Vermont Farm Tours with Amy Hartshorn
Touch the soil. Taste what real food is.
This isn't a guided walk with a pamphlet.
It's a hands-on, fully immersive experience on a working organic farm in the heart of Vermont — where you'll harvest, taste, plant (season-dependent), explore a hydroponic greenhouse, discover the maple sugarhouse, and learn why real food grown in healthy soil changes everything.
Led by Amy Hartshorn — organic farmer, green living educator, and upcoming TEDx speaker — these tours are part education, part adventure, part reset button.
You'll leave nourished, grounded, and inspired.
MADE FOR FARM LOVERS, FOODIES, AND CURIOUS MINDS
✓Adults and teens who want more than a tourist experience
✓ Foodies, gardeners, homesteaders, and wellness seekers
✓ Travelers wanting an authentic Vermont connection
✓ Anyone tired of industrial food and ready to reconnect with the source
Best suited for ages 9 and up — the content is rich, interactive, and hands-on.
WHAT YOU'LL EXPERIENCE:
Every tour is unique — customized to your group's interests and the time in the season
The Organic Farm Dave and his dad have farmed this land. Amy arrived 17 years ago, fell in love — with him, and with the land — and over the decades they've transformed the property into something far beyond a working farm. This land has hosted four food festivals, farm-to-table dinners, kids' farm camps, teen and youth groups, cow train rides, pizza nights, and haunted Halloween walks. It's been a gathering place, a classroom, and a community anchor.
What you're stepping onto isn't just a farm. It's a living educational center — one that has introduced hundreds of people of all ages to the real story of food, land, and the hands that tend both.
Learn why healthy soil is the foundation of healthy food, then prove it to yourself. Pluck a green bean straight off the vine and eat it standing there. Push your hands into warm, living earth. Tear off a piece of fresh kale and taste the difference that real growing makes.
Taste as You Go Forget what you think a tomato tastes like. Pop a sun-warmed cherry tomato straight from the vine and let that be your new reference point. Rub a fresh herb between your fingers and smell what your grocery store can never quite replicate. This isn't a tasting menu — it's a full-body education in what food can be when it's grown with care and eaten at the source.
The Hydroponic Greenhouse Behind the farm sits a half-acre commercial hydroponic greenhouse — food growing at scale, without a single handful of soil. It sounds like science fiction until you're standing inside it. Then Amy will show you her own homeowner-sized hydroponic unit and suddenly it sounds like something you could do in your kitchen. Clean food, grown year-round, anywhere.
The Maple Sugarhouse Dave is a fifth-generation Vermont sugarmaker. That's not a marketing line — that's a lineage. Stand in the sugarhouse where his family has worked for years, hear the story of how native peoples first discovered that tree sap could become something extraordinary, and then taste Hartshorn maple syrup the way it was meant to be tasted: fresh, pure, and nothing like the bottle in your pantry.
The Healing House Gardens Some of the most powerful plants on earth are probably already growing in your backyard — you just don't know what they are yet. Walk through Amy's medicinal herb and edible flower gardens, learn what heals and what nourishes, and then wander into the home vegetable garden where the lunch ingredients often come straight from the ground to your plate.
WHY THESE TOURS ARE DIFFERENT
This isn't a passive farm visit — it's an experience that stays with you
Embodied wisdom, not theory
Amy didn't grow up on a farm — she grew up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and spent years longing for a different kind of life. She chose it deliberately, learned it deeply, and has spent 30 years living and teaching it. That journey is exactly why she's such a compelling guide. She knows what it's like to be completely disconnected from where food comes from — and she knows the specific moment that changes. (Cue the theme song from the Green Acres TV show...)
Genuinely hands-on
Harvest, taste, plant, identify herbs, explore growing methods, ask questions.
You're not watching — you're participating.
Multi-dimensional food literacy
Organic agriculture, hydroponics, maple sugaring, soil health, flavor, nutrients — woven together into one cohesive experience.
Nature + nervous system reset
Slow down, breathe, feel the land. Guests consistently leave feeling grounded in a way that's hard to put into words.
