11-28 IAN B&B Farm

Agri-tourism appears to be catching on, at least in Oregon.The idea for it emerged from a partnership between Melissa Fery, a small farms instructor for OSU Extension, and Scottie Jones, owner of Leaping Lamb Farmstay in Alsea.

Melissa told me that Scottie and she were working together and realized that Oregon has not had a collaborative effort to help agritourism business owners get the information they need and to bring all the partners together to address some of the barriers that face agritourism businesses." The whole point about agri-tourism is to share with people about agriculture and have them experience agriculture as a possibility that can really add to the bottom line. For example the collaborator who helped me get this summit planned is Scotty Jones of Leaping Lamb Farms. Raising lambs wasn't paying the bills. A few years ago she worked with the County to open up a farm stay. It is just people coming as much as she wants during the year which is adding diversity of income to their farm and making it more viable. Without that, she would be losing money every year. It has been a big part of her business and she gets to educate the public about farming practices and what is going on out there in the rural lands. It isn't going to save every fireman has economic issues but is one way to diverse the phi their income stream.