Agritourism
Kendall and Rebecca discuss agritourism with Jada Lindblom and Gail McWilliam Jellie from UNH Extension. They take a look at its community and economic impact, as well as its many safety considerations. They stress the importance of proper planning, staff training, and community relations.
Jada Lindblom – jada.lindblom@unh.edu
Gail McWilliam Jellie – gail.mcwilliam.jellie@unh.edu
Farm Mapper App - https://farmmapper.org/
NH State Law RSA508:14 - https://law.justia.com/codes/new-hampshire/2023/title-lii/chapter-508/section-508-14/
Farm Day Celebration in Sullivan County - https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/7e410e5326a3434ab9fa69b11da0654a
Equipment Safety - https://necenter.org/
NETTRA Tourism Conference - https://www.nettra.org/2025-annual-conference.html
Women in Ag Newsletter signup - https://unhoutreach.tfaforms.net/217751?CID=701G0000001AiKCIA0
Kendall Kunelius – kendall.kunelius@unh.edu
Rebecca Dube – rebecca.dube@unh.edu
Transcript
Kendall Kunelius 00:09
Welcome to this episode of Shared Soil, a podcast dedicated to creating community, honoring challenges and encouraging personal and professional growth for all people in agriculture. My name is Kendall Kunelius, and I'm a field specialist in agricultural business management.
Rebecca Dube 00:24
And I'm Rebecca Dube, and I provide technology and administrative support to UNH Extension. Hey, Kendall, what do these items have in common? Pick your own, hiking, hay rides, petting zoo, weddings, farmers markets, corn mazes, sleigh rides, maple sugaring, trails, play areas, picnicking.
Kendall Kunelius 00:52
Gosh, Rebecca, that's quite a list. I'm pretty sure those are all things that we could consider agritourism on farms in New Hampshire!
Rebecca Dube 01:00
Yes, and that's our topic today. So Kendall, tell me, what are some of your favorite fun activities to do on a farm?
Kendall Kunelius 01:06
Well, so my answer is a little complicated, because we own a farm in Connecticut, and we have a greenhouse and Garden Center. But really my favorite thing to do when I'm there, is I actually love mowing on the tractor, and I love maintaining all of our woodlands. We have a trail that goes through the woods. And I say that because that's one of our most popular agritourism-type activities. We offer hay rides in the fall, and then we also have this really interesting and unique collection of wooden cutouts. You know, like when you go to a tourist attraction, or somewhere, they'll have a cut out Smokey Bear, and you put your face in the Smokey Bear. So we have, my goodness, we must have 50 or 60 of those. And some of them are so old that people have come with multi-generations, and they'll all take pictures in the same cut out, but then they'll have a picture of them as a kid. Parents bring their kids back, because the parents came when they were kids. It's really kind of an interesting thing that we have as an agritourism event. But it's very popular. People love it. So when I say I love doing things at a farm, I love prepping people and prepping the areas for our agritourism stuff.
Rebecca Dube 02:15
Well that's fantastic. Agritourism can be such a fun thing, and that's why we want to talk about it today. I know at this time of year we start thinking about apple picking, hay rides and choosing pumpkins and all those types of fun things you could do on a farm, but there are a host of other things to do on a farm that would also be considered agritourism. So agritourism is defined in New Hampshire as "attracting visitors to a farm to attend events or activities that are accessory uses to the primary farm operation". But setting up an agritourism business on your farm can be a large economic investment, and it certainly uses the resources of the community. So today we are talking with UNH Extension Community and Economic Development state specialist Jada Lindblom, and Extension program assistant for Food and Agriculture, Gail McWilliam Jellie. So Jada, can you start us off by telling us a bit about what you do at Extension and some of the ways that you work with agritourism?
Jada Lindblom 03:20
Thanks. Rebecca. Yeah, as you mentioned, I'm an Economic Development state specialist with UNH Cooperative Extension, so I do a lot of different things with the community and economic development team and many of our partners. Sometimes that means technical assistance, working directly with business owners, but quite often more with coalitions and community or industry groups. Also we lead webinars sometimes and workshops, and also try to engage with research and other teaching opportunities. So a lot of my own interests and background relate to tourism industry development that's really locally driven. So while I'm not myself an agriculture expert the way that so many others at UNH Extension are, I have worked on some different farms in the past, and I just have a real appreciation and pride for New Hampshire farms and for our agricultural heritage here. And I think that's really what brought me to be interested in agritourism.
