Do you have an unfulfilled dream of living in the country? Are you starting to think about your next summer vacation? An alternative to the "been there done that" hotel room-and-amusement park is the farm vacation rental. Taking your next vacation on a farm is one way you can live your dream, if only for a week, or even just a weekend. There a several benefits to making your next vacation a farm vacation:

1. Enjoy fresh air and sunshine. Who doesn't like the sound of that? Most of us spend most of our time indoors, and having an opportunity to breathe country air under a sunny sky is not to be missed. Do you know that the best source of Vitamin D is through time spent in the sunshine? So a farm vacation is one way to get your vitamins!

2. Expose your kids to life in the country. If your child's only concept of a "blackberry" is the handheld electronic version, spending a week at a berry farm is one way to broaden their horizons. Taking a canoe trip down a nearby river will give them something exciting to share with their friends back home!

3. Help your family learn where their food comes from. Not by going to the grocery, but to the grower! By spending a week on a farm, they can see that eggs come from chickens and potatoes are dug from the ground. At a berry farm, they can learn the vast difference between a strawberry plant, a blueberry bush, and a raspberry bramble, as well as picking some of each, depending on the season.

4. Gain actual experience working on a farm. You might find that hoeing weeds is a great stress reliever. Personally I can spend several hours picking blueberries, either talking with a friend or just enjoying listening to the birds--and a handful of berries now and then! Some farms may even let you exchange part of your week's rental fee for an agreed-upon amount of help with various tasks.

5. Get to know some of the real people in an area. Not the ones who paste on a smile only while you're in the hotel lobby, but the genuinely friendly people who have literally provided your home away from home. These folks will also have the inside scoop on what to see and do in their area.

6. Enjoy the absolute freshest produce. There is nothing quite like having fresh raspberries with breakfast, or a sun-ripened tomato still warm from the garden, especially when you have gone out and harvested it yourself.

7. Create lasting panaca . One amusement park is pretty much like the next, but a farm vacation will be a unique memory. Even if you return to the same farm year after year, the experience will always be something new and different.