By Ann Shepphird of GardenstoTables.com
Say you’re a “locavore” (i.e., you try to eat locally grown food) and you’re traveling. You can stay at a hotel that tries to buy from the local  farmers. You can stay at one that maybe has its own herb garden – or even one that grows some of its own produce. OR, you can go a step further and actually stay on a farm.
Long popular in Europe, farm stays have increased in popularity in recent years in the U.S. and it’s easy to see why: What can be better than staying in a place in, say, Kauai where you can pick a papaya from a tree right outside your door? A farm stay is also a good way to try out the idea of what it would be like to chuck it all and start your own organic farm.
That’s what Lee Roversi of North Country Farms did. Once a typical harried New Yorker, in 1986, she and her then-husband packed up their kids, found some land on the north shore of Kauai and built North County Farms, which provides a variety of produce that’s sold directly to local families. Also on the four-acre property--which is near the town of Kilauea and many of the north shore's most famous beaches--are two guesthouses that are rented out as bed-and-breakfast cottages. Guests literally look out their front porches at the beautifully manicured rows of crops and are encouraged to pick their evening’s produce from the farm and orchards. The cottages run $160/night and also include a welcome basket filled with local goodies for breakfast (coffee, tea, granola, muffins, fruit).
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