In Johnson County, 86 percent of residents live in an urban area. Only about 560 farms still exist in an area that was once dominated by farmland.
Some people say that consumers have never been less connected to the places their corn, wheat, chicken and beef come from.
But with the help of one Leadership Johnson County group, they’ll get a glimpse of what life on the farm is all about.
Johnson County Agritourism is creating an online tourism brochure to help promote farms, orchards and other agriculture-related attractions throughout the county.
“We wanted to give the community a central point, online, to go to looking for any agricultural business in Johnson County where kids and families could go and see agriculture in progress,” said Jobea Trefny, a member of the group.
The guide will include everything from working farms such as Apple Works in Trafalgar and Kelsay Farm in Whiteland to grain elevators that offer tours.
The website will have a “passport” that people can print out. It will feature the names of the sites the team has compiled. When kids visit the farms, they can have the passport stamped.
At the end of the year, the group would like to provide a special Christmas ornament for those who have stopped by multiple farms.
Group members are putting together the information from each of the 12 agritourism sites within the county, gathering photos and creating the online brochure about what you can do at these locations.
The team hopes to have the site up and running by the end of March.
“We hope to have it done before spring break, so kids can try it out,” Trefny said.
