HOME to some of the richest and most productive soils on earth, the Liverpool Plains is renowned as Australia's food bowl.
But outside the community that lives and works there, the region's story is relatively unknown.
Not-for-profit leadership group The Plains wants to change all that, and give the everyday person the opportunity to see, feel and taste what it has to offer.
The groups wants locals to experience the benefits of agritourism year-round.
With help from the NSW Small Business Commissioner and Regionality, a website is in the works and a video series showcasing the people and produce has been produced with hopes to reach a metro audience.
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Educating consumers about where their food and fibre comes from, helping local businesses diversify and reap the benefits of agritourism and launching the Liverpool Plains as a renowned agritourism destination is the group's goal.
The Plains president Clare Lee said it's all about opening the farm gate to connect with the consumer, whether it be through open days, events or accommodation.
"Agritourism is a great vehicle to connect with the consumer," she said.
"Consumers want to learn where their food and fibre comes from and agritourism gives us a vehicle to allow people to come and connect with the farmers.
"If they can come to the region and experience four different things, they'll stay for a night or two and they'll be able to visit our pubs and our local shops and help our regional economy as well."
One business embracing agritourism is "The Plantation" - a 13,000 acre mixed farming operation near Premer, home to the Simson family.
Opening the farm gates in January and February for the public to visit their 22 hectare sunflower crop planted the seeds for the family to further diversify their on-farm operations.
"As a business we're now really passionate about educating people about agriculture, sustainable food sources and how food is produced," Georgina Simson said.
"For us, sunflowers was a way for us to start gaining people's attention and interest. But we're starting to develop accommodation on-farm so that we can offer harvest experiences.
"We'd love to eventually bring people out, they can stay on the farm, they can actually sit in a header or watch a header harvesting and we can explain to them where the grain goes from that header."
- This story first appeared on The Northern Daily Leader website.
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