Their eagerness to milk a cow, wander through a cornfield maze or pick their own apples is fueling a trend called agritourism, which gives farmers a way to supplement their income at the same time it gives city folk a new outdoors experience.

Molly Ling, a corporate librarian in New York City, visits Keepsake Orchards in New York's Hudson Valley with her husband, Alfred, and their three sons to pick apples.

Ling said her sons — ages 11, 13 and 6 — are growing up in an apartment and are thoroughly urbanized. One boy even refused for years to go barefoot on grass, but visiting the orchard has changed that.

"The apple orchards they like because it's fun — you're outside, you're in the country and it's really beautiful, it smells good and they can throw apples at each other and climb trees," said Ling, 45.

Many states are tapping into the public's yearning for a taste of country life as part of their rural development efforts. By tying several attractions together in packages — such as fruit orchards, state parks, a farm tour and antique stores — they hope people hang around long enough to stop and spend at other local businesses.

"It's a little bit history, a little bit education. A lot of our folks in the city are a generation or two removed from their rural roots," said Roy Ballard, a Purdue University agricultural extension specialist who works in southeastern Indiana.

"This gives them a chance to look back at what maybe their own parents, or even their grandparents, never experienced."

Indiana officials realized a few years ago that just as people want to tour California's vineyards, they're also interested in Midwestern farms, said Greg Bedan, the Indiana Tourism Council's international marketing manager.

He said one popular new attraction is the northern Indiana Fair Oaks Dairy Adventure, with 15,000 acres and 16,000 cows and offers public tours.

"They take you through the whole process of how a dairy farm operates and they have a cheese factory at the end where you can buy cheese," Bedan said.

Indiana is compiling county-by-county lists of agri-destinations. North Carolina last year created an office dedicated to agritourism.

Officials in other states are working to cultivate agritourism destinations around their traditional crops. Even Hawai'i is getting into the act, by planning a railway for visitors to tour a sugarcane plantation on Kaua'i.

Agritourism is nothing new — dude ranches have been around for decades and in some states a handful of farms have offered working holidays for years. The concept also is popular in Europe.

A 2001 survey by the U.S. Forest Service found that 62 million Americans visited a farm or a ranch that year, said Jane Eckert, a consultant based in St. Louis who helps farmers come up with ideas for marketing their farms to the public. Her family operates a fruit orchard, restaurant and country store in southwestern Illinois.

In southeastern Indiana's Clark County, Joe Huber Sr.'s family got into agritourism — long before someone coined the phrase — in 1966 when they planted fields of pick-your-own strawberries and green beans.

Their venture has grown into Joe Huber Family Farm & Restaurant, near the town of Starlight, about 15 miles north of Louisville, Ky. The farm has a 400-seat restaurant featuring country specialties, a farmer's market, gardens and ponds.

Industry gains ground on Big Island

Advertiser Staff

Hawai'i's agritourism industry has been growing in recent years, including on the Big Island.

Coffee farms scattered through Kona offer farm and mill tours that explain how coffee is picked, processed and roasted. On the Hilo side of the island, flower growers open their farms to visitors for tours and sales.

Examples of agricultural operations that welcome visitors:

• Volcano Isle Tropicals (www.hawaiivolcanocoffee.com) in Mountain View offers tours and on-site sales of flowers.

• Kona Blue Sky Coffee (www.konablueskycoffee.com) grown on the Twigg-Smith Estate in Holualoa is among the coffee farms offering tours, coffee tasting and a shop to purchase coffee.

• Kualoa Ranch (www.kualoaranch.com) on O'ahu and Parker Ranch (www.parkerranch.com) on the Big Island conduct visitor activities that include horseback riding and ranch tours.