KNOWN AS "AGRITURISMO" in England, and “sleeping in the straw” in Switzerland, agricultural tourism is well established in Europe, New Zealand, and Australia. In this country it’s not yet a familiar concept, but it’s starting to catch on, especially in coastal California and New England. Some hard-pressed family farmers are discovering that they can supplement their income by offering overnight accommodations, farm visits, nature walks, and other activities to the public.

There’s a ready market for such activities, which can help to bridge the gap between farm and city dwellers, to the benefit of both. Many urban residents long to experience more of the countryside than they see from the highways, yet few have relatives or friends who are farmers. They also want to know more about locally grown food, particularly organic food.

The term agritourism (farm tourism on the East Coast) refers to any farm-based business offered “for the enjoyment and education of the public, to promote the products for the farm, and thereby generate additional farm income,” according to Desmond Jolly, director of the Small Farm Center, University of California, Davis. It encompasses overnight farm stays, “u-pick” operations, roadside stands, pumpkin festivals, and varied other activities, such as birdwatching hikes across farmland, with lunch on a haywagon, overlooking a flock of grazing sheep. Income is these farmers’ first objective, but not the only one. “Farmers realize that to survive, they need to educate the public,” says Constance Washburn, education director of the Marin Agricultural Land Trust.

As a University of California Cooperative Extension farm advisor, I help family farmers and ranchers find avenues to sustain themselves. In 1998, while on a sabbatical leave, I took a three-month trip to look at farm tourism operations in England, Vermont, New York, and Connecticut. I visited and interviewed 100 farm entrepeneurs, gleaning information about their business, marketing, and why and how they began agritourism ventures.

England has a countrywide farm holiday organization that offers a farmstay directory at tourist and visitor centers and on the internet. In France, hikers and bicyclists can follow a map along a network of trails from farm to farm. All European Community (EC) countries have government-supported organizations, linked in a common network, to promote agritourism, and many offer financial aid to farmers who participate. Some Eastern European countries, including Slovenia and the Baltics, are following the EC countries’ model. To encourage farmers to participate in the farmstay services, the British government offers financial incentives, which make various strict regulations easier to take.

In the United States, so far, no federal and little state support has been available, with the notable exception of Vermont, where the Department of Agricultural Foods and Markets has published maps and guides to more than 200 working farms and forests, and to markets, farm stands, dairy farms, maple syrup operations, bed and breakfasts, and farm vacations. The recently formed Vermont Agritourism Association operates statewide.

Among its members are Bob and Beth Kennett, who with their two sons grow apples and run a herd of 155 Holstein dairy cows on their Liberty Hill Farm, off a rural road in the heart of Vermont’s Green Mountains. In 1993 they opened a B&B—seven guest rooms in their 18-room, 150-year-old farmhouse. To their surprise, guests wanted to stay longer than overnight. The Kennetts now rent the rooms on a weekly basis to families, most of whom return repeatedly to experience farm life with a farm family. That includes the daily ritual of eating together—something many urban families no longer have.

“Your customer is three to four generations removed from the farm and they’ve seen the Disney cow, and Ben and Jerry’s cow, but not the real cow,” observed University of Vermont Extension Specialist Bob Townsend at a recent agritourism workshop. “They want to see the real thing, to see and talk with the farmer.”

IN CALIFORNIA THERE IS NO ORGANIZATION to promote agritourism, although I believe there is a wide-open market with great potential. I base that belief on the successes I witnessed in New England and Britain. A few farmers have begun to tap into this market, especially in coastal areas that, like Vermont, have a strong dairy industry and are within easy driving distance from major cities. Some initiatives have been begun in San Diego and Monterey Counties, and in Sacramento a bill is in the works to enable farmers statewide to participate more readily.

A clue to the untapped potential is the enormous popularity of the farm tours and hikes that the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT) has been offering every three months since 1996 for groups of 20 to 70 people, for $12–$15, with proceeds going to the land trust. These excursions fill up so quickly that “we’ve stopped advertising in the newspaper,” says Washburn. Some more “high-end” tours are being considered, perhaps daylong trips with lunch. These would cost more, with some of the proceeds going to the host farmers. MALT has also published an audio cassette, narrated by actor Peter Coyote, which allows people to take their own tours.

Some activities now designated as agritourism, such as “u-pick” fields and roadside stands, have long been part of the rural landscape. Efforts to promote them regionally have been scarce except in Sonoma County where, since 1973, Sonoma County Farm Trails, a non-profit organization of farmers and food producers, has been publishing a map and guide, updated each year, to farms that welcome visitors for shopping, picking, tours, and other activities.

Farmstay bed and breakfasts are still in their infancy, but early results are promising. In Marin County, Sharon Doughty, whose grandfather came from Portugal “when there were elk in these hills,” and her husband, Steve, opened their Point Reyes Vineyard Inn last year in a house that stood on ten acres they purchased the year before, next to their 800-acre dairy and two-acre vineyard. “We have four adult children who want to make a living on the property,” Sharon says, “so we need to diversify.” The house is just off Highway 1, half a mile from Tomales Bay. Guests find the place by seeing a bright, highly visible sign, by word of mouth, or on the internet. To get the farmwork done, the Doughtys hang out a “No Vacancy” sign most Mondays through Wednesdays.

At first, the Doughtys were reluctant to invite guests to walk near large animals on the ranch, but they concluded that “ignorance about how our food is grown is a greater threat to farmers than liability. Most guests come away with some understanding of the strict rules under which food is grown and the need to preserve farms for farming,” says Sharon.

