Mississippi Agritourism Association Hosts Annual Meeting
Cathy & Mike May,Lazy Acres Plantation
Last weekend I was pleased to participate in the Mississippi Agritourism Association annual meeting at Lazy Acres Plantation in Chunky, MS. Jo Lynn Mitchell of Mitchell Farms and Stanley Wise helped to organize and put together the day.
We were hosted by Cathy and Michael May of Lazy Acres Plantation, and met in their new group rental building they named Plantation Hall. It was a perfect setting for the presentation, mini-trade show and lunch for the near 80 attendees.
I’m always pleased to speak to new audiences and this meeting attracted farmers from the four neighboring states of GA, AL, AR & LA. My talk featured steps to Growing & Marketing, and Agritourism Business. Based on the feedback and questions presented to me, this audience was eager for the information and ready to go home and implement new ideas.
Agritourism is still very much a growing industry in Mississippi but the founders and board members of the organization are ready to have it thrive. We even attracted the attention of WTOK TV from Meridian, MS which came to the meeting to film a segment for the Evening News. Getting publicity for our farms happened to be a topic of discussion and the fact that the local news station came to feature a story was truly a bonus for the day.
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Eckert Family Farm Celebrates 100th Anniversary
It’s not easy for a family business to survive for seven generations but I’m proud to say that our family farm has done so – www.eckerts.com. Johann Eckert came to America with his family in 1837 to find orchard ground similar to what he had in Germany and found the perfect spot near Fayetteville, IL and he named the property Drum Hill. Since those early years the family farm has grown to mulitple orchard locations and pick your own farms in Belleville, Millstadt and Grafton, IL.
While our family started with one small farmhouse and orchard ground the business has grown into a much larger orchard operation. The start of our agritourism business began in 1910 when we opened a farm stand. Now, 100 years later we are looking to expand our retail with a brand new country store and doubling the size of our restaurant to 400 seats. In fact, our local Public Television Station KETC ”LIving St. Louis” program just produced a video on the farm now posted on You Tube.
The goal of Eckert Farms is to “create family memories” and to preserve the family traditions that customers have come to count on over the years. It is not easy today for family farms to succeed but with sound marketing ”agritourism” farms are thriving across North America and beyond.
To assist you in your search for agritourism farms just go to RuralBounty.com
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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.
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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.
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NAFDMA in Lancaster, PA
Hello all,
We’re here in Lancaster PA at the NAFDMA convention, and outside there is a blizzard!
We’re learning all about how easy it is to manage and update blogs and other forms of social media.
More to come later!
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Agritourism Operators are “Going Green”
One of the most current and talked about consumer and tourism initiatives that has all of us getting more involved is “Going Green,” or as one farm calls it, “Growing Green.” Consumers today are beginning to better understand that if we don’t begin to conserve our environment and reduce our carbon footprint, we won’t be leaving this world a better place for our grandchildren.
On a recent farm survey I asked several questions related to green-friendly practices being used on agritourism farms today. An overwhelming 47.5% of the farms are recycling their plastic bottles and soda cans from their food concessions. In addition, many farms recycle cardboard and are making intentional reduction of energy usage.
As would be expected, as stewards of the land, our farming practices include everything from organic to composting to reduced tillage as ways to improve the environment.
Farms have also joined the grocery stores in selling cloth and vinyl bags for re-use of product. In fact, one farm will even give their customers 10% off of products purchased at the farmers’ market everytime they use their bag and make a purchase. The Wittamore farm in Ontario created a very attractive vinyl bag with farm graphics and intentionally sought a Canadian provider.
I recently posted an article about this survey and you can Click Here to read the full article.
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Great Lakes Expo Exceed Planners Expectation
Over 4,000 farmers are now in Grand Rapids, MI attending the
Great Lakes Expo. The farm conference this week featured six multi track programs.
I am here today showing this blog as an example.
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Why Should Agritourism Farms Consider Blogs?
My recent fall farm survey found that 23.1% of the respondents currently are using Blogs as part of their farm marketing strategy. The farms using this technology told me that they feel that it brings people to their website more frequently, develops an exchange of information with their customer base and may possibly increase their page ranking on an “organic” search. Three very strong reasons for agritourism operators to consider blogs.
About 45% of these farmers post new information to their blog weekly and 50% of them believe it increases their business. While farmers may have limited time to be reading online blogs, it does not mean that they shouldn’t create one for their farm. I’ve heard farmers tell me how much they enjoy telling people about farming and their business.
The blog content can be as simple as “what are you doing today?” With the ease of adding photo’s to the blog farmers are showing the city folks the fields, the animals, the equipment and the barns. I certainly plan to continue to encourage more farms to consider blogging as part of their marketing plan. It sure can’t hurt and in fact as I’ve been told “it can even increase business.”
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Family Farm Co-op Sells Directly to Charlotte Restaurants
I recently came across an article in the Charlotte Observer telling about the Farmers Fresh Market that was established by the North Carolina Economic Development Center. The farm co-op is selling their products directly to chefs in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. Chefs can simply log onto the co-op website to find out what is fresh and have the produce delivered direct to their kitchens within 24 hours of harvest.
This initiative is now in the third year and both the small farmer and the chefs say it’s a WIN-WIN for everyone. The small farmer is growing and delivering a broad variety of fresh produce that would not always be available and can do so on a frequent basis. Many of these farmers are even growing crops they had never heard of until they started working with the local chefs.
The chefs are excited because they are able to source local foods and some exotic offerings regularly and plan their menus based on the co-op supply of product. Many of these are high-end products that also provide a very good return for the small farmer. The program is showing these farmers that you don’t always need large acreage to produce a reasonable income.
There is no doubt that alternative marketing channels can benefit the small farmer. The Farmers Fresh Market Co-op is doing a great job of putting local fresh fruits and vegetables in the hands of local restaurants.
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