Kendall Kunelius 04:22
And Gail, please introduce yourself to us and talk a little bit about the challenges that might be faced by agritourism businesses.
Gail McWilliam Jellie 04:30
Sure. My name is Gail McWilliam jelly, as you heard, and I work with farmers directly, specifically in Sullivan County. And I work with farmers on a variety of different topics. So direct technical assistance, I guess, is the term on all different types of things that farms might be dealing with. I have helped farms who are considering an agritourism business to look at their options in that regard. I did also offer a training on agritourism for people who are thinking about getting into that end of things for their farm, because it does require thinking a little differently. And prior to this position, I worked with the New Hampshire State Department of Agriculture for many years, and have been involved with promoting agritourism businesses and also some of the regulatory aspects, if you will, of agritourism. Some of the challenges that folks face are thinking about what fits on the farm, because not everything fits on every location, so that has to be taken into consideration. People need to assess their own skills and what they bring to the operation, and what they would bring to a tourism operation, which is more people-facing than maybe some farms are. Some farmers are quite happy to be driving the tractor. Like Kendall likes to drive the tractor out in the field and not have to deal with the folks that might be interested in coming to the farm to buy their products or, you know, even to experience something at the farm. So it does take folks thinking about who's going to be handling the folks that are coming to experience what they're offering. And then there's a lot of other things related to staffing and safety and all of those kinds of things that really need to be part of planning an agritourism operation.
Rebecca Dube 06:14
Well, I know that there are a lot of safety issues to be aware of when you're doing agritourism - things like parking or fencing, signage, even food safety. Or what about an emergency preparation? Can you talk a little bit about some of the particular ways they would address those safety issues? Are there assigned roles and responsibilities of owners and workers that need to be created for an emergency situation when you're dealing with the public?
Gail McWilliam Jellie 06:42
Yeah, I think that that makes sense. If you're going to have an operation where you're inviting folks to be on the farm to experience something, whatever that activity might be, you do have to think about how you're going to handle folks, making sure that they're in the place on the farm that you want them to be, and not in a place that might be unsafe. For example, where animals, large animals might be around, that could cause problems if people aren't paying attention. Equipment, materials that are used on the farm, all of those things, people have to think about that. And designating somebody to manage that is certainly helpful, but not all farms have that opportunity, so that still, that has to be part of the assessment that folks are making when they're thinking about whether they want to be involved in an operation like that. So proper staffing, yes, but somebody has to overall, think about that safety part of it, and that might involve the insurance company, that might involve local safety folks like fire department, police, all that is part of the thinking and planning.
Jada Lindblom 07:48
One great tip I've heard from some farms is to invite the local fire department out to your property when it's a slow season, and just have them familiar with your property. Because a lot of farms have entrances that are off to the side that may be better access to buildings, or if you go the wrong way, you're going to end up at a dead end by a compost pile, you know, something like that. So planning ahead and really getting in touch with your your local support network, whether it's a police department or fire department, is a great step to take.
Gail McWilliam Jellie 08:20
I also think that anybody who, like the insurance company or any of the safety organizations, would probably say that good signage is really important, and it takes a lot of pressure off the staff. If you have clear signage from the parking lot to wherever you're trying to get people to go that, you know, it's friendly. It's not "don't do this, don't do that", but it's sort of directing people where you want them, and providing safety reminders and those kinds of things that I think are quite helpful for sort of managing folks on the farm.
