Archive for March, 2010
Agritour to Costa Rica features Strawberry Grower
This past January, I led a farm tour to Costa Rica, and I wanted to share with you a special stop that truly made our trip unforgettable.
We were the first time guests of the thirteen-member Salazar family who are strawberry growers very near the Paos Volcano. This was the first time time the family had hosted an agritour and they went all out to make our visit special. They built a special building just for us! YES, it’s true. Upon arrival the family ushered us into a new building (complete with restroom) where they gave us a fresh strawberry fruit smoothie and then told us about the farming operation.
Following the presentation, we toured the strawberry fields which were all planted under high tunnels. This allows them to have total control of the moisture applied to the berries otherwise they would have too much rain for the crop. These growing methods allow them to pick strawberries almost twelve months a year. They don’t have any agritourism activities on the farm but they sell all their strawberries at local farmer’s markets.
After the field tour we went back inside the new building and were treated to strawberry shortcake. Each and every farm stop in Costa Rica proved very special to our group but the Salazar family will certainly be remembered. If you would like to see pictures from the farm tour and read more about more farm operators on our COSTA RICA TRIP just click here.
Plans are now underway for our 2011 Israel Agritour January 4-13. Details to be ready soon.
Agritourism Directory Now FREE to Farm Operators!
RuralBounty.com, the North American directory of Agritourism Farms and Ranches, is now providing free basic listings to all agritourism farms in the U.S. and Canada. The entire registration process can be done online. For a small annual fee, Premier listings are also available.
Rural Bounty is a powerful one-source directory that will make it easy for people to locate agritourism operators no matter where they may live. This directory will make is easy for the traveling public to locate farms, ranches and wineries who are open to the public. The dynamic search provides results by state or province and can identify over 500 types of farm products, activities, entertainment, farm lodging, outdoor recreation, farm weddings, family events, CSA programs and festivals all available today on family farms.
Even if a farm does not have a website of their own they can still post their information on Rural Bounty. “Now, there really is no reason why agritourism operators don’t sign up for this valuable resource,” says founder, Jane Eckert.
The public are invited to visit www.ruralbounty.com and start planning their next vacation to visit a family farm or perhaps even stay on one.