A Niche, Not a Panacea

NOT ALL FARMERS COULD AND WOULD WANT to get into agritourism. In this type of venture, critical elements include sincere interest, a personality that is outgoing and patient, land and water resources sufficient to accommodate the chosen venture, capital for start-up and conversion costs, and an accessible location.

“You need to be willing to experiment by trial and error and be willing to make mistakes,” advises Sharon Doughty. “Our B&B is a completely different business than our dairy or our wine-tasting room and needs to be treated as such. Be sure to complete a careful economic analysis. You need a different mindset and set of skills. You need to enjoy being with and sharing your life with your guests.”

How farmers get into agritourism varies widely. Some years back, Rita Cardoza, a longtime rancher who raises a diversity of crops and animals in Sonoma County, started to grow pumpkins for families who wanted to pick their own for Halloween. “But I started getting people who didn’t come for the pumpkins. They came to touch us, to see what country life was about,” she says. “That helped me to realize we have something they don’t have. I grew up gathering eggs, picking berries.”

So she created an annual harvest festival that brings some 6,000 people to the family’s 1,700-acre ranch in the course of one autumn month. There’s a haystack for jumping up and down on, pumpkins to choose, animals to pet, and there are hayrides. Having been a teacher, as well as a child, Rita Cardoza knew what was fun. As children eat their lunches, a wandering turkey may leap up on the table and try to snatch a sandwich. That’s all right. “We have a motto: We can do anything for a month,” Rita says. “We are maxed out at a month—especially if you are a quiet person, like my husband. But that month pays the bills.”

On May 27 Sharon Doughty and Rita Cardoza shared their experiences at a workshop, “Agritourism: Harvesting the Hidden Assets of Your Farm,” at the Walker Ranch in Marshall, Marin County. Also among the speakers was Karen Bates, whose family has a self-service farm stand, a small B&B, and also offers cooking classes and produces a cornucopia of apple-related products at their 20-acre farm in the bucolic Anderson Valley, Mendocino County.

They bought the farm in 1993. It came with 1,000 apple trees bearing 30 varieties of apples. “The real estate guy wanted us to believe we could pay for the whole farm in three years. We didn’t believe this, but reality was worse than we expected. Just the conversion from conventional farming practices to organic was enough to make us reconsider what we had gotten ourselves into.” By diversifying, they have kept going. Her advice to other farmers considering agritourism: “Go slow and take it one step at a time, as it can take over. We could spend the entire day just talking with customers because that’s what they want, but the apples still need to be picked and processed at the end of the day.”

Some ventures take a farmer into bewildering bureaucratic mazes. When the public is invited to the farm, liability, public safety, and health code issues arise. George and Elaine Work enjoyed a farmstay in New Zealand and, upon returning to their beef cattle ranch in Monterey County, were inspired to develop something similar. But they soon came up against the local health department. Because their farm is in an isolated area, they had planned on serving dinner with the family. But that meant they would need to abide by regulations written for restaurants. “We couldn’t justify building a restaurant on our property just so we could have some guests,” George said. “Our primary business is our ranch.”

The work predicament became a catalyst for remedial action. The California Farm Bureau and the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF), a grassroots advocate group, crafted AB 1258, the California Agricultural Homestay bill, to exempt farmers from some requirements that better suit hotels and restaurants. The bill, introduced by Assemblywoman Virginia Strom-Martin, was signed by the Govenor on July 27.

Public issues must be worked out as well. Richard Rogers, a Sonoma County planner, told of a winery that serves as a venue for weddings every weekend, charging $2,000 to $3,000 “just to step on the grounds, not including catering, wine, and other things. It’s a half-million-dollar business for the winery,” he said. But what about traffic, noise, water use? Where is the line to be drawn? In England, at least one county requires that farmers taking in paying guests reap most of their income from farming.

While coastal farmers in Marin and Sonoma are in the forefront with farmstay ventures, other areas are taking a look at their options as well. In Mendocino, the county Economic Development Office, Cooperative Extension, and others have completed a Tourism and Economic Development plan that incorporates agritourism. CAFF is also organizing and supporting efforts in Sonoma, Monterey, El Dorado, and other counties. The Small Farm Center, based at the University of California, Davis, has a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Fund for Rural America for agritourism projects in the Monterey/Salinas and San Diego areas. In San Diego, Michael Dimock, of Sunflower Strategies Consulting, says: “There is a large population of small growers and farmers who are excited about agritourism and about the opportunity to diversify their on-farm income.”

A natural ally would be nature tourism, particularly wildlife watching, one of the fastest-growing sectors in the travel industry. Farmers who restore streamside habitat, protect wetlands, and create favorable conditions for songbirds are cultivating this market’s potential. Conservationists working to protect open space around cities are also beginning to appreciate farmers. (See “Your Farm Is My Greenbelt,” Coast & Ocean, Winter 1995.)

In England, the National Park Authority is encouraging farmers to shift from single-purpose industry that is concerned only with food production to multipurpose industry concerned with a wider range of on-farm activities. These include provision for tourism and recreation, woodland management, and conservation of landscape, wildlife, and historic features. One of the biggest differences I noted between England and the United States is the level of awareness of public officials of how important farms and farmers are to the maintenance of the beloved landscape. Pride of place generates a concern about farmers’ ability to maintain their livelihood.

Ellen Rilla is a farm advisor/director with the University of California Cooperative Extension office in Marin County. While continuing her interest in agritourism, she is also working on a study of agricultural easement programs in Marin and Sonoma Counties. She can be reached at: phone and fax: (415) 499-4209; e-mail: erilla@ucdavis.edu.