![]() They said the key to their success has been finding their agritourism niche. “You have to buy so much infrastructure to do your own wedding, so we thought we might as well keep doing it,” she said.īut they limit the wedding season to the early summer months, so it doesn’t conflict with the 1,500 or so people who come to the farm on a fall Saturday for apples, apple pie and a beer or cider in their beer garden.Įcker and her sister, Sara, who run the farm together, have, like McAlexander, been adding more revenue streams to their 40-acre farm since they inherited it 13 years ago. Co-owner Jess Ecker said she was inspired to explore that new business after hosting her own wedding on the farm in 2015. Halfway across the country, Ecker’s Apple Farm in southwest Wisconsin has also supplemented farm income by hosting weddings. “People get connected to our farm and then they come back every year to pick fruit.” “It’s been a learning curve, but it’s also been really special,” she said. View Orchards offers a fabulous view of Mount Hood.Ī fellow farmer who also hosts weddings to supplement income walked her through the process. In her mission to expand the farm’s revenue, the first move McAlexander explored was event hosting, as the aptly named Mt. View Orchards, McAlexander said, be it for fresh pears or beer and pizza. Social media is vital to bringing customers to Mt. ![]() “If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s shedding even more positive light on these operations,” Comerford said, adding that she’s optimistic those trends will continue. Younger growers especially seem to recognize the opportunity in people’s desire to enjoy a farm experience. ![]() “Folks are looking for different ways to keep family farms afloat,” Comerford said. It’s a nebulous term, but Comerford defines agritourism as anything that brings people to the farm and helps to sell whatever the farm is producing, from traditional U-picks and hayrides to a new generation of on-farm cideries and breweries. “When I looked at the books, it was like, ‘We are going to lose our way of life here if we don’t get scrappy and come up with other ways of funding the farm.’”Īdding agritourism ventures has always been a way to boost farm revenue, said Audrey Comerford, the agritourism specialist with Oregon State University Extension. “It was a pretty sobering moment, buying the farm in 2015,” McAlexander said. The new businesses support each other and make it economically viable for the family to continue to farm the 50 acres that her family has called home for more than 60 years. View Orchards, Grateful Vineyard and Mountain View Brewing. ![]() Sure, visitors still buy fruit, but they also drink it and eat it atop the farm’s popular pear pizza, said McAlexander, who now owns Mt. Agritourist attractions adapt for pandemic crowds ![]()
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