Hampshire Farm Crawl

With about 30 stops in all, the sequence of visits can fill a July weekend with fun and discovery.

Photo Above: A goat looking for either a snack or a head rub pokes its head through the gate at Dollinger Farm.
Photo Courtesy of Cindy Twigg Photography.

My husband, The Reluctant Traveler, and I are in Hampshire, West Virginia, for the second annual Farm Crawl. This event, which includes 30 stops sprawled across 645 square miles, was the brainchild of the county’s executive director of the convention and visitors bureau, Tina Ladd, and WVU Extension Agent Candace DeLong.

Ladd’s goal is to give visitors “the opportunity to experience Hampshire County like a local . . . by visiting farms, talking to farmers, learning how food is grown, learning where it comes from and taking home some of that fresh, local product with them.” 

Our first stop is at a tiny roadside stand holding freezers full of well-marbled beef in front of McDaniel’s Farms. Scott McDaniel offers us a walk around his pastures and a chance to bottle-feed a calf as his son, Rope, tractors another freezer into the building. McDaniel is the sixth generation in his family to farm. His son will be the seventh.

From there, we find a hand-painted sign pointing the way to Nellie’s Flower Farm. Owner Angie Park meets us on the front porch of the house which was built in 1890. It is now a charming gift shop full of quirky finds.

Park tears up as she talks about her grandmother, Nellie Blake, for whom the business is named. “Grandma treated everyone the same. We used to sit on this porch breaking beans. Every memory of home has to do with this porch.”

The brightly colored rag curtains hanging from the eaves, and the peace sign mowed into the grass on the hill are Park’s nod to her grandmother’s generous, loving spirit.

We find the West Virginia Broom Barn perched on a high ridge. It began in 2005 when Wanda Hott bought a broom and declared to her sister, “Oh! I could do this.” She tried, found she liked it, and a business was born.

Hott’s sister has passed, but three generations of family members are hard at work in the front yard. Granddaughter Kierra Westfall says, “Grandma does it all. She is our It-Girl. Pappy is the maintenance man, and Mom is a Jack of All Trades.” Westfall laughs. “She also organizes the broom shed…sometimes to Grandma’s chagrin.”

A short drive west leads to the Dollinger Farm where Kimberly Dollinger and husband care for rescue animals. Miniature ponies line up for head rubs sharing the immaculate space with donkeys, ducks, chickens, goats, pigs, turkeys, large horses and beef cattle.

Just around the bend, at Horn Camp School, caretaker Betty Racey points to her grandmother in a black and white photo hanging on the wall. “She was a student here around 1907.” The school, which Racey inherited from an aunt and uncle, was built in 1880 and housed students until 1952.

In addition to three original desks, some books and inkwells, the walls are hung with a variety of other historic memorabilia from the area. The Raceys’ daughter drops by while we are talking. The school house is a generational family affair.

Over the next hill, Eric Hott offers samples of truffles and chocolate drops in front of his family’s homeplace which was built in the late 1700’s. Chef Hott left West Virginia to study culinary arts in Europe, and he learned to make chocolate in Switzerland. He returned to Hampshire County to take care of his Grandma. The immaculate vegetable gardens that surround EH Chocolates are testimony to his eye for detail and exacting standards.

Our last stop is Smith’s Orchard and Market in Augusta. Linda Riggleman, the granddaughter of Allean P. Smith who moved here in 1940 and planted the orchards, sells produce from the original building. Riggleman’s 93-year-old father, William Smith, owns the business and he, his son and his grandchildren check on the orchard daily.

As I bite into a fragrant peach, it strikes me that this just-picked fruit, eaten beside the historic stand, is symbolic of the mix of old and new that has been the thread running through every stop on the Crawl. The places we’ve visited are stitched together by families eager to move forward as they honor the traditions that define their pasts.

I am sorry that we don’t have time to visit the fainting goats, or admire the alpacas or learn about moonshine and mushrooms. Ladd tells me that she expects an even bigger and better Farm Crawl [this] year.

If you plan on going, you might want to book a room. There’s more than enough to see in a weekend.

6 Things to Know Before You Go

1. The 2024 Hampshire Farm Crawl is July 13-14, 10-4 each day. Plan your farm-visiting days here: cometohampshire.com/wvfarmcrawl

2. Pack a lunch or plan to stop in Romney or Capon Bridge for a meal.

3. Cell phone service is spotty, so print out some maps before you go.

4. Spotting the Farm Crawl signs is as much fun as an Easter egg hunt.

5. Bathrooms are few and far between. Take advantage of any gas stations you pass.

6. The Potomac Eagle offers scenic train rides nearby.

The story above first appeared in our July / August 2024 issue.