1. December 2010 23:28
We are so pleased to be included in the December issue of Better Farming and on the cover at that! As traditional sources of revenue increasingly fail to keep up with the cost of living, a growing number of farmers are turning to agri-tourism to provide more income on their farm. Government and regulatory bodies always lag behind the free enterprise sector regardless of the industry but as numbers continue to climb we are hopeful they will see the benefits of allowing this particular farm diversification to bloom and then flower.
In our case, we know the importance of keeping the farm as a farm - it is our competitive advantage because its not an easy one for just anyone (except perhaps for another farmer) to copy. As our revenues climb, they have allowing us to increase the scale and scope of our farm operations. This year we harvested a very nice apple and pear crop - soon to become 3200 litres of cider for next year's farm guests. Our market garden yielded wonderful crops off an acre of ground and will be expanded in 2011 with more product being used on the farm, in our guests' meals and...our sheep will become permanent residents as we expand our lamb production from seasonal to year-round again.
Again though, we felt honoured to be on the cover of this most important farm magazine - for a farmer this is equivalent to the old days for a rock star who hoped to make it on the cover the Rolling Stone.