South Carolina's Ag + Art Tour to kick off in McCormick with farmers and local artists
The 13th annual South Carolina Ag + Art Tour will kick off this Saturday in McCormick County.
Beginning on May 4, the tour will travel to 20 counties and 178 farms. From May to the end of June, it will feature more than 400 artisans.
In each county, different farms or agricultural sites will be open for locals to tour free of charge. Farmers can connect with visitors directly and sell some of their products alongside local artists. This year, the tour will stop in four Upstate counties: McCormick, Laurens, Pickens and Abbeville.
The tour, supported by the Clemson Cooperative Extension, has attracted more than 100,000 visitors since it kicked off in York County in 2012. This year, Tour Director Will Culler said he expects between 30,000 and 50,000 visitors as the event grows. Last year, about 20,000 people attended.
Culler said that as South Carolina’s growth continues exponentially, the tour offers newcomers to the Palmetto State a chance to learn more about its history.
“We've got such a large influx of persons moving into our state. Many of them want to experience what's going on with our state, what's happening in South Carolina,” he said. “This is all about heritage: The arts and crafts, the art in the agriculture of our state.”
The Palmetto State is home to thousands of farmers
South Carolina’s agribusiness industry employs nearly 260,000 state residents. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, there were more than 22,000 farms on 4.6 million acres in the state in 2023.
In 2022, there were nearly 8,000 farms in Upstate counties.
Although farmers make up only 2% of the U.S. population, one farm feeds an average of 165 people yearly, according to South Carolina’s Farm Bureau.
Culler said the tour aims to support small farms, help communities connect, and highlight South Carolina’s agricultural history.
“The farmers are here to create and connect, and to produce and to provide for you and your family. That’s what's important and people will see that conservation,” Culler said. “I really think it is changing the way people look at agriculture in our state, and especially small scale agricultural in our state.”
Culler said that throughout his research, he has found that many smaller-scale farmers want to become involved in agritourism to help residents connect with the world around them.
“One of the main reasons is environmental. They want to make sure that people understand the needs of our community, the needs of our world, and our needs for our Earth,” Culler said.
McCormick joins the tour for the first time
This year marks the most Upstate counties featured so far. Previously, Culler said Union and Spartanburg counties served as hosts, but this year, four Upstate counties will participate for the first time.
McCormick is one of those counties. The McCormick tour sites will center around historical areas and the state’s residential, public agricultural high school this year.
The South Carolina Governor’s School for Agriculture at John de la Howe offers free agricultural education to students, specializing in four tracks: Agricultural mechanics and technology, horticulture, plant and animal science, and environmental and natural resources.
The school also functions as a working farm. Stacie Smith, Executive Director of the John de la Howe School Foundation, said the school would love to add an agritourism track to its curriculum.
“The reason that we wanted to be on the tour is that eventually we hope to have an agritourism component as a potential pathway at our school, and this is an exciting statewide agritourism event. We are a working farm and a working school,” Smith said.
Smith said students will join visitors and artisans at the school on Saturday. The school will offer a pollination display with an observation beehive, hayrides, and entry to its agricultural heritage museum.
Local artisans will join at each stop
The school will also welcome artisans like henna artist Viji Saravanan and companies specializing in handmade candles, jewelry, scarves, tote bags and soap.
The only requirement for artists to participate in the tour is that their goods be handmade. Artists can provide anything from music to woodworking, Culler said. In some cases, the farmers will sell their own products.
Artists aren’t required to have a direct relationship with a farmer in the area. However, their goods can often connect with agricultural products, Smith said.
“A lot of the art is a result of agricultural products. When you think about art, you have the honey that comes from bees, you have wool that comes from sheep and can be made into things,” she said.
The Governor’s School for Agriculture is just one of the six sites in McCormick that will be open to visitors this weekend.
Other sites include:
Park's Mill Rocky Shoals Spider Lily Preserve
The MACK Artisans Guild & Gift Shop
Heritage Gold Mine Park
Downtown Historic McCormick
Dorn Mill Complex
For more information about each site, including locations and which vendors will attend, visit McCormick’s Ag + Art Tour page. The tour will head to Abbeville and Pickens counties later this month, followed by Laurens County in June.
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: SC's Ag + Art Tour kicks off Saturday in McCormick County
