Archive for April, 2009
Turkey Hill Grange Recognizes Juanita Eckert as 70 Year Member
The Grange was chartered to benefit farmer’s and to strenghten the rural communities. Now, they welcome non-farm families and all interested community members to participate in their meetings, events and philanthropic activities.
As a city bride marrying into the Eckert family, my mother, Juanita Cox Eckert, soon learned that Grange membership was just an expected part of being in the family. I remember every month going with my Mom and Dad to attend the Juvenile Grange meeting in the basement while the adults participated in a meeting upstairs. Grange meeting was always followed by refreshments in the basement and the kid’s then went upstairs to run and play while the adults were downstairs socializing.
Turkey Hill Grange honors Juanita Eckert
Last Saturday night, Turkey Hill Grange honored my mother Juanita Eckert as a 70 year member of the Grange, and also recognized their 135th anniversary. My mother reflected on her early days of Grange membership and the importance that the organization played in our family and our farm neighbors.
The recognition award ceremony for my mother also gave me time to reflect on how Turkey Hill Grange was an important part of my childhood experiences, just like my 4-H membership. We didn’t have all the organized games and classes that kids have today after school, but we did have a place to gather each month with other neighboring farm families to meet, have fun and participate in activities with the whole family.
There used to be a sign in the Turkey Hill Grange Hall when I was a kid that said, “Pray for a Good Harvest – but Keep on Hoeing.” As farmer’s today we continue to cherish our families, our country neighbors and to maintain the faith that our hard work will create an abundant harvest.
Congratulations Mom on your 70 Year’s of membership in the Turkey Hill Grange.
Farm Garden Centers capture “Back Yard” Garden Customers
April is National Gardening month. It’s no surprise that the media has paid attention to MIchelle Obama’s newest project – The While House garden. In a recent interview with Oprah, Michelle Obama wants to use the garden as “point of education, to talk about health and how delicious it is to eat fresh food, and how you can take that food and make it part of a healthy diet.”
I believe all of this great media news, and increased consumer interest in local and fresh foods will translate into increased sales at the retail garden centers located on so many of our North American agritourism farms. Recently, I’ve visited a few farm garden centers across the country and found that sales of seeds, vegetable plants and gardening supplies are increasing over 2008.
In 2008, per the National Gardening Association, the number of people growing vegetables increased 10 percent over previous years and they anticipate that the number will increase by 20% in 2009.
So, if you have a farm garden center – please don’t ignore this category of purchaser. While the number of back yard food gardeners may be growing, we certainly know as farmer’s that they will still need our expertise in how to grow a good crop.
This spring, I believe farm market garden centers have a tremendous advantage over the “box store” garden centers because we do know how to grow fruits and vegetables and we have plenty of these types of plants for sale. Use your specialized knowledge to help your customers plan their own back yard garden and your garden center sales should soar!
Wine & Farm Trails Make Good Partnerships!
I just returned from Watkins Glen, NY where I gave an all day marketing seminar sponsored by Scoped and other local organizations. Watkins Glen is located in the Finger Lakes region of New York on Seneca Lake and it is an incredibly beautiful and rural area. There are over 60 wineries that actively participate in the Seneca Lake Wine Trail.
The town of Watkins Glen is part of Schuyler County with a population just under 20,000– yet the region hosts almost 2 million visitors a year due to the wineries and other nearby attractions. We would certainly label this region as an “agritourism destination.” While I was greatly impressed by the marketing and participation of the wine trail, I felt the other types of farm agritourism operators just weren’t as well organized to reap the benefits of the tourism guests.
Trail systems are a great method to package and market a region for the traveler. I’d suggest all of you with trail systems think “bigger” and make it easier for the traveler to locate everything in your area to get them to visit you and stay longer. Isn’t that what tourism is all about? I hope the next time I go back to Watkins Glen that I’ll read about the Seneca Wine & Farm Trail!
Creating agritourism partnerships will create more consumer interest and media “buzz” as we all work together to expand this industry. Rural Bounty.com is a good example of what can be accomplished when we develop creative partnerships to grow agritourism as a major travel niche.
Bringing Agritourism to RFD TV
American Agri Women, with the assistance of Chris Wilson, recently received a grant of $175,000 from the USDA Risk Management Agency to record 13, half-hour television programs for RFD TV featuring topics of interest for farm women and family farms.
As we know, farm women are busy ladies and often don’t have the time to attend state or regional meetings to hear the featured speakers on topics relevant to their farm businesses. That is the reason why the American Farm Women association is producing these shows. The RFD series will cover a different topic in each program. The topics will include farm taxes, estate planning, intergenerational farm transfer, commodity markets etc.
I am pleased to tell you that yesterday I was interviewed for the program on my favorite topic, agritourism and direct farm marketing. Kathy Patton, a former farm broadcaster, is the host of the program, and we talked about how farm women can start a new farm based business – agritourism.
The broadcasts are scheduled to start in June, and each program will air four times during the week.
I think it was great coup for this group to receive the grant to bring these important topics right into the home for farm family viewing. The exact schedule of shows will be posted on American Agri Women, and I will certainly be letting you know when the agritourism show will air.
