Summer's last Nooks and Crannies is a launching point for fall farm fun

Summer is fading, and it's time to plan for fall. A North Carolina farm app can help you plan for adventures. Visit NC Farms is an Apple and Android product that will let you search for farm activities.

Josh and April Phillips are husband and wife. Together they own Sonlight Farms. The pair believes in educating children about farms and farm life.

“It's more about children understanding where their food comes from,” says April, “It's more about getting them outside and letting them experience agriculture for themselves.”

A quick search using the Visit NC Farms app can guide you to farms with on-site activities. Sonlight Farms offers hayrides, farm tours and even a 8-acre corn maze. “Really, it's just a fun way to get in the crop and look and see, you know, how it's made,” April says.

Sonlight Farms is nearly 60 acres. They grow corn, sweet potatoes, cotton, soy beans and peanuts. The app will allow you to see what days the farm is open to the public.

Bryant Spivey is the director of the Johnston County Agriculture extension. He sees the app as a positive way to introduce farming to a screen-addicted world.

“I think this is a tremendous tool that folks need to connect with the farm,” says Spivey, “They need to know and understand where their food supplies are coming from.”

As April Phillips walks the two miles of trails cut into their tall cornfield maze, she thinks surrounding kids in a corn maze could help them get lost in farming.

“Well, I mean, this is corn,” she explains tugging on a stalk, “So, I mean, this is used a lot to make cereal, marshmallows, bubble gum, you know, high-fructose corn syrup that everybody's so afraid of. I mean, it comes from corn.”

About 20 minutes away, Jen Sanford-Johnson is standing outside her greenhouse. “This is Chickadee Farms,” she announces. She leases the land and grows organic vegetables along with chickens and eggs.

Her fall event, Pig and Pie, is listed on the app.

“I'm always humbled that people are willing to support my farm,” she says, “I appreciate it, from the bottom of my heart, because I love doing this.”

Back at Sonlight Farms, Josh Phillips also says he loves the farm life. “It does bring a sense of satisfaction when you take it from a seed all the way through harvest, and you get to see the end result.”

These farmers hope to share that satisfaction with families who visit their farms.

“You really connect to a farm when you actually come out here and see everybody, see the chickens and the crops,” Sanford-Johnson said.