Fraser Valley Agritourism - British Columbia, Canada Video

Fraser Valley Agritourism - British Columbia, Canada Video

Farm Stay Features, Upcoming Conferences

In a food feature for the Memphis Flyer, Sarah Christine Bolton gave a glowing report of food and agritourism in Chattanooga, TN. Bolton says that the city is "embracing artistic endeavors, sustainable business, locally grown food, and a thriving agri-tourism industry."

Photo: Working Horse Winery

Becky Gavigan of Granville Online wrote about the Working Horse Winery Inn in a recent article. The organic, 22-acre horse-powered vineyard and farm stay is an in the heart of the Okanagan Valley, in BC, Canada.

   

Photos: Joy Henkle  

Joy Henkle of whitewaterwarehouse.wordpress.com, a blog about travel, food, river rafting, and hiking in Southern Oregon, recently featured Pennington Farms. The 90-acre berry farm has an "old school" bakery and farm store specializing in berry pie and jam, as well as a 3-bedroom farm stay rental home. The pies look amazing.

Upcoming agritourism conferences and workshops

The 2010 Illinois Specialty Crops, Agritourism, & Organic Conference will be held in Springfield, IL from January 6-8. Thanks to the Local Matters blog for this info.

Western North Carolina Cooperative Extension is holding The Business Side of Agritourism Workshop from January 27th-28th.

The fifth Tennessee Agritourism Cultivating Farm Revenue Conference will be held in Nashville on Jan. 28-30, 2010, in conjunction with the Tennessee Horticultural Expo.

According to Durham, NY's The Daily Mail, the Durham Agricultural Community Partnership announced a Farmer’s Forum tentatively scheduled for Jan. 28. The forum is meant to update farmers on the progress that the Partnership has made in exploring ways to strengthen local agriculture and markets. Agritourism is one of the Partnership's four primary research strands, which also include forestry, livestock, and maple syrup production. According to local farm stay host Sherry Hull of Hull-O Farms:

Every farm is unique and they each have something different to offer. My visitors tell me how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place. They say they don’t want to leave at the end of their vacations. We have to remind ourselves of how it looks from their perspective and appreciate and experience our lifestyle through their eyes.

The Nebraska Governor’s Agri/Eco-Tourism Workshop for 2010 will take place Feb. 3 and 4 at the Holiday Inn Convention Center in Kearney. The workshop is sponsored by the Nebraska Department of Economic Development’s Travel and Tourism Division, along with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and Nebraska Department of Agriculture.

Local officials in Augusta, VA are "buzzing" with talk about agritourism, according to an article by Chris Graham in the Augusta Free Press. From the article:

“The pressure on farmers is clearly there,” county economic-development director Dennis Burnett said. The county economic-development plan includes among its action points the development of strategies to help farmers grow and diversify their businesses ... “It contributes to the bottom line if we can make farming more economically viable. And at the same time, it preserves our rural landscape. It can be a win-win for everybody.”

VT Farm Stay - Trevin Farms, news from Canada and the UK

Stevie, the author of a blog called Garden Therapy, visited Trevin Farms Bed and Breakfast in Central Vermont, and came back with a great photos and a report called Sassy Goats, Begging Chickens, and Chevre. Trevin Farms offers a 3-day chevre-making class that, according to Stevie, produced a pound of the most delightfully light and delicate cheese.

In international news, Farm Stay UK recently held its annual conference, reported here by the Scunthorpe Telegraph. Here's a quote from Steve Ward, one of the conference speakers: "Farming is traditionally a fairly lonely livelihood and we wanted to get close to our customers. It coincided with people becoming more interested in local food."

And in BC, Canada, Metro Vancouver's board is urging the province to allow the Agricultural Land Commission to limit the size of homes built on farmland. They also want to raise the minimum requirement for farm income to limit who qualifies for the reduced agricultural land tax rates. The idea is to encourage productive uses of farmland while discouraging those who build rural "dreamhomes" on farmland, failing to preserve the farmland but still qualifying for the reduced tax rates. "It's really unfair for people to buy a farm property, place a house in the center and basically make it unviable for farming," says Surrey Coun. Linda Hepner, vice-chair of Metro's agriculture committee.