NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Reaching into a chicken coop, an educator grabbed the nearest Rhode Island Red chicken by the legs and lifted it into the air upside down, its wings and neck fluttering while two-dozen preschoolers stared in slack-jawed amazement.

"The safest way to hold a rooster is by the feet," the worker at Casey Farm explained to the group. "Do you want to pet a chicken?" A few preschoolers hesitantly reached forward to touch.

Historic Casey Farm and nearby Watson Farm in Jamestown offer visitors, particularly children, a glimpse into the lost world of small-scale farming in New England, when the distance between the chicken coop and the dinner plate was much shorter.

Built in the early 18th century, Casey Farm is bordered by a river and Narragansett Bay, making it easily accessible to the ships that once hauled its products to the bustling colonial ports of Newport, across the bay, and Providence, 25 miles north. Its prosperity declined as the Revolutionary War disrupted business, and it was later run by tenant farmers.

Now owned by Historic New England, the oldest and largest regional preservation society in the country, Casey Farm has opened its white colonial farmhouse to tours and shows what organic farming looked like long before the practice was vogue.

"What organic used to mean a lot was about small, local knowing-your-farmer kind of farms," farm manager Patrick McNiff said. "For the people who are really looking for that local relationship, this place serves that niche."

The farm specializes in heirloom vegetables, varieties that were once common on small New England farms but were abandoned by industrial-sized farms because they cannot be picked by machines or easily shipped long distances. For example, Casey Farm grows 30 different types of tomatoes.

"Each one, it's like a wine, it's like fine wine," McNiff said. "Each one tastes different, looks different."

Visitors can sample those tomatoes when the farm opens to the public on Saturdays for tours and a farmers market.

Nearby residents also take part in growing the food — and enjoying it after harvest — as part of the farm's community-supported agriculture program.

Local people commit to eight hours of farm work every season and pay a set fee. In return, they can get up to 30 pounds of produce every week from the farm, including things like strawberries, lettuce, carrots, and flower bouquets.

During the preschool tour, children were shown how to plant and water pea seeds. In another field, they helped clear granite rocks from the dirt, then learned how farmers, slaves and American Indians built the iconic stone walls of New England.

At the chicken coop, they watched a staff member use a hand-turned grinder to break corn into chicken feed.

"It's work, it's not easy," said Laurie Grandchamp, who accompanied her 3-year-old daughter Althea to the farm as part of a preschool trip.

They also learned a few truths about farm work from the pig pen.

"Ew, what's that smell?" a young girl asked.

"Pigs smell a little bit," said Sara McFadden, a tour guide.

A quieter experience awaits at Watson Farm, a four-mile drive over a bridge to Jamestown, on Conanicut Island. Narragansett Indians had cleared the land for agriculture by the time the first European settlers arrived in the 17th century.

Shortly after the Revolutionary War, Job Watson bought the large farm and it stayed in his family for five generations until 1979 when it was bequeathed to Historic New England. Farm managers Don and Heather Minto live there now in a restored colonial home.

They raise sheep for mutton and wool that is spun, turned into blankets and sold. The curious can attend an annual sheep-shearing day in May to see how the process works.

They also raise grass-fed Red Devon cattle for beef that is also sold. Red Devons were the first cows to arrive at Plymouth Colony in neighboring Massachusetts and later pulled the wagons carrying settlers into the American West, Don Minto said.

"One of the things we've worked on since we've been here is constantly trying to cultivate in people's minds and hearts a preservation ethic, not just about preserving an old house," he said, "but preserving landscapes."