BRISTOL — After running its bicycle tour of Addison County farms in September for many years, ACORN’s 10th annual Tour de Farms this year has been moved a month or so earlier.
The Tour, one of Vermont’s oldest cycling farm tours, will be held Sunday, Aug. 6, in and around Bristol. This year’s route will follow 28 miles of rolling hills and backcountry roads through the Champlain Valley’s quintessential pastoral landscape.
As usual, the Tour will start at 8:30 a.m. and end at 4 p.m. at the Bristol Recreation Club Field, next to Mount Abraham Union High School. The route will feature nine farm stops that will offer riders fresh samples of the summer bounty from 30 farms, food producers and restaurants.
A farm van will enable riders to purchase products directly from the farms without having to worry about how they’ll get them back to their car. The ride will conclude with a celebratory after-party featuring live music and dancing, local ice cream, foods and beverages.
“The Tour is one of Vermont’s most unique and loved local food and farm experiences,” said Jonathan Corcoran, ACORN’s executive director and Tour co-founder. “What makes the Tour special is riding a bike and taking in the beauty around you, while stopping at farms along the way to sample a wonderful variety of locally-grown foods and beverages and meeting the people who produce them.”
The 2017 Tour runs through the towns of Bristol, New Haven and Monkton and will showcase the wonderful diversity of farms and local foods in this lesser known part of the Champlain Valley. The terrain is hilly with a mix of paved and dirt roads so a mountain bike or road bike with wide tires is recommended. More details can be found at www.acornvt.org/tourdefarms.
The Tour de Farms is a rain or shine event and will be capped at 400 riders. Advance registration is now open at www.bikereg.com/tourdefarms and will close on July 28 at 5 p.m. The advance registration fee for those who register before July 1 is $50 for adults and $25 for students and kids under 18. The on-site registration fee the day of the event is $75 for adults and $50 for students and kids.
Tour is the biggest fundraiser of the year for ACORN (Addison County Relocalization Network), a nonprofit that promotes the growth and health of local food and agriculture in Vermont’s Champlain Valley. Also, 25 percent of the proceeds from advanced registration go to participating farms on the Tour.