Kendall Kunelius 08:53
And if I could just add a quick resource in here too. There is, I believe it's called Farm Mapper. (We can put a link to this app in the show notes.) But this basically is a tool that farmers can use to create a hazards map on their farm. So it indicates where there's gates, where there's roads, access points, the address, animals, chemicals, like a pesticide shed. Like you were saying, Gail, we don't want people ending up where they shouldn't be, nor do we want to be applying things where people are going to be and they should be there. So thinking about the paper aspect of the safety piece, I talk with farmers often about developing a hazards map, or a safety evacuation-type map, just indicating where those things are. And that's a great thing, Jada, you were saying with the fire department. They could have or keep this map on file so they know where those access gates are if they need to get to, like the back 40 of a farm. The other quick thing I wanted to do, too is put a little into context, you know, like we're saying people are coming to the farm. But for most agritourism events, we aren't talking ten people. We could be talking about hundreds of people coming to a farm. So one of the biggest things that I see as a challenge for farmers is to think about bathrooms, so portables, and parking capacity. That's another one. New England farms are often five to ten acres. There are certainly some larger farms, but thinking about those types of farms that have these events, it doesn't necessarily mean that they are large farms. So you're talking about a concentration of people in a potentially small area, and framing your safety efforts around that idea of, how do you keep the flow of people going in such a way that it's also efficient and safe?
Jada Lindblom 10:32
I think that's really important, especially, (And maybe I'm jumping ahead here a little bit!) but in managing your community relations and your relations with your neighbors. Because a lot of frustrations stem from things like traffic and parking. And those issues can be amplified in rural areas where you might have really muddy or icy roads certain times of year. There might be landscaping considerations on neighbors' property that become a bigger issue spring and summer than other times of year, all kinds of considerations like that. So it really is important to think through these details in advance. And a lot of sites have found good strategies of using volunteers or staff to help direct traffic. And again, signage. Signage is such a big thing and can really make such a important difference for the visitor experience as well.
Rebecca Dube 11:29
Well, I'm glad you brought that up, Jada, because that was something we wanted to talk about. And that is, relationships are such a large part of running an agritourism aspect of your business: relationships with your town and with your neighbors; knowing your zoning rules and regulations. You might have had one set of zoning rules for your farm, but in agritourism, may have different rules than what you were originally doing. So making sure you're on good terms with your town so you can get more things done. Good terms with your fire department. Jada, did you know, or Gail, some of the key members of your community that you should develop relationships with?
Jada Lindblom 12:12
That's a great question. I can kick us off, and then Gail, feel free to jump in. You know, towns and cities in New Hampshire are structured differently, but in towns you usually have a Select Board and cities, you've got your city council. Those are important people to get to know, as well as planning board and zoning board. And there might be other committees, such as economic development committees, conservation committees. All of these different players can really come together to play essential roles in developing a business or maybe expanding the operations that are happening on a farm. So it's kind of a tough question to answer, because every situation is a little bit different, and every town is a little bit different as well. But going to your town website is a good place to start getting familiar with what the different committees and positions are, and reaching out to your town administrator, your town manager, to start making some connections might be a good starting point.
Gail McWilliam Jellie 13:06
Yep, I think that's great. You can't start that outreach too soon. And even though agritourism is allowed where agriculture is allowed, that doesn't mean that what you're planning to do won't have some hoops to jump through. For example, you might need a building permit, or you might need a site plan review. Those things aren't exempt from what you're trying to do as far as agritourism, just because you have a farm. So again, starting early with your research and your outreach usually results in a positive outcome, and then hopefully you have good relations with your immediate neighbors. And if what you're doing impacts a whole road area, then it just benefits you and results in, again, a positive outcome if you can reach out to your neighbors in the immediate area that might be impacted by extra traffic, or maybe at some times of the year, a little higher noise level or whatever. But again, outreach is really key. That's really key to the success.
Jada Lindblom 14:09
And another thing, I think. I agree absolutely with all those points that Gail just made. And another thing that comes up, I think, is sometimes businesses do a lot of the groundwork when they're first starting to get involved with agritourism, but business plans change, and the vision for what the farm plans to offer in terms of visitor offerings might change a lot. And I think sometimes some friction in the community or with the town can emerge when farms are getting more interested in hosting larger events. That might be, you know, born weddings, that might be music festivals or fairs or something like that. But it's much different to have a farm stand where maybe 20 people one morning are stopping by incrementally than an event one Saturday night, where you might have hundreds and hundreds of people coming by. So continuing the conversation and keeping those lines of contact alive and well, I think, are really good, because businesses change and visions change, and that requires some constant reevaluation.
