KIRKSVILLE, MO -- The University of Missouri Extension and the Missouri Vegetable Growers Association will sponsor a tour of Amish vegetable farms and the wholesale auction in Drakesville, Iowa on July 31.

The tour is free and anyone who attends will receive a boxed lunch.  The bus loads up at 8:45.

The tour begins with a bus from the Adair County Extension Center to Drakesville, where the group will attend a wholesale auction until noon.

Visitors will get an inside look at an auction, and be able to visit with producers and buy their goods.

Lunch is from noon to 12:30, followed by a tour of the David Yoder farm in Drakesville.  Yoder raises vegetables in the field and in high tunnels. 

After a pit stop at the Ice House convenience store on the state border, the second farm tour will be at a farm north of Greentop. 

Levi and Barbara Delagrange grow vegetables and several acres of pumpkins.  Finally, the group will visit Willis Schmucker and his vegetable farm.

Dress for the weather. Shorts, tennis shoes, hat and sunscreen are recommended.

The bus will be available to the first 45 people to register, but anyone is welcome to drive to these stops.  However, it  will be about 45 miles one way.   Visitors will have to go on foot during the tours-the walking will be moderate.

When planning for this tour, keep in mind that it will be a long, possibly hot day.

The auction and the farms are not handicap accessible. For more information, please contact Darla Campbell at the University Extension Office.  Her email is campbelld@missouri.edu and her phone number is (660) 457-3469.