams, organic beef and poultry, beef, wine samples, ice cream bars, yogurt and much more.
Don’t Miss
- "Meet the farmer" sessions — meet the families that produce your food at many participating farms
- Vegetable racing and pony rides at Hedlin Family Farm
- Oyster shucking demonstrations and hot BBQ'd clams and oysters at Taylor Shellfish Farms
- Scarecrow making and hayrides at Cascadian Farm
- Corn maze and The Three Little Pigs at Schuh Farms
- Big Pumpkin Competition and unique pumpkin and gourd varieties at Gordon Skagit Farms
- Clydesdale horses, burros and baby calves at Double O Ranch
- Fresh berry milkshakes and sundaes along with greenhouse tours at Sakuma Bros. Farms
- Longhorn Highland cattle, pony rides and bagpipers at Hemlock Highlands
- Alpaca walking and feeding and alpaca yarn spinning demos at Alpaca Partners
- Artificial cow milking, ice cream and milk samples at Golden Glen Creamery and Vic Jensen & Sons Dairy
- Local wines, orchard tour at Glacier Peak Winery
- Jackson & Perkins rose test garden, vegetable test plots at La Conner Flats
Learn While You Play!
While exploring the farms, discover:
- Skagit Valley Farming, Then and Now: crops, equipment and methods
- Why agriculture is Skagit Valley's biggest business
- What is "Certified Organic" farming
- Unique qualities of grass-fed Highland cattle and Maine-Anjou beef
- How oyster and clam farms rely on clean water
- Uses of alpaca fiber
- Wine production
- Using greenhouses to extend the growing season
- Small woodlands forest management practices
- Tea growing in Western Washington
- Much more!
Tune in to 1630 AM: "InFARMation" Travelers Agricultural Radio Updates
As you drive through the Skagit Valley tune to 1630 AM on your car radio and learn why local farmers call this fertile valley the "Magic Skagit." Hear crop reports, farm history and special stories about the dozens of crops grown in this special valley. Find out what crops are being harvested or planted right now. "InFARMation" is a collaborative project made possible by: Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland, Skagit Valley College Radio Station KVSR 91.7 FM, WDOT, Leadership Skagit, EDASC, WSU Skagit County Extension and many community volunteer announcers.