Gail McWilliam Jellie 15:18
If you are planning to move into something like a music venue, or weddings or things that will have a large crowd for a period of time. Thinking about where the venue is going to be located on your farm is important, being aware of time and perhaps limiting events to a certain time frame. Being mindful of your neighbors, and, you know, not having things go till one o'clock in the morning, kind of thing. I think it's important. And it shows your neighbors that you're trying to be mindful of them and take them into consideration while still developing your farm business.
Kendall Kunelius 15:55
That's, I think, where I was hoping to say, too, Jada, that what you were saying with the business plan really resonated with me. Agritourism isn't necessarily appropriate for every farm. Not every farm offers the right terrain or features the right things that agritourism would really enhance their operation versus deter from it. I say that thinking, Gail, about the farm visit, we did. They were planning on having groups of school kids come, but they wanted large animals on the premises, which sounds cool, right? Little kids want to see cows. They want to see pigs, sheep, great. What I think that farmers don't always think all the way through is that's still a liability. Electric fence only goes so far. But also, what happens when you have an animal that's fine one day, and you'll wake up the next morning and it's unfortunately deceased in the pasture and you have people coming, or there's people who see an animal pass? Or how are you going to approach the issue of - I have chickens, and when I have people come over (I have roosters and hens) and chickens do what chickens do, right? So how do you also think about the appropriateness of your current enterprises that your farm is based on. If you're going to be adding agritourism activities, what are people going to see? Again, totally on the signage board with you, Gail, on that. Totally on board with that. Making sure you have well signed electric fences. That's really important. There's little signs that go on the electric wires. But just making sure that it's a good fit for your business, both the numbers wise, like revenue wise, and also just your farm itself. It should be a good venue for people to be coming to. It shouldn't have to be like you have to re-landscape your entire farm to fit this one enterprise into that. It's kind of a difficult conversation when the idea of agritourism seems really, really great, and it maybe fits your values, but I just think it's important for farmers to review the actual terrain topography and your existing portfolio of enterprises for compatibility with what you want to offer.
Rebecca Dube 17:53
As well as your staff, as Gail mentioned, do you have the right staff to engage with people, interact with them? Do you also have the right staff trained in those emergency procedures? Because when an emergency happens, you want people to be able to know what they need to do right away. Your staff, you want them to already have it ingrained in them that this person is going to call for help. This person is going to tend to someone, this one's person is going to guide the rest of the public, maybe, away from the situation, so knowing both your terrain and your staffing needs as you go into that enterprise.
Jada Lindblom 18:30
I think that's one reason agritourism can be really challenging in terms of crisis planning. I mean, that's the worst case scenario to call it crisis planning, but there are so many different types of business acumen that you really need to be an agritourism operator. I mean, there's the farming side, and hopefully you're coming to it with a lot of that already in place, but there's hospitality, and there's business management. There's financial management and budgeting, and, of course, all these safety considerations that span a lot of different areas. And, yeah, it is important to have staff that are prepared for those different types of events that could happen. In addition to the physical safety things such as electrical fences and animals and risks of hay rides and that kind of things. You also have to be prepared for scenarios like, what if a Boston Globe reporter shows up on your doorstep one morning you just had some disaster in the kitchen when you were trying to bake banana bread and things? It's just not a good day. How are you going to handle that? You need to be prepared for taking a deep breath. The more you could have thought through these different scenarios in advance, probably the better off you'll be in the moment when these different situations occur, and hopefully not too many of these situations do occur. But it's sort of par for the course with business management. You're going to have some tough days, and it's good to have thought out what those different possible scenarios could be.
Gail McWilliam Jellie 19:59
It's good to have a team so that you're not having to wear all of those hats at once. If there's somebody that you know is especially good at interacting with the public, then that person could sort of manage the agritourism component, perhaps, and someone else who's better at the field work, you know. So you can divide up the tasks among a key team. But having said that, staffing in general is challenging today for everyone, not just farms, so finding people that you can count on and trust is is a challenging component right now,
Rebecca Dube 20:37
True, and speaking of that, one of the relationships that is important to develop with agritourism is with your preferred vendors, because one of the disasters that could happen is, gee, a shipment of this didn't show up, and I've got 100 people coming, and I need that for them. So Jada, again, will either of you speak about the importance of developing that relationship, or how you can go about doing that?
