Agri-tourism offers new opportunities to California farmers

The UC Small Farm Center is helping farmers capitalize on more than the crops they grow. Quaint lifestyles, a rural getaway and a connection with history are commodities that can be offered to people who live in urban settings, long for a simpler life and have money to spend.

The Small Farm Center, a statewide program with three advisors based in the San Joaquin Valley, has been promoting agri-tourism as one way for small-scale farms to stay in business when large-scale, vertically integrated agricultural operations keep commodity prices low and competition fierce.

Many agri-tourism ventures are thriving in the San Joaquin Valley. At Melissa and Sean Bautista’s secluded Hillcrest Farm, just outside of Reedley, Calif., a scale-model steam engine pulls hand-made railroad cars around the five-acre Christmas tree plantation. The Bautista’s built a tree house, a nature trail, swing, hanging bridge and two miniature homes on a hillside to enhance the visitor’s experience.

Jack and Marcia Shafer are fifth-generation growers of tree fruit and grapes in Parlier, Calif. The couple has planted several rows of premium winegrapes – Zinfandel, Merlot, Sirah, Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon – especially for the home winemaking market. Winemaking hobbyists from Los Angeles, the Bay Area and other parts of the state can be found here on late-summer days handpicking their own winegrapes and using the Shafer crusher to make grape juice for their own signature premium wines.

“We want to be sure small, family farms continue to be a part of the California rural landscape,” said Desmond Jolly, director of the UC Small Farm Center. “We can help sustain them by creating structures, strategies and support networks for agri-tourism attractions.”

Jolly is leading a diverse group of UC staff, farmers, farm industry representatives, tour operators, educators and many others in an informal agri-tourism working group. One of its first accomplishments was the development of www.calagtour.org, an online database designed to connect tourists with genuine California farm experiences.

Nearly 400 farms throughout California are in the database. Web site visitors will find excursions to pumpkin patches, corn mazes, farm-animal petting zoos, wineries, ag heritage museums, festivals, fairs, on-farm bed and breakfasts, and dude ranches. Those interested in purchasing farm-fresh or organic produce can also us the database for locations of roadside stands, U-pick operations and farmers’ markets. Wildlife viewing, nature hikes and other environmentally based opportunities are included for people looking for the increasingly popular eco- or nature-tourism experience. All the farms are categorized and searchable by region, county and type of operation.

“Many people don’t realize they can go out and visit farms,” said Gillian Brady, the Small Farm Center program representative assigned to the agri-tourism project. “And yet, there is nostalgia about farm life in America. Family farms give people a sense of connection to something real and reassurance that some things aren’t changing.”

(April 2002)

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