A spark that lasts
Many guests say it changed how they eat, shop, and think about food — long after they've left Vermont. Parents report that kids who swore off vegetables are suddenly eating them. People go home and start gardens, or finally expand the ones they've been meaning to tend. They seek out the farmers' markets and local farms near them that they used to drive past. And nearly everyone leaves with something harder to measure but just as real: a deep, felt appreciation for what it actually takes to grow good food — and a new respect for the people who do it.
TOUR OPTIONS:
Option 1 — Farm Tour (No Lunch) approximately 90 minutes $70 / person (ages 9+) | $35 ages 4–8 | Ages 3 & under free
The full farm experience — organic fields, hydroponic greenhouse, maple sugarhouse, and healing garden. Hands-on, sensory, and unforgettable.
Option 2 — Farm Tour + Farm-to-Table Lunch approximately120 minutes $100 / person (ages 9+) | $50 ages 4–8 | Ages 3 & under free 3-adult minimum or $300 flat rate for smaller groups. Special pricing for larger groups. Please contact Amy to discuss.
Everything in Option 1, plus a fresh homemade lunch made from our own farm ingredients harvested that morning.
Menu varies by season and what's growing that day. Amy can customize your meal to meet certain food allergies and sensitivities, just let her know what they are.
Past lunches have included: pasta with farm basil pesto, massaged kale with peanut sauce, big garden salad with Amy's famous maple balsamic vinaigrette dressing, and herb tea. It depends on what is ripe that day.
Special Group Tour: 35 farmers and ranchers from Oklahoma.
When HGTV came for a farm tour...
ABOUT YOUR GUIDE, AMY:
Amy (Todisco) Hartshorn has spent more than 30 years teaching people how to live cleaner, eat smarter, and reconnect with the natural world.
She's a nationally recognized green living educator, organic farmer, podcast host, and upcoming TEDx speaker — once on the radar of an Oprah producer, and technical editor of Green Living for Dummies.
These tours are an extension of that lifelong mission: to help people remember what real food tastes like, and why it matters.
Tours fill quickly each summer.
Contact Amy to check availability and book your tour now.
LOCATION: Hartshorn Farm | 54 Quarry Road (Route 100) | Waitsfield, Vermont
CONTACT AMY:
or text or call: (802) 922-1832
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How long are the tours? Option 1 (no lunch) runs about 90 minutes. Option 2 with the farm-to-table lunch is approximately 2 hours. Both are relaxed and unhurried — we move at the pace of the land.
How do I book? Contact Amy directly to check availability and schedule your group. Tours fill quickly in summer, so the earlier you reach out the better.
How many people can join a tour? Tours are flexible — Amy has hosted intimate groups of 2 and large groups of 35.
The sweet spot is typically under 10 people, where the experience feels most personal and interactive.
Larger groups are warmly welcomed; contact Amy to discuss logistics and pricing for groups of 10 or more.
Visitors come from across the U.S. and around the world to experience Vermont food and farming firsthand.
What should I wear and bring? Comfortable clothes you don't mind getting a little earthy.
Closed-toe shoes are strongly recommended. Bring water, sunscreen, and your curiosity.
Is the tour right for my kids? The tours are best suited for ages 9 and up — the content is interactive and layered.
Children ages 4–8 are welcome at a reduced rate, and ages 3 and under are free.
It's not primarily designed for very young children, but many families have a wonderful time together.
What if it rains? Vermont weather is part of the Vermont experience! Light rain usually doesn't stop a tour. Amy will be in touch if conditions require rescheduling (intense thunderstorms, for example.)
Is the lunch truly farm-fresh? Yes — the lunch menu is built around what's growing and ready to harvest on the day of your visit.
It changes with the seasons and is prepared fresh by Amy. Most ingredients are organic or hydroponic (no pesticides, just can't be certified organic in Vermont.)
Where exactly is the farm? Hartshorn Farm is located at 54 Quarry Road (Route 100) in Waitsfield, Vermont — right along the scenic Route 100 corridor in the Mad River Valley.
Do you offer private or custom group tours? Yes! Each tour is already customized to the group that shows up.
If you have a specific focus — medicinal herbs, hydroponic growing, maple sugaring — just let Amy know when you book.
Or, if you have a special larger group— we've hosted artists, farmers & ranchers, people from various countries, and many others.
Can I buy anything at the farm? Availability varies by season. Ask Amy when you book — there is always produce, maple syrup, and other farm goods (jams & pickles) available during your visit.