Jada Lindblom 21:00
Yeah, it's an interesting question, because a lot of agritourism businesses rely on selling products that are their own. You know, that's part of the appeal, is selling things direct from the farm. But especially if you start looking at events, you're going to be working with a wide range of vendors. It might be audio visual people, bartenders, caterers, porta potty providers, all of these sorts of things. And the advice I always give businesses is to let everybody do what they do best. Develop a trusted team where you're not trying to reinvent the wheel, but you're bringing your farm knowledge, your expertise about the site where you are hosting visitors, and then others can bring what they know how to do as well. And certainly, I think agritourism businesses are positioned so nicely in terms of building strong relationships with different businesses in the region. You know, if you're a site that doesn't have lodging, I think - some do have some lodging options on site, but many don't. Develop relationships with local bed and breakfasts and restaurants and hopefully other farms in the area too, because it's so important to not see each other as competitors. This has come up a lot in some of our agritourism focus groups and discussions we had, especially as part of the New Hampshire statewide food and agriculture strategic plan. There's opportunity to do more in terms of lifting each other up and really helping to build a bigger industry and network within New Hampshire's agritourism landscape. Because there's a lot of challenges that different operators are going through that are similar, that they're going through things at the same time, or maybe a couple years ago, where they could help sort of mentor other businesses. And if visitors start getting interested in these types of experiences, they'll seek them out in other places as well. Or they might create an itinerary for a day that includes multiple farm stops. So I think it's really in everyone's, to everybody's benefit to start working a little bit more collaboratively and open those lines of communication.
Gail McWilliam Jellie 23:07
Absolutely agree. I think if you have one successful event, then everybody benefits. The farm itself, obviously - that farm is typically going to have the products of other neighboring farms for sale at their whatever they have for retail. Or if they're providing food for the event and they're trying to focus on local food, all of those kinds of things are a benefit to all the other neighboring businesses. So I think it just makes sense to work together as much as you can. And you know that can carry over to somebody else hosting an event nearby, and you could benefit from whatever that other farm is doing as well.
Jada Lindblom 23:46
I heard a statistic recently that relates to this, from the 2024 national agritourism producer survey. Some of our colleagues from different land grant universities led that effort, and they found that only about a quarter of agritourism operators reported regularly communicating with other operators, and yet they also reported a lot of different challenges, like, you know, financial challenges and things, that there's definitely opportunity to learn from each other more. So I found that number pretty striking, and I think it really shows that there's opportunity there for more connectivity.
Rebecca Dube 24:27
Sure. I certainly love the idea you had with different farm stops that people can stop at, because they may offer different experiences. Whereas one popular agritourism is to have people stay on your farm, whether it's Airbnb or it's a FarmStay or something like that, but there may be another farm nearby that has a small activity that they can offer that your farm doesn't. They can stay at one farm, they can do an activity at another farm, they can go to another farm. And so you're all working together, and everybody's getting a little piece of that agritourism dollars for their farms.
Gail McWilliam Jellie 25:02
I have an example of that that I've always sort of held up in that I know a Christmas tree farm that worked with a local inn. And they offered a package where the folks came to stay at the inn, and as part of their stay, they got to go select a Christmas tree to take home with them. And that benefited, obviously, the farm, but the inn, in offering kind of a unique activity as part of the stay. So those kinds of things, I think, are that's, that's where it's at. So people should seek that kind of thing.
Rebecca Dube 25:33
Sure, building those relationships with all the people in your community. Because you never know where an opportunity may come up.
Kendall Kunelius 25:41
One thing that comes to mind that I'm really curious to ask you both about is where is the line between agritourism and farms that offer pick your own? Whether it's the Christmas trees, whether it's blueberries, strawberries, apples, is there any difference between those? And/or how is that treated and/or opportunities for those types of operators to have discussions?
Gail McWilliam Jellie 26:04
I'd say, honestly, it probably depends on the size of the farm, because I think pick your own is sort of the purest form of agritourism. Certainly one of the early forms of agritourism. But some of my colleagues would argue that that's a marketing channel, and it's probably both, really. The smaller farms that are sort of cashing in on the cache of agritourism, and they're offering strictly pick your own with a view or whatever ties into that farm, that can certainly be a pure agritourism activity. But farms that have pick your own, and they have a wholesale component, or they have a farm stand. It's just a marketing channel for them, but they're bringing people in for that experience. So it's sort of borderline, but it's probably more marketing than it is that experiential opportunity for people.
