Lexington County kicks off the statewide Ag + Art Tour May 6, featuring seven different event hosts around the county including a new site, the Lexington Community Garden.

This year, the event for Lexington County is one day, which is better for the hosts, according to Capital City/Lake Murray Country Special Events and Funding Vice President Vickie Davis.

“We want people to see where their food is grown on the farm and see the artisans unique and local to the Midlands area,” said Davis. “We want to educate Lexington residents on the importance of farmers.”

This is the third year for the Ag+Art Tour in Lexington County since the Capital City/Lake Murray Country Regional Tourism Board has been coordinating the event. The tour also visits 11 other counties, including Richland and Newberry, which are also coordinated by Lake Murray Country. The statewide tour ends in Chester County the weekend of June 24-25. 

Each site offers different activities and vendors and even music ,but the one thing they all have in common is they are family-friendly, Davis said. Admission is free and any costs that may come from vendors at the events goes straight to the site host or vendor.

The new site this year, the Lexington Community Garden, is located on Park Road. The garden is owned by The Mediterranean Café’s Azmi Jebali, who uses the produce for his restaurants in addition to donating vegetables to various nonprofits. 

Jebali is from Israel and settled in Lexington with his wife. Information about his garden can be found on Facebook under “Hunger No More of the Midlands – Lexington Community Garden.” At the Ag+Art Tour, he will have one artisan vendor. 

The other sites people may visit are: Fire Barrel Farm in Swansea, Hollow Creek Distillery in Leesville, Locklair Farm in Gaston, Mercer House Winery in Lexington, Phillips Market Center in West Columbia and The Farm 1780 in Lexington. 

Brett Flashnick is a co-owner of the latter, an eighth generation family farm located on Corley Mill Road. It will have eight vendors and will also do yoga in the blueberry field at 11 a.m. lead by Caroline Whisennant of Brave Mountain Yoga.

“We are an eighth generation family farm that currently focuses on agritourism by connecting the community with each other, the source of their food and the land which produces it through on farm events such as Ag+Art Tour, farm-to-table dinners and private events,” said Flashnick. “We currently grow heirloom seasonal produce, native fruits, heritage breed egg laying hens and heritage breed turkeys.”

Headed out of town is the Mercer House Winery on the edge of town limits and the Hollow Creek Distillery in Leesville. While only those 21 and up can sample the wines or alcohol, the host sites are still family-friendly, with activities for all. 

The winery has one artisan vendor, while the distillery has a long list of vendors including Lexington County author Marjorie Kneece, who recently published a book about Lake Murray and Charleston. Free tastings will also be available. 

Headed toward the outskirts of the county are Fire Barrel Farm and Locklair Farm, which are about 10 minutes apart from each other. Both farms are family-owned and have plenty of fun family events, vendors and kid-friendly activities. 

Andrea Williams owns Fire Barrel Farms with her boyfriend. The couple bought the 30-acre farm and raise dairy goats and pigs and also have mules, a pony, peacocks, turkeys and chickens. 

Williams will also don colonial style clothing, which sets the mood and is fun for the kids, she said. The milk they get from the goats is used to make goat milk soap, which will be sold, and people may also have a chance to bottle feed a baby goat.

“We will have yoga at 11 a.m. at our cottage,” said Williams. “There may or may not be goats.”

Williams said it depends on whether the instructor has the yoga in a fenced-in area.

She added that the farm is handicapped and stroller friendly with fairly smooth terrain.

Down the road is Locklair Farm, which is a third-generation family farm. Sammye Locklair’s dad started the farm and helps to run it.

“What sets us apart from others is we have a permaculture food forest,” Locklair said. “It allows us to do companion planting and plant diversity.”

Locklair explained that this helps prevent insects from attacking all the plants at once since they are broken up. The plants look sporadic, but they are placed very particularly.

Locklair will have food vendors, kids’ crafts and other local produce. It usually has blackberries and blueberries, but they may not be ready yet.

A complete list of vendors along with more information about the Ag+Art Tour can be found online at agandarttour.com.