Thursday, February 26, 2015

WesMar Farms Dairy Farm Tour Recognized by National Geographic

Margueretie and Wes Constantine who own and operate WesMar Farms Diary in Moureville just received a prestigious award from National Geographic for their diary farm tour.  They represent agritourism so well in our state. Congratulations, we are proud of you.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

NAFDMA Names Agritourism Website Winner

NAFDMA (North American Farmers Direct Marketing Association) announced that Walter's Pumpkin Patch in Kansas was the winner of this years best website design voted on by peers. Take a minute and look at the website for ideas.

Monday, February 9, 2015

Partnering to Host Events

Partnering with others to host events is a win-win. Partner with someone who will bring a new audience to your enterprise. Search for that partner who will do their share of the work. Look for a partner that has good ideas and plenty of time to devote to a new project.

Once you locate a partner, make sure that each of you understand each other's responsibility to make the event a success. Split the responsibilites so that each of you does his fair share.  When responsibilities are distributed fairly, the partnership has a future.

As I write this post, there are two special occasions on the horizon: Valentine's Day and Easter.

Find a partner, and start collaborating.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Scavenger Hunting on the Farm

I love to go on scavenger hunts and why not create one as special entertainment on the farm or incorporate that as part of your farm visits. The Vermont Agritourism Collaborative has an online handbook with some very clever ideas.  Look at pages 53 and 55.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Are You Creating A Memory on Your Farm?

I recently ran into an old childhood friend and our conversation quickly turned to reminiscing
about the good old days. Growing up  I lived on a farm  and everyone loved to come for a visit. Although, I did not know the term, agritourism, at the time,  I knew that people liked to visit and ridehorses, fish, play in the hay loft and feed
our animals. No one ever left our farm empty handed either. We had year-round gardens and we allowed people to experience the now popular "farm to table" movement.

Those memories are what stood out in my friend's mind, not the clothes we wore or the overnight stays, but the fun of riding in our  rodeo wagon and galloping up the hill to the barn on our pair of palimino horses.
Memories are what sell farm tours, think about what memories you can share with your customers.