Jada Lindblom 26:58
I think there's also the visitor-facing consideration there. There's some businesses that put more priority on that pick your own experience, and a visitor might arrive and they get to interact with the farmers themselves. There might be other people working in a commercial kitchen environment. So you can pick up some other direct sale products there, and it becomes more of a full experience. But there are some pick your owns where it's you know, you show up with your own bucket, and there's the courtesy little spot to put your money when you're done. And that's really a great experience as well, but it ends up being a different thing. Especially if you're a visitor who's not as familiar with what it's like to be on a farm, and maybe you don't know that much about where food actually comes from. Some pick your own experiences, I think are much more aimed at neighbors and community members, which is so great in and of itself. But others are really trying to add that interpretive side, let people know a little bit more about the products that are available there, or maybe about the history of the site and that type of thing. And that can really make a big difference in turning what's a farm into more of a full agritourism offering.
Rebecca Dube 28:15
Sure. Okay, well, I have another topic for you. Let's talk insurance. Are there any special insurance needs for an agritourism operation?
Gail McWilliam Jellie 28:26
Well, I'm not an insurance specialist either, but I certainly encourage farms who are looking at agritourism to get in touch with their insurance company. Because there certainly might be things that they haven't even thought about that the insurance company would say, Oh, well, you know, I think safety for the visitors is probably going to be front and center, and making sure that something doesn't happen that would put the farm in a position of jeopardy, I guess, for lack of a better word, where somebody inadvertently goes somewhere they're not supposed to and they get hurt, it's going to come back to the farm. So an insurance person can come out and do an evaluation with you, help you look at things differently, perhaps, than you might to determine safety concerns. Or that signage issue, where you might put some key pieces of signage that would help in the safety aspects as well. Sort of cover all those bases to think about safety for your benefit and for the visitors benefit as well.
Jada Lindblom 29:29
I think an important part of context there too is New Hampshire state law regarding landowner liability. So RSA 508:14, basically it offers protections to landowners if they're not charging for people to use their land. So that's really important. If you have trails on your land, or something like that. If visitors can go and walk on a nature trail for free, then you're protected from a lot of potential liability issues with lawsuits. But if you start charging for hay rides and that kind of thing or pony rides, or something like that- totally different ball game. And it is interesting too, because as agritourism has really grown across the United States and really around the world, but in the United States, at least where we do have, you know, kind of an insurance culture for businesses. And there's a lot to get taken to consideration. You do see more providers offering plans that are like agritourism coverage, like called that, or agritainment coverage. And I think another tip pertaining to that is, as Gail mentions, it really depends upon what you're offering and what your site has to think about in terms of liability. So you wouldn't want to pay for more than you need, maybe, but you also want to make sure you're covered for the different types of things that might come up. And again, your business plan might change, or you might start offering more events where there are different liability concerns that an insurer would want to know about.
Kendall Kunelius 30:58
And just in the the name of safety, because I talk so much about it in all my tractor and equipment classes, common sense goes a long way. So things like, if you're going to be operating a tractor or any piece of equipment, I'm thinking like a farm truck or, you know, even a lawn mower, think about doing those things not during peak times. But if you have to - so I'm thinking at our farm we sell soil, and we have pallets of soil up in the sales area. And sometimes we run out and we have to bring another pallet up. We have to restock. So it's also things like making sure the tractors well maintained so it doesn't break down in the middle of the driveway. It's things like turning every single light on on that tractor that you can so you are as visible as possible. The person who's operating the tractor can be wearing high visisibilty wear. But this could even go for something. If you have someone who's restocking plants or somebody who's watering, are you watching your hose management? Doing as much of that as possible in the off time from when you have people on there, is really important. And I would think that an insurance person would be wanting to know what pieces of your production, the production specific stuff is happening when there are not people on your farm versus when there are guests on your farm. And that may be a really good conversation you could have with somebody like an extension agent or someone else who can give you a third party perspective of let's really talk about the production aspects that we can shift without impacting your crop or without impacting other functions of your business. That really reduces that risk and liability when you do have people on your farm.
