For many, watching Billy Crystal in the 1991 film City Slickers was the first and only experience of agritourism—a world of horses and hay, farms and dude ranches, unknown to city dwellers.
Much has changed in the past two decades. Going to a farmer’s market has gone from “what’s a farmer’s market?” to the cool thing to do, to just the regular thing to do. Youth are giving up “real” jobs to learn how to farm, and community gardens have become as big a thing as the World War-era Victory Gardens.
With the growing interest in farming comes a growing interest in exploring farms. Agritourism includes the dude ranches the city slickers went to, but also encompasses any form of agricultural tourism.