Farm education finding permanent home in Crawford County

LYKENS TOWNSHIP - Rose and Greg Hartschuh want to teach people about farming.

That's why their non-profit organization — Acres of Adventure — just received a $10,000 grant that will help build a 7,400 square foot learning center near their family farm in Lykens Township.

"It’s going to be an on-farm learning center," Rose Hartschuh said. "It’s a hands-on, interactive place where people can learn where their food comes from and have fun doing it."

The donation came from AgCredit, which funds agribusiness projects statewide. Acres of Adventure has collected about $70,000 to date. The learning center will cost about $200,000 to build, and the entire vision of the project has a final price tag of $400,000.

The project came to the couple's minds last year when they were discussing the future of their farm.

"Greg and I have been doing some form of agritourism for about seven years now," Hartschuh said.

While talking about how little most people know about farming, they realized they didn't just want to entertain their visitors, but educate them as well.

"That’s what prompted us to transition what we were doing into a non profit, because the education piece is the core of what we were trying to do," Hartschuh said.

So, they formed a board of seven directors, including Ryan Conklin, an attorney who practices agritourism law and agricultural employment law. Conklin grew up on a dairy farm in Plain City.

"I thought it was a fantastic idea," Conklin said.

While there are several agritourism facilities across the state, Conklin believes that Acres of Adventure will be the first to focus primarily on teaching visitors.

"It carves out a nice niche in terms of education-oriented agricultural interaction," Conklin said.

Building the learning center will finish the second of five phases for the project. Remaining phases include the construction of an archery range, outdoor amphitheater, pedal go-cart track, retreat cabins, wetland ecostations and a nature center.

"We picture a place where people can bring their families and walk on nature trails and really connect with the environment," Hartschuh said.

They hope to open the facility at least partially in the spring of 2019, then completely later in the fall.

"Our goal is to create something that can be used statewide," Hartschuh said. "We kind of think that Crawford County is in the middle of nowhere, but in reality it’s in the middle of everywhere."

Acres of Adventure is online at www.acresofadventureohio.com.

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