Gail McWilliam Jellie 32:30
I think that that review is important because you may not be thinking about the best way to get the message to your guests. People do stupid things. Even though they don't think it's potentially dangerous. If you are putting things in place that protect you, with signage, with fencing, with barriers that keep you a proper distance from big animals or whatever. That, I think, goes a long way to preventing any kind of fallback on the business from somebody who's there, who doesn't follow the rules and gets hurt. So I think an insurance review, that's their specialty, they can look and tell you if you've done what you can to protect yourself.
Rebecca Dube 33:23
Okay, well, thank you so much for all this information. Is there anything else that you'd like to add to this? And then at the end of the episode, I have a question for each of you.
Jada Lindblom 33:33
One thing I have to put in a plug for is I've been part of a cross organizational group of collaborators that came out of the New Hampshire state barn committee working on a New Hampshire barn trail. And we're excited about this project. We've got about 30 different historic barn sites on the trail so far, and that includes working farms and pick your own. We've got a brewery. We've got some ice cream stops. But again, it's about this idea of getting the public, whether that's New Hampshire people or visitors from elsewhere, interested in exploring off the beaten path, getting in touch with New Hampshire's rural agricultural heritage, and paying attention to, I think, some of the agricultural assets that might be taken for granted. Often you visit a farm and you assume there's going to be a big old barn there, you know. But would you picture what that farm would look like if it didn't have the barn? It would be so different. So we're trying to bring attention to these remarkable structures and the effort that went into building them, in some cases, quite a long time ago, and share knowledge about the history and the current use and what you can do at these sites as well. So that's coming soon. More info coming soon. Check back on the Extension website in coming months for more information about that.
Rebecca Dube 34:54
Ooh, we'll look for it.
Gail McWilliam Jellie 34:58
And I'll mention as an example of farm collaboration, Sullivan County is preparing its second annual Farm Day celebration in September, where farms who are participating have an open house at their farm location for a day. And this year it's a weekend, essentially, but we have 14 farms this year that will have open house events, and you can visit the farm from 10am to 4pm and many farms will have special activities. They'll have what they offer regularly, so it's a chance to go on a tour, perhaps that they don't offer on a regular basis, or, you know, a hay ride or something like that. There's just a whole bunch of different opportunities that people can experience. And we're promoting the group all together as one activity, but it's really 14 different activities that people can enjoy on these farms. And there's a website and more information, and we're just getting ready to start to launch that promotion.
Rebecca Dube 35:54
Cool. We'll make sure to put that in the notes.
Kendall Kunelius 35:58
Yeah, one thing I did want to also add, too, thinking about accessibility. So if you are someone who is disabled, if you are somebody who has a wheelchair or motorized scooter or some sort of accessory that helps you be more accessible or be mobile, I highly recommend calling the farm ahead of time. Even if not every area is accessible, there may very well be parts of that farm that you can get to and still enjoy and experience. And many farmers, I found them more open to having those discussions, to figure out just making sure you're safe while you're there, too. But I think that that's the trick, right? Is like farms include mud and dirt and rocks and stones and grass, and it's sometimes almost impossible for farmers to make every area of their farm accessible. So just helping yourself, being a good self advocate and calling that farm ahead of time and making sure that you're going to those farms that you can access, because you want to fully enjoy those things. And also, interestingly enough, when we were booking farms for a new Farmer School, we had some farmers ask us an interesting question about service animals, because there are laws about having animals in where food crops are growing. So just doing your due diligence and knowing where those rules and regulations intersect is also really helpful. Where those service animals can go. In this particular case, there was, because it's a service animal for a disabled person, there was not a restriction, but I don't know that that's still the law now, so I highly recommend you just look at those ahead of time and get resources together, just so you help yourself understand too, as a farmer, where those laws and regulations intersect with your current operations.
Rebecca Dube 37:38
All right, well, I told you I'd have one last question for you at the end. And since we're talking about agritourism, I would say that my agritourism favorite always involves some kind of ice cream, whether it's maple creamies or a farm that's made their own, and some kind of petting zoo such as that. But I'm going to ask a you-pick question. If you were going to a you-pick farm, what would be your favorite thing to pick? As the activity of picking it, or maybe also as what you have in the end. So why don't I start with you, Gail, what would be your favorite you-pick item?
