Spending some time in the country can have real benefits for both visitors and those who make their home in rural America.

We'll mix art and agriculture later in the show, but let's start out with what some folks call Haycations.

It's estimated that eight to ten percent of American farms and ranches offer some kind of agritourism experience for visitors.

The farmers and ranchers will tell you that it's not only a good way to bring in added income; it's also a way for city folks to learn a little more about agriculture.

Vacations are a chance to do something different.

And for some folks that means time down on the farm.

>> Travel down this rural road in California Gold Country and you'll find Willow Creek Ranch, 40 acres of farm stay-cation in Mountain Ranch, CA >> Willow Creek is a spot where visitors from around the globe have left urban life behind for some different experiences down on the farm.

>> In this case, youngsters looking for a chance to milk a cow are glued to a "hands on" lesson from Willow Creek owner John Orr.

>> I get a blast out of teaching kids.

I mean, it, I don't know if it's teaching or not, but... >> Well they're certainly learning.

>> They, they've never seen anything like this before in their life.

>> And to show them how it used to be done... >> Yeah... >> By hand, how hard that would have been years ago... >> Yeah, yeah.

Well you know that's, that's our focus.

>> Visitors to Willow Creek will come for a day, a week, or even longer.

They're drawn to the colorful history of the area and drawn to a much more leisurely pace of life.

>>Now I need to get over here cause I have be next to it.

On this summer afternoon, farmer Cathie Orr is in the kitchen turning fresh cow's milk into homemade yogurt.

>> This is going to, it's going to cook for 8 hours, it's going to cool for 8 hours, and then I'm going to pour it up into this, move, I'm going to pour it up into this right here, and I'm going to put in refrigerator and strain it, and it'd look like this.

>> Wow... >> Then, the best part, time to taste the farm fresh creation.

>> It was in the cow yesterday!

>>That's delicious!

>> So thats what I do... >> That is so fresh!

>> But Cathie's pies are the star attraction today.

The night before we arrived, Cathie canned 200 pounds of cherries.

Today, Cathie's using the sweet fruit in her farm kitchen lessons, helping the youngsters put them on top of her just made yogurt.

>> This is what you call Farm to Fork.

>> This is real life Farm to Fork.

>> Real life.

>> Farm to fork connections like these are happening with increasing frequency around the globe.

There are a number of online sites connecting vacationers with farms and ranches offering long or short duration holidays.

Visitors say the vacations allow them to connect with rural America and have a better understanding of where their food is coming from.

>> I think it's an antidote, I think it's an antidote to, to all of the big pressure that we're under all the time now, to be productive, and this is not your regular um, experience, it's not your regular vacation.

>>Might have to do what's called a chicken elevator.

>> It's memories, you know, really, you could do a lot of different things, you could spend money, in a lot of different ways but you can't really often guarantee memories for the family, you know what I mean, so that's, that's why I wanted to do it.

>> I think it was really fun and um, I think it's important to learn about this stuff.

>> And the visit here includes a bit of history as well, with a tour to a 19th century gold mine.

>>This mine was dug like I say about 1860.

>>It's those life changing experiences that draw many to vacations in the heartland.

Vacations that also give farm and ranch families a chance to share their lives with people from around the world.

>>I'm meeting people from Belgium, I'm meeting people from South Africa, I'm meeting people from India, I'm meeting people from China, and I'm getting all this culture and, and, and it's just blowing my head all to smithereens because it's just so neat, it's like going there, I love it!

>> There are so many kids here today.

These are experiences that they will not forget, and you helped make that.

>> That's important.

I enjoyed going to my grandmother's farm because she was, she had a farm and a cow and milked the cow, I wasn't involved in it much but I enjoyed, and even now, we're trying to recreate what she had in the '40s.

I want people to come here and feel like they went to grandma's.

♪♪ >> Willow creek Ranch sits in the heart of California gold country, but California wasn't the first state to have a "gold rush".

Some 50 years earlier, a 17 pound gold nugget discovered in North Carolina kicked off a gold rush in that state.

For more than 30 years gold coins issued by the U.S.

Mint were produced from North Carolina gold.