Farm Stay U.S. Launch

I'm excited to announce the launch of a beautiful new website called Farm Stay U.S. It's the brainchild of farm stay owner Scottie Jones of Leaping Lamb Farm Stay in Alsea, Oregon. The site is funded in part by a USDA SARE grant.

Scottie has loads of farm stays already on the map, but she's looking for more. If you know of any she should add, let her know.

Scottie and I will be collaborating in a few ways. I'll be guest blogging for her site, and we're co-presenting at the TIES Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism Conference in Portland, OR from September 8-10, 2010. Very exciting!

Farmstays in Europe - Agriturismo and farmhouses

Farmstays in Europe - Agriturismo and farmhouses is an article by Anouk van den Eijnde of the Green Traveler UK blog highlighting the author's top five farm stay picks in Europe. How about a renewable energy-powered cattle and sheep farm in England, or an organic wheat, fruit, and vegetable farm on the Italian coast? They sound incredible.
 
The rustic Agriturismo La Cerra on the island of Sardinia. Photo credit: www.greentraveller.co.uk

Pennsylvania Horseback Riding Vacation | Writing Horseback

Two horseback riding farm vacations in PA: Pennsylvania Horseback Riding Vacation | Writing Horseback

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.

New York State farm stays: Brookton Hollow Farm

Central New York’s Finger Lakes region, named for a handful of long, skinny lakes carved out by glaciers, has become famous for its wineries, and has a rich local foods culture that is beautifully displayed in places like the Ithaca Farmers Market.

Only a few miles from Ithaca, Brookton Hollow Farm and its dry bean and grain label, Cayuga Pure Organics, have become vital suppliers of New York’s burgeoning locavore population. Not only are the farm’s beans organic, they are also far fresher, more tender, faster cooking, and tastier than most dry beans. Brookton Hollow Farm’s owners, Erick and Debby Smith, host an organic, vegetarian, 3-bedroom bed and breakfast in their lovely farm home. Guests are welcome to explore the farm’s 135 acres, walk through the meadows and along Six-Mile Creek, go birding and wildlife watching, or simply relax in a hammock or on the porch. The B&B features solid wood construction and simple décor, and is heated entirely with wood. Erick and Debby built the house in 1984 with a focus on energy efficiency – the walls are 9 inches thick, and the house is fitted with solar water heating and electric systems.

           

Erick grew up on a dairy farm in Michigan. He was so excited to plow the fields that he used to run home from school to get on the tractor. He didn't return to farming, however, until he reached his 50s, after a career teaching mathematics. Even today, Erick finds cultivating fields crops deeply satisfying: he loves the process of taking a field unsuitable for growing crops, then turning over the ground, planting, and watching the seeds come up. Debby, a photographer, has restored and reopened the historic Brooktondale General Store. In addition to providing the village with healthy groceries, the general store now acts as a vital community center. Business for the dry beans and flour has been steadily improving, with Cayuga Pure Organics selling to the local co-op grocer and Mexican restaurant, as well as farmers markets and co-ops in New York City. Still, it's hard to compete with imported organic beans from China. By cutting out the middleman, Cayuga Pure Organics has gained more control over its prices. Some larger, conventional dry bean farmers have even admitted to envying the company’s strategy of selling directly to the consumer. Erick and Debby also rent an adjacent field to an organic farmer who raises vegetables using draft horses under the name The Gardens of Earthly Mirth. After buying the farm in 1976, Erick and Debby had a u-pick strawberry operation for a few years. Finding themselves with excess space when their children left the house, the couple decided to open a B&B. They hoped to continue meeting wonderful people like those who came to the farm to pick strawberries.

If you go:
Erick and Debby offer a 3-bedroom Bed and Breakfast, weekends only, in a modern green-built farmhouse on their 135-acre dry bean and grain farm. No children under 8 except by arrangement. Rates for two are $95-125.


http://www.bhfarm.com/
18 Banks Rd
Brooktondale, New York 14817
(607) 273-5725

This week's news roundup

Journalist and yoga teacher Ann Marie Swan wrote a lovely article for the Salida Citizen (an intriguing volunteer-run community news site) about Colorado wine and agritourism, accompanied by nice photos of grape stomping and such.

Also, here's a short piece about Missouri wineries and agritourism.

And here's an article about culinary and agri-tourism in Tennessee, from Jacque Hillman of the Jackson Sun.

Alternative energy farm stays

Cross Island Farms, an organic, 102-acre veggie and meat farm in Northern New York, added five primitive campsites this fall.  They're also planning to install a wind turbine, according to an article by writer Nancy Madsen for the Watertown Daily Times. 

Other Northeastern U.S. farm stays featuring alternative energy include:

Apple Pond Farm and Renewable Energy Education Center, in the Catskills of upstate New York, offers a guest house rental, and has rooftop solar panels in addition to a wind turbine.  The farm is organic and horse-powered, raising sheep, goats, and veggies.

