The idea is almost stubbornly simple: for one weekend each fall, the gates come open. No boots required, no appointment needed, no admission beyond a single fifteen-dollar ticket per carload. You drive, you stop, you walk into a working farm and meet the people who grow your food.
That is the premise of the Kaw Valley Farm Tour, which returns for its 22nd year on Saturday, Oct. 3 and Sunday, Oct. 4. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, and organizers ask visitors not to arrive early or linger past closing. The 2026 edition features 32 farms and four heritage sites spread across the Kaw River Valley, most of them in Douglas County, with others reaching north and east toward Topeka and Kansas City.
The tour began more than two decades ago as a partnership between the Douglas County Extension Council and The Merc Co-op in Lawrence, launched by a small group of community leaders who wanted to shore up the economic viability of regional farms. The logic was twofold: give small producers a direct audience, and give that audience a reason to buy locally. What emerged was something rarer than a farmers market and more intimate than a county fair — a regional open-gate trail where the public is invited onto private land to see how food and animals are actually raised and cared for.
Hilary Kass, who coordinates the tour for K-State Research and Extension in Douglas County, describes the mission in plain terms. "The idea is to connect the community with regional agriculture, to inspire people to purchase locally, to educate people about how things are grown and maybe even inspire them in their home gardening," she told Kansas City Magazine. Kass came to the role with a background in nutrition education and product development and what the extension office describes as a long-held love and support for locally grown food and agriculture.
The structure has held steady for two decades: always the first full weekend in October, always self-guided, always one flat fee. A digital ticket purchased in advance gets you an email receipt; you show that receipt at the first farm you visit and trade it for a physical ticket and guidebook, which you then present at each subsequent stop. Paper tickets and guidebooks are also sold in person at The Merc, Cottin's Hardware, and the K-State Research and Extension office in Lawrence, with additional pickup locations in Shawnee.
What visitors find at each gate varies widely. Some farms are open to the public year-round; many are not, which is part of the draw. "The biggest attractions are hands-on types of things, like you-pick flowers or you-pick pumpkins," Kass said. "One farm has a hayrack ride that takes you down the road and over to the farm. Others have small animals that you can pet. You can watch where the chickens lay their eggs and walk through the barn."
The lineup reflects that range. The Baldwin Family Farm, known as "The Patch," offers an eight-acre pumpkin patch, a corn field maze, a straw palace to climb, and a corn pit to dig through, with a hayride that carries visitors over from The Clinton Store and a dose of local history along the way. The 39th Parallel Nursery & Orchard opens its grounds for a self-guided walk among uncommon fruit varieties, with fruit trees, plants, and local art for sale, plus free access to feed the chickens and pick a bouquet. Blue Jacket Crossing Vineyard & Winery, a family operation, pours award-winning wines made on site. Anthony's Beehive is sitting this year out, a reminder that these are working businesses first and attractions second.
The heritage sites are a newer wrinkle, folding the region's built history into the agricultural one. Organizers have also pushed the tour's geography outward in recent years, adding farms on the Kansas City, Kansas, side. "We are growing with the concept of farming, which means it doesn't necessarily mean it's in the country," Kass said.
Realistically, no one sees it all. Organizers suggest four or five farms per day, which leaves time to actually linger rather than merely log stops. Kass said the audience spans the spectrum — families with small children, older couples, and friend groups who treat it as an annual reunion. She recalled meeting a group of four in their mid-twenties who live in different college towns and reconvene each year to do the tour together over both days. The event has drawn visitors from as far as Minneapolis and Oklahoma City.
There are rules, and they are enforced for good reason. Leave the dogs at home — pets are not permitted on the tour, for the safety of animals and visitors alike. Respect the posted hours. And come prepared to spend time outdoors in whatever October decides to deliver, which, after a Kansas summer, is usually the whole point.
Tickets are $15 per carload and cover everything for the entire weekend, however many farms you manage to reach. Advance digital tickets are available through the tour's website, kawvalleyfarmtour.com, where a digital map and individual farm profiles can help you plan a route. Organizers recommend reading up on the participating farms before setting out, since the choices are many and the daylight is finite.
Twenty-two years in, the pitch has not changed much from the one those Lawrence community leaders made at the start: come see where your food comes from, and meet the people who grow it. The gates are open. You just have to drive.