Tag Archives: agritourism Georgia

“Powerful Peanut Experience” Shines at Georgia National Fair

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Perry, GA |

At this year’s Georgia National Fair, visitors entering the Georgia Grown Building were greeted with a vibrant new addition: the Powerful Peanut Experience, a fully immersive exhibit designed to showcase the impact and legacy of Georgia’s number one crop — the peanut.

With Georgia producing more than half of the nation’s peanut supply, the exhibit was created to help educate fairgoers on the crop’s importance, from its agricultural roots to its everyday presence in lunchboxes and pantries across the country.

“This year, we unveiled the Powerful Peanut display where we tell the story of the Georgia peanut,” said Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper. “You know, we’re the number one producer of peanuts in America. Over fifty percent of peanuts are produced in the state of Georgia. These displays give people a real opportunity to know where their food comes from, how it’s grown, and it tells the story of our producers and our farm families and the work they do every single day.”

That mission — to make agriculture relatable and accessible to all — was a joint effort between the Georgia Peanut Commission and Georgia’s Rural Center. Together, they created an exhibit that could spark curiosity and ignite understanding, especially in the next generation.

“Ag education is a big focus of the Rural Center and the Department of Agriculture,” said Charlie Fiveash, Executive Director of Georgia’s Rural Center. “With peanuts being Georgia’s number one crop, we want to make sure those opportunities are presented to the students and others who come through the exhibit — to see the importance of agriculture and in particular, peanut production here in Georgia.”

The exhibit took visitors on a journey from the field to the kitchen table, highlighting every step of the process.

“Our end goal for this exhibit is for people to really have a deep understanding of what exactly goes into those candy bars or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches people eat every day,” said Maddie Frost, Project Coordinator with the Georgia Peanut Commission. “From the farmer to the shelling plant and beyond, we want people to know the hard work behind their food. And of course, we also just want people to eat more peanuts.”

To accomplish that, organizers focused heavily on creating a hands-on, interactive experience.

“We have multiple monitors that walk you through and help you learn different things,” Frost added. “We also have our peanut wagon where people can walk up and see what it looks like during the drying process. We wanted it to feel real — like people could truly understand what the process is.”

Ultimately, it’s all about building appreciation — not just for peanuts, but for agriculture as a whole.

“People need to understand the importance of agriculture,” said Fiveash. “Georgia’s number one industry is agriculture, and that awareness is the big takeaway — not only for this generation but for the next. We want to make sure Georgia continues to be number one in agriculture.”

By: John Holcomb

A Garden Grows in Griffin: Flower Shack Blossoms into a Hands-On Ag Experience

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Griffin, GA |

At first glance, The Flower Shack at Green Gate Farms might look like a vibrant sea of color—but its roots run much deeper than just aesthetics. Inspired by her grandmother’s love of gardening, Tara Green set out to start a U-Pick flower farm on their family property in Griffin—a move that bloomed into both a business and a way to educate the public about agriculture.

“I guess, just growing up, my grandmother always loved flowers, had a nice garden,” says Tara. “And just seeing her in that, and then right about five years ago, when we decided to do this, flower farms had just started gaining popularity. I told Steven one night, ‘We’re going to start a flower farm.’ And that spring, we started a flower farm.”

Today, that vision has come to life in rows and rows of blooms, each carefully prepped months in advance. From prepping the soil to pulling beds and planting hundreds of varieties, it’s a labor of love that takes shape well before a single visitor walks through the gate.

“We’re pulling beds here on the hills,” says Steven Green. “We’re backfilling by hand in some areas… and it takes all day. We’ve learned so much from the last few years that we have started staggering. So a lot of the earlier season flowers, we’ll pull those beds first, then a couple of weeks later, the beds for the later season flowers.”

For Tara, that process continues nearly every day during peak season—planting, checking on flower health, and keeping rotation consistent from April through August.

“We grow over a hundred varieties of flowers here,” she says. “I try to get out here super early in the mornings and do all of our planting. Just maintaining all of this is a lot of work every week.”

And if you’re not up for picking your own bouquet, Tara’s got you covered. Her roadside honor-system stand is stocked daily with custom-made arrangements—one of her favorite creative outlets.

“Making bouquets is one of my favorite things,” she says. “I enjoy the creative side of it—mixing the colors and textures, and just stretching my creative brain.”

But the experience doesn’t stop at flowers. The Green family’s working farm includes cattle and vegetable production, offering visitors a real look at the day-to-day of rural life.

“Before we had this, we didn’t really have a lot of interaction with people,” says Steven. “So this is just one avenue to come out here, to fellowship with people and to let them ask us questions. It’s neat—they get to ask us, and we can explain everything and talk to them.”

By: Damon Jones

From Flight Deck to Farm Rows: Retired Couple Grows Second Career at Beak and Berry Farm

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Senoia, GA |

For Patti and her husband, retirement didn’t mean slowing down—it meant digging in. In 2016, the couple left Tennessee for a quiet farm in Georgia, ready for a new chapter. What they found on their newly purchased property changed their lives: 100 blueberry bushes already in the ground.

“In 2016, my husband retires as an airline pilot and we decided, well, what are we going to do now?” says Patti Laney, co-owner of Beak and Berry Farm. “We thought, well, let’s buy a farm. And we found this beautiful little farm in Georgia… and we thought, oh cool, we can sell blueberries.”

That initial inspiration quickly grew into something more. After finding success with blueberries, the couple expanded to strawberries—and later blackberries—clearing three acres of wooded land to plant more fruit. The blackberries, in particular, have become a favorite among customers.

“We’ve been amazed at the response of people to blackberries,” Patti says. “People seem to like that they can come and get clean, healthy berries here.”

When it comes to picking the best berries, Patti offers a surprising tip: “If they’re bright and shiny, they’re not quite ripe yet. If it has a dull finish to it, that’s a ripe, sweet berry.”

Though Patti now sounds like a seasoned grower, she credits much of their success to a less traditional form of training.

“We tell people that we are proud agriculture graduates of YouTube University,” she laughs. “We’ve learned from the University of Georgia Extension Service, Farm Bureau, and of course, just learning through experience. We’ve learned that it takes patience, we’ve learned to respect Mother Nature… sometimes things work and sometimes they don’t.”

Their U-Pick operation, Beak and Berry Farm, has evolved into a place that not only provides fresh fruit, but also cultivates a sense of community. At the end of the season, customers are even invited to dig up leftover strawberry plants to take home in exchange for a donation to the I-58 food mission.

And for the Laneys, what started as a second career has become something far more meaningful.

“Well, I mean, it’s great to have fruit and we love having that,” Patti says. “But just the people that come here—it’s just so fun to meet people and see that they’re getting healthy, delicious stuff to take home. It’s been a blast. We said we’ll do this until it’s not fun anymore.”

By: Damon Jones