Pompanuck Farm Institute, also in upstate New York and 3.5 hours from both New York City and Montreal, is a non-profit that hosts courses, concerts, and events related to the arts, gardening, and sustainability.  The institute is located on 78 acres of fields, forests and streams, and offers personal retreats in private or shared guest houses, or primitive camping.  Some buildings are powered with solar panels.

On Warren Pond Farm, in Central New York's Finger Lakes region, is a self-sufficient, off-the-grid farm with has a water wheel, windmills, and solar panels.  The farm offers tent sites and cabin rentals on 37 acres.  The Warren family raises "morganic" heritage meats like bison, elk, and deer, in addition to grains and vegetables.

D Acres of New Hampshire Organic Farm and Educational Homestead offers primitive camping as well as private or shared hostel accommodations in a beautiful modern farm house in Central New Hampshire.  The farm is located on 180 primarily-forested acres, and has 3 acres of fruit and vegetable gardens, as well as chickens, pigs, and oxen.  The farm has a freestanding solar array that rotates to follow the sun, as well as solar hot water and a solar-powered irrigation system.  (Disclaimer: I worked as the Garden Manager at D Acres in 2005)

Leaping Lamb Farm #2

Portland Family Adventures, an online family travel guide for spots around Portland, OR, also featured the lovely-looking Leaping Lamb Farm Stay, complete with a couple of videos. For more information about Leaping Lamb Farm, see my previous post.

Oregon Farm Stay: Leaping Lamb Farm, and Tuscany Agriturismo

A nice article called "Living the country life," from the Corvallis, OR paper the Gazette Times and reporter Kyle Odegard, features the Leaping Lamb Farm Stay in Alsea.

Photo caption: Sherri Woolworth and her daughter, Jordan, watch the sheep eat after giving them some hay at Leaping Lamb Farm on Thursday morning. The Woolworths are from Tacoma and are staying at the farm stay to get away from a busy city life and give their children an opportunity to see first hand about the animals they are learning about in school. (Casey Campbell | Gazette-Times)

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A blog called Experience Tuscany had a bit on agriturismo in Tuscany today. In Italy, agritourism doesn't have the broad definition that it does here. It simply refers to farm stays. And according to this post, Tuscany has 3500 of them! Holy moly! Agritourism in Italy is sure well developed, in part thanks to subsidies from the Italian government and the European Union. These governments see agritourism as desirable for a few reasons: maintaining rural traditions and livelihoods, keeping agricultural landscapes productive and viable, and dispersing tourism away from congested cities, to name a few. The agritourism grants particularly provide capital for farmers who want to invest in new infrastructure or restore old buildings into guesthouses. Though the grants have been subject to some abuses (i.e. people who use the money to restore a building, but never really open their doors to guests), the government seems to have gotten better at regulating this. In many cases, the rules are quite strict. State governments, for example, determine the percentage of food the must come straight from the farm, as well as the percentage of food that must come from the immediate area. These numbers vary from state to state, but the amount of local food that agriturismi must serve usually approaches 100 percent.

By the way, Italy is where I first fell in love with farm stays. I was studying in Rome for a semester, and decided to do a project on the country's agriturismi. Staying on Italian farms is a wonderful experience. They often serve dinner and breakfast both, around a long table that holds all of the farm guests. The food is the very best you'll have anywhere, and because the food comes straight from the farm and the surrounding area, your hosts often tell you about the nuances of the regional cuisine, along with its history. It's a lot of fun to interact with the other guests and the friendly farm owners too. It's a dolce vita.

My favorite agriturismo (out of three I visited with my family) was called Giandriale. Giandriale is high up in the Ligurian mountains, with cool, sweet air and old stone buildings. The farm produces organic (in Italy they call it biological) vegetables, herbs, and honey on its sloping fields, and there is plenty of hiking and biking in the mountains and forests around the farm. Regional specialties include delicious cakes prepared with corn or chestnut flour, and chestnut gnocchi.

Feather Downs Farm Stays

Feather Downs, a Europe-based upscale farm stay chain that sets up participating farms with fancy platform tents and other amenities in exchange for a large portion of farm stay revenue, is getting quite of bit of press lately. First, the New York Times article, "$300 a Night, but Haying's Free," about a Feather Downs farm stay in New York, which you can read here on the Backyard Farming blog. Then, a piece from the Conde Nast Traveler Daily Traveler blog about how lovely and restful the Feather Downs farm stay accommodations are, particularly in this stressful economy. Particularly worth mentioning is this quote: "There are a number of different farms to chose from in rural spots like the Catskills and Illinois, and the company plans to have 20 to choose from in the next year." Sounds like the chain is growing fast. It's great that farm stays are getting press, but too bad that the journalists don't mention that there are plenty of more affordable farm stay options.