Ag at Large: Farm getaways expand appeal

If agriculture is not California’s leading industry, tourism is, and agriculture is adding significantly to the tourism agenda each day.

Tours in agriculture-rich areas, farm visits, festivals and other special occasions in rural areas, county fairs, wine tastings, farm shows, expanded roadside farm stands, bed-and-breakfasts and farmers markets are some of the many rural attractions. All of them appeal to tourists and offer a glimpse of California farm life.

Whether participation in these events is labeled as agriculture outreach or wide-eyed tourism makes little difference. The activity gives visitors a pleasant sense and feel of farm life and farm fresh food and drink that they are sure to file away in their banks of pleasant memories.    

Not every farmer is in a position to entertain tourists, but those who are seem to get a special kick out of sharing their lifestyles with strangers. And some farmers who aren’t suited for that kind of exchange have wives who are.

They get a unique thrill out of talking to visitors, often over a delicious piece of pie they baked the night before.

It is no surprise that wine producers in the Napa Valley have the inside track on hosting tourists. To start with, the Napa Valley is an extremely attractive spot on Mother Earth. Add to that an apparent affinity for wine tasting by a large segment of the population. These two plus a proximity to the heavily populated San Francisco Bay Area make for a crowded Highway 29 and the parallel Silverado Trail on weekends up and down the fabled valley.

Even though California’s wine industry sometimes seems to forget that it is part of agriculture, visitors to wine growing areas usually don’t make that distinction. The fact that many Napa Valley winegrowers pursued careers unrelated to vineyard production before retiring or moving to a farm qualifies them in a special way to relate to urban visitors.

The natural affinity for wine tasting is serving as a foundation for wine tours, winery open houses and special events in Paso Robles and the Central Coast and the rapidly expanding winegrowing region around Lodi as well as the older, less flashy Central California wine growing districts in Fresno and Madera counties. There’s also an expansion of wine-producing activities in the south part of Tulare County near Porterville.

Since growers in the Temecula area, with the help of agricultural researchers, have banished the scourge of Pierce’s disease carried by the notorious glassy winged sharpshooter, tourism is likely to make a comeback there. Goodness knows the region is not at a loss for population.

When the majestic beauty of California’s mountains combines with agricultural production, the attraction is irresistible. In Placer County, the Apple Hill area has been attracting fall visitors for nearly 50 years. Visitor numbers increase annually and the core of apple-related products attracts other farm-based items as well as more visitors each year.

The experience has been similar in Julian, nestled in the gentle hills east of San Diego. And countywide in San Diego, agri-tourism is flourishing.        

Is it any wonder that one of the most recent expansions at Disneyland was farm-related? And they say Knott’s Berry Farm, which has become Disneyland’s cross-county rival, began as a humble roadside pie stand.

Getting out and seeing the country means getting close to agriculture. Non-farm people are amazed at the openness, the freedom, the downright enjoyment and quiet satisfaction of farm living.

Interspersed with other columns about the pertinent issues of California agriculture in the months ahead, further emphasis will be given to individual farm-tourist attractions in the Golden State. You are welcome to come along for the read.

-- Don Curlee is an agricultural consultant in the Valley. His column appears each Monday in The Recorder.