Jane Eckert Talks AgriTourism Today

Agritourism Directory Now FREE to Farm Operators!

Jane — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:12:17 +0000

RuralBounty.com, the North American directory of Agritourism Farms and Ranches, is now providing free basic listings to all agritourism farms in the U.S. and Canada. The entire registration process can be done online. For a small annual fee, Premier listings are also available.

Rural Bounty is a powerful one-source directory that will make it easy for people to locate agritourism operators no matter where they may live. This directory will make is easy for the traveling public to locate farms, ranches and wineries who are open to the public. The dynamic search provides results by state or province and can identify over 500 types of farm products, activities, entertainment, farm lodging, outdoor recreation, farm weddings, family events, CSA programs and festivals all available today on family farms.

Even if a farm does not have a website of their own they can still post their information on Rural Bounty. “Now, there really is no reason why agritourism operators don’t sign up for this valuable resource,” says founder, Jane Eckert.

The public are invited to visit www.ruralbounty.com and start planning their next vacation to visit a family farm or perhaps even stay on one.

NAFDMA in Lancaster, PA

Jane — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:54:39 +0000

Hello all,

We’re here in Lancaster PA at the NAFDMA convention, and outside there is a blizzard!

We’re learning all about how easy it is to manage and update blogs and other forms of social media.

More to come later!

Agritourism Operators are “Going Green”

Jane — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:51:01 +0000

One of the most current and talked about consumer and tourism initiatives that has all of us getting more involved is “Going Green,” or as one farm calls it, “Growing Green.” Consumers today are beginning to better understand that if we don’t begin to conserve our environment and reduce our carbon footprint, we won’t be leaving this world a better place for our grandchildren.

On a recent farm survey I asked several questions related to green-friendly practices being used on agritourism farms today. An overwhelming 47.5% of the farms are recycling their plastic bottles and soda cans from their food concessions. In addition, many farms recycle cardboard and are making intentional reduction of energy usage.

As would be expected, as stewards of the land, our farming practices include everything from organic to composting to reduced tillage as ways to improve the environment.

Farms have also joined the grocery stores in selling cloth and vinyl bags for re-use of product. In fact, one farm will even give their customers 10% off of products purchased at the farmers’ market everytime they use their bag and make a purchase. The Wittamore farm in Ontario created a very attractive vinyl bag with farm graphics and intentionally sought a Canadian provider.

I recently posted an article about this survey and you can Click Here to read the full article.