INDIANAPOLIS — Generations after their ancestors gave up farming in search of better lives in the city, many Americans are rediscovering their rural roots and the countryside’s simple pleasures.
Wandering a cornfield maze, milking a cow or taking a juicy bite out of a fresh-picked apple, it’s the kind of old-fashioned fun many people crave.
Their eagerness to re-connect with the rural world — if only for an afternoon — has fueled a trend called agri-tourism, which gives urban or suburban dwellers a refreshing outdoors experience and farmers a way to supplement their income.
“It’s a little bit history, a little bit education. A lot of our folks in the city are a generation or two removed from their rural roots,” says Roy Ballard, a Purdue University agricultural extension specialist who works in southeastern Indiana.
“This gives them a chance to look back at what maybe their own parents, or even their grandparents, never experienced.”
Many states are tapping into the public’s yearning for a taste of country life as part of their rural development efforts.
By tying several attractions together in packages — such as fruit orchards, state parks, a farm tour and antique stores — they hope to induce people to hang around long enough to stop and spend at local gas stations and restaurants.
Greg Bedan, the Indiana Tourism Council’s international-marketing manager, says state officials realized just a few years ago that just as people want to tour California’s Tuscany-like vineyards, they’re also interested in Midwestern farms.
He says one popular new attraction is a northern Indiana dairy called Fair Oaks Dairy Adventure, with 15,000 acres, 16,000 milk cows and public tours.
“They take you through the whole process of how a dairy farm operates, and they have a cheese factory at the end, where you can buy cheese,” Mr. Bedan says.
Indiana is working to compile county-by-county lists of agri-destinations on the state’s official Web site, something already in place in several states, including North Carolina, which last year created an office dedicated to agri-tourism.
Officials in New York, New Jersey, Ohio, West Virginia, Florida, Maryland and other states also are working to cultivate agri-tourism destinations around their traditional crops. Even Hawaii is getting into the act, planning a railway for visitors to tour a sugar-cane plantation on Kauai.
Although autumn probably is the busiest time for many farms that invite the public to try pumpkin- and apple-picking and corn mazes, spring marks the start of the season for farmers who offer pick-your-own strawberries and peaches.
A big selling point in country excursions is that they can be family affairs that give parents and children alike a look at where food originates.
Molly Ling, a corporate librarian in New York City, visits Keepsake Orchards in New York’s Hudson Valley every couple of years with her husband, Alfred, and their three sons. They return home with sacks bulging with crisp, fragrant apples.
Although both sides of her family have farming backgrounds, Mrs. Ling says her sons — ages 13, 11 and 6 — are growing up in an apartment and are thoroughly urbanized. One of her sons even refused for years to go barefoot on grass.
Yet visiting an apple orchard with a corn maze, live music and a farm stand selling country delicacies makes for a full day even the boys can appreciate.
“The apple orchards they like because it’s fun — you’re outside, you’re in the country, and it’s really beautiful; it smells good, and they can throw apples at each other and climb trees,” Mrs. Ling says.
Over the years, her family has visited Pennsylvania’s Amish County and New Jersey’s scallop fisheries. During an upcoming trip to California, the Lings hope to squeeze in a side trip to a winery.
In a sense, agri-tourism is nothing new — farmers long ago began setting up roadside stands to sell fresh produce to city folk or invited them to pick their own crops.
That was how Joe Huber’s family got into agri-tourism long before someone coined the phrase. Back in 1966, the Hubers began planting fields of pick-your-own strawberries and green beans in southeastern Indiana’s Clark County.
In the decades since, that venture has grown into Joe Huber Family Farm and Restaurant, an attraction near the town of Starlight, about 15 miles north of Louisville, Ky. The farm’s 400-seat restaurant features fresh fried chicken and other country specialties, a farmers market, gardens and ponds.
Down the road, Mr. Huber’s cousin operates a vineyard, winery, bakery, petting zoo and cheese factory. Both farms attract visitors year-round.
Mr. Huber, 70, says his family’s business strategy is simple and homespun: “It’s our family entertaining your family. That’s our goal here.”
In northwestern Indiana, fifth-generation farmer David McAfee and his wife, Bonnie, grow about 20 varieties of apples at an orchard near Hobart.
County Line Orchard’s 5,000 trees of 20 varieties are alive with visitors from the Chicago area during October’s prime apple-picking time. The orchard also has a dining room, a corn maze, a bakery and pumpkin fields.
Last year, the McAfees made their venture year-round by moving an old barn to their farm and adding oak dance floors, bathrooms and wheelchair-accessible features. They already have hosted several corporate parties and wedding receptions.
“It was quite a move, and she’s starting to pay for herself,” says Paige Sullivan, who books events at the barn. Recently, the barn was the site for a golden wedding anniversary celebration.
Jane Eckert, a St. Louis-based consultant who helps farmers come up with ideas for marketing, says a 2001 survey by the U.S. Forest Service found that 62 million Americans visited a farm or a ranch that year. Miss Eckert, whose family operates a fruit orchard, restaurant and country store in southwestern Illinois, says it takes creativity to tap into the agri-tourism trend.
She suggests that landowners start by assessing their land for something that might interest visitors — such as a fishing hole or a river for canoeing.
Miss Eckert says farmers need to start with something small, such as a roadside stand, to gauge if there is money in it and whether they like dealing directly with the public.
Inviting the public onto private property also means getting liability insurance.
“The family really has to be ready and willing for someone else to come to their property,” she says. “What they’re essentially doing is opening their barn doors and inviting people onto their property.”
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Web sites such as www.pickyourown.org and www.farmstop.com offer help in finding farms around the country and other agricultural attractions open to the public. Another Web site, www.applejournal.com (telephone 231/599-3486), has listings for pick-your-own orchards, many of which sell other produce in the spring and summer.
State agriculture departments or state tourism offices also may be able to help find a nearby farm where the public is welcome. Some states, such as North Carolina (www.ncagr.com/NCproducts/Directory.asp?) and New Jersey (www.state.nj.us/jerseyfresh/searches) have Web pages with detailed agri-tourism listings.
Fair Oaks Dairy Adventure: 856 N. 600 East, Fair Oaks, Ind., is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Admission is free. Contact 219/394-2025 or www.fairoaksdairyadventure.com for more information.
Joe Huber Family Farm and Restaurant, 2421 Scottsville Road, Starlight, Ind. (15 miles from Louisville, Ky.), is open daily. Contact 812/923-5255 or www.joehubers.com for more information.
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