Yellow Rails & Rice Festival Coming Soon

Festival Dates:  November 3-6, 2016

                                                 Registration opens: August 1, 2016

Yellow Rails and Rice Festival participants enjoy a unique opportunity to engage in agritourism, observing close-up rice harvesting operations, with the added benefit of seeing Yellow Rails and other rail species (Sora, Virginia, and King) that may be flushed by a combine while it is harvesting rice.

To learn more about the schedule,  click here.

To register online, click here.

If you have any questions, e-mail Donna Dittman directly at yellowrailsandrice@gmail.com

If you want to visit their website, click here.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR TEDDY’S BEARFEST ’16

Gather your family and friends and come on out to help celebrate the 10^th anniversary of Teddy’s Bearfest’16: A Historical Celebration, commemorating President Theodore Roosevelt’s successful bear hunt expedition in Madison Parish.

The festival is free, starting at 9:00 a.m. with a parade featuring the Madison High School Marching Band. All genres of music will be showcased for the entire family to enjoy, along with lots of food, arts, crafts and children's activities as well as educational and informational exhibits highlighting, live animal and artifacts from the Tensas Wildlife Refuge and Poverty Point.

Date:    October 8, 2016

Time:    9:00am-7:00pm

Where: Courthouse Square, downtown Tallulah

Cost:    Free

Contact: Tina Johnson

Madison Parish Tourism Commission

1-888-744-8410

mptourism@att.net

    

Sunflower Trail & Festival

Mark your calendars for June 18th and travel To Gilliam, LA.The event is open 9am to 3pm. For more information about the festival  click here. 

I went several years ago and enjoyed making pictures of family members surrounded by sunflowers.

Louisiana Ranch Dog Association

Storybook Image vs Modern Farm Image

We know that children of today read about farming from their storybooks, but do they understand that every farm will not have a "red barn?" For those farmers who are new generation farmers, the farm maybe a metal building.

This was one of the questions raised in GETTING STARTED IN AGRITOURISM By Jim Ochterski and Monika Roth of Cornell Cooperative Extension. Take a look at this article by clicking here.

Horticulture Hints Available Online

Horticulture Hints provide an overview of what the gardener should be doing during the summer. These hints are provided by the LSU AgCenter. Click here to read.

Agritourism Workshop at Keachi Acres

Keachi Acres in DeSoto Parish is more than just a destination. It’s recreation in its most natural form that was started by Mary Nesbitt as an agritourism business in 1999.

“This is 200 acres that I inherited and had always wanted to live here,” said Nesbitt, owner of the certified agritourism operation. “I have hiking trails, a stocked pond, horses, ducks, chickens and an organic garden. My guests even collect their own eggs for their breakfast. They love it.”

Nesbitt hosted the LSU AgCenter’s 2016 agritourism business workshop for landowners on May 10.
This workshop attracted about 50 people from all over Louisiana who wanted to know more about using their property as an agritourism destination.  To read more click here.