Good Things Grow Here: Explore Agritourism on the Art Coast®
As travelers seek more meaningful, hands-on experiences, agritourism—picking fruit, touring vineyards, meeting local producers, and tasting food where it’s grown—offers a welcome way to slow down and connect with a destination. With Lake Michigan’s moderating breezes, fertile soil, and generations of farming expertise, Saugatuck/Douglas is a great place to experience agritourism firsthand. Whether you want to sip wine among the vines, meet the animals behind a local creamery, or simply taste what’s in season, come explore a delicious new way to experience the Art Coast.
Down on the Farm
From summer’s first berries through the fall harvest, nothing captures West Michigan’s growing season quite like farm-fresh produce picked right where it grows, and many of our local farms offer U-pick options.
At Lakeshore Berry Farms, the experience is refreshingly simple: rows of ripe berries, plenty of fresh air, and all the blueberries and strawberries you care to pick. During the off-season, the farm sells berries in its store, along with homemade baked goods, jams, and ice cream. Glenn Star Farm also has blueberries ripe for the picking, while Pleasant Hill Farm offers organically grown blueberries, homemade maple syrup, and acres of wildflowers. Depending on the season, Bella Vista Farm is a scenic setting for U-pick blueberries, raspberries, peaches, apples, pumpkins, and flowers.
If you’re in the market for more than fruit, head to Dee’s Lakeshore Farm, where the harvest may include vegetables, fresh-cut flowers, and free-range eggs (along with blueberries, raspberries, cherries, peaches, and apples). The farm also keeps bees that produce delicious honey for purchase.
At Evergreen Lane Farm & Creamery, the connection between farm and food becomes wonderfully clear. The creamery handcrafts goat’s-milk cheese using milk from its own herd, along with cow’s-milk cheeses made with locally sourced Jersey milk. Stop by the on-farm tasting room to sample and purchase cheese—and say hello to the goats while you’re there!
For an agritourism experience that appeals to more than your taste buds, follow the scent to Summerhouse Lavender Farm. Visitors can wander among lavender, perennial gardens, and fountains or join a farm tour to learn about growing, pruning, harvesting, and distilling lavender into essential oil. The farm store extends the experience with oils, soaps, candles, and other lavender-based goods.
Into the Orchard
As summer transitions into fall, the Art Coast’s orchards take center stage. A local favorite since the 1880s, Crane Orchards is now operated by the sixth generation of the Crane family. Orchard visitors can pick apples, peaches, and sweet cherries when in season, then return in fall for pumpkins, hayrides, and a new corn maze design each year.
Nearby, Crane’s Pie Pantry Restaurant & Winery turns the farm’s bounty into an experience of its own. Set on a century-old fruit farm, it’s the perfect place to unwind after picking and treat yourself to lunch, wine, cider, or a slice of homemade pie.
If organic apples are on your list, check out Hidden River Farms, the lakeshore’s only certified organic apple orchard tucked into the Fennville countryside.
Among the Vines
Agritourism isn’t limited to what you can carry home in a basket. In the Fennville American Viticultural Area, Michigan’s first federally recognized wine-growing region, the character of the landscape comes to life in a glass of wine.
Family-owned Fenn Valley Vineyards & Winery has produced wine and cider from fruit grown near Lake Michigan since 1973. With tastings, tours, live music, and other seasonal events, the winery makes the art of winemaking feel approachable. Fenn Valley also has a tasting room in downtown Saugatuck for those who prefer to sip closer to the shops and waterfront.
Modales, a 76-acre farm and one of Michigan’s few certified organic wineries, provides the ideal setting for cool-climate wines and cider shaped by regenerative farming and minimal-intervention winemaking. Here, you can settle onto the patio, look out over the vineyard, and sip a glass of wine or estate-made cider.
Around the Market
Can’t make it out to the farm? On Fridays during the growing season, the Saugatuck Farmers Market at Saugatuck Center for the Arts brings together regional growers and makers offering produce, eggs, cheese, meat, baked goods, honey, maple syrup, preserves, and more.
On Tuesdays, the Douglas Farmers Market fills Beery Field with locally grown produce, flowers, plants, and artisan foods. Both markets make it easy to meet the people behind the products, gather supplies for a picnic, or bring a little taste of the Art Coast home.
Hours, harvests, tours, and U-Pick availability change with the season—and sometimes with the weather—so check directly with each destination before setting out. Then take the scenic route. Along the Art Coast, the journey from farm to table is part of the fun.