Gail McWilliam Jellie 38:15
Well, that's kind of tough. I like berry picking, for sure, but I like apple picking. I think probably that's what a lot of people think of as a traditional you-pick opportunity, is apples. So maybe because of the time of the year, I might select apples, but the berries would be a close second.
Rebecca Dube 38:35
Okay, how about you Jada?
Jada Lindblom 38:37
I agree that that's a tough question. But fun fact, one of my first ever jobs, which was probably under the table, was blueberry picking in New Hampshire. So I think I have to go back to blueberries. I feel like, with apple picking, I fill up my bag too fast. And you know, blueberries you really got to work to fill up the bucket. But also, I just love blueberries, and they're so nutritious, and there's so much you can do with them. So blueberries.
Rebecca Dube 39:04
I would say blueberry picking was a large part of my childhood, as we had blueberry bushes in our yard, and picking them many, many mornings for my father's cereal, as well as the rest of the family. Kendall, how about you?
Kendall Kunelius 39:19
Oh, well, okay, so I'm gonna give away my million dollar idea here. I would love to have, like, a gather your own eggs operation. Like, it's only open from like seven to noon, and you know, you can just - Anyways, I would love to have a you pick eggs. But if I had to pick something that existed, I love a cut your own flower operation. Okay, don't get me wrong, I love a good berry. I love a good fruit every now and then. But I really love flowers. So I would go to a cut your own flower operation and come home with arm loads of everything, put flowers all over my house. That's what I would do.
Jada Lindblom 39:57
Kendall, I would love an egg-
Rebecca Dube 39:59
Yes, I would fully support your egg idea as picking the neighbor's eggs as a child was such a key memory for me. When I moved to New Hampshire, our neighbors had chickens and goats, and I got to go over and collect some eggs. And I was just astounded, because I didn't come from a farm background. So to be able to offer that memory to other families, I think would be a fantastic idea.
Jada Lindblom 40:21
Yeah, I love the egg idea because I think it's like a, it's an egg hunt, but it's not just for Easter, you know? And it just, it's a very satisfying task, I think. And getting to hang out with chickens can be fun, too.
Kendall Kunelius 40:37
Yeah. I mean, I can't imagine the liability in that sort of deal and the biosecurity, oh, my goodness! Well, yeah. Anyways, let me, let me roll that around a little bit, maybe a side career, maybe a little offshoot.
Kendall Kunelius 40:52
Gail, I just want to ask - you mentioned a training, can we put a link to that? Is that something that's accessible for agritourism training for farmers? Where can people find that? Should they reach out to you?
Gail McWilliam Jellie 41:06
Yeah, actually, all those is on the Extension website. All the materials from - It was a four part series, and the Zooms are recorded, and all the support materials are, are there on the website.
Kendall Kunelius 41:17
Awesome, great.
Jada Lindblom 41:18
One other thing I wanted to mention is, while we've done a fair amount of work at UNH Extension in the agritourism space, like Gail put on a fantastic webinar series a couple years ago. But also a lot of our collaborators at other states extension programs are currently really deep in this work. And I'd encourage operators, farmers, you know, if you're looking for some answers to some questions or looking for guidance, check UNH for sure. But also check extension services in other states, because there's just a real wealth of resources in development right as we speak.
Kendall Kunelius 41:54
And we can also put some of those safety things in the show notes too. I have some other good equipment safety stuff that's relevant to this. So look, look in the show notes, we'll write a novel.
Rebecca Dube 42:07
Well. Thank you very much Jada and Gail for talking with us today about agritourism and all the different aspects that should be considered if you're thinking of adding this to your farm. And we'll be talking to you all again on the next episode of Shared Soil.
Kendall Kunelius 42:28
Shared Soil is a production of University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension an equal opportunity educator and employer. Views expressed on this podcast are not necessarily those of the university, its trustees or its volunteers. Inclusion or exclusion of commercial products in this podcast does not imply endorsement. The University of New Hampshire US Department of Agriculture and New Hampshire counties cooperate to provide extension programming in the Granite State. Learn more at extension.unh.edu.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai. Edited by Rebecca Dube.
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