Fair Oaks Farms is recognized as the number one agri-tourism destination in the Midwest!
[Ads /]
Yes, it's a working farm, but with innovative attractions to help you better understand how your food goes from farm to table.
Fair Oaks Farms is an hour and a half drive from downtown Chicago. Spread out over 30 square miles visitors can see firsthand the inner workings of a modern farm.
"We have our experiential museums, we have our farm tours and then we have all of our different hospitality vendors from two different restaurants to a hotel to an apple orchard and pumpkin patch," Jacqueline McClosky, Fair Oaks Farm special projects manager, said.
With 36,000 cows the dairy farm is considered one of the nation's largest, and the farm's most popular tours!
"You're gonna be able to see where the cows live, where they eat, where they spend most of their time; you'll also be going and seeing them on the rotary which is where they get milked three times a day," McCloskey said.
At the other end, guests will learn how cow manure is turned into fuel!
[Ads /]
"We started putting digesters in our farms and we can eventually trade the gas that you collect in the digester, clean it up into 99% methane and we run all of our milk to market off of our cows' manure," McCloskey said.
That poo-power takes two-million gallons of diesel fuel off the roads each year. The other amazing part of the dairy farm tour is the birthing barn.
"Here on our farms we have 80 to 100 calves born a day, but we do bring some cows over here so people can experience that miracle of birth at our birthing barn," McCloskey said. "You can sit down and your kids can really experience something cool that they've never seen before!
Each farm has a corresponding museum.
"This is the Dairy Adventure building; this building is a museum that is dedicated only to dairy farming," Matt Rudy, Fair Oaks Farms enrichment programs manager, said. "There are many interactive activities to do, how farmers are able to work with animals and work with the land to provide the food that comes right to your table."
There's a similar set up at the pig farm where visitors learn what it takes to raise them from 15 pound piglets to a 400 pound sow!
[Ads /]
The final stop, the crop adventure and orchard. Sunflowers should be ready this weekend!
Apples will be ripe for picking mid-August, and Pumpkin Fest fun in October!
The Farmer's Garden is meant for kids to come in, run around, trample it, but the idea is to learn about the crops they grow there, understand what they're used for and even identify them.
It all comes full circle at the Cowfe, where all dairy products from milkshakes and ice cream to yogurt and cheese come from the farm - that grilled cheese - as Gouda as it gets!
It doesn't get any cheddar than this!