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California Agritourism News
UC ANR Agritourism News & Notes
January 2016
In This Issue
Greetings!

Happy New Year!

We hope you're enjoying some rain, some time with family and friends, and maybe some time to plan for new adventures with your farm or ranch.

If you had a chance to read our new guide for farm and wine trails and regional agricultural marketing groups, we'd love to hear if this was useful to your group.

Good news below from El Dorado County about final adoption of ordinances that allow more agritourism activities. It would be great to hear news from other counties about plans for changes, new rules, new marketing initiatives, or other county-level activities related to agritourism. We'll share what you send.

We look forward to seeing some of you at the California Small Farm Conference in Sacramento in March, or at other winter workshops or meetings.

Have a good month, and please stay in touch.
Sincerely,
 
Penny Leff, Agritourism Coordinator
UC Small Farm Program
530-752-7779
 
Please tell us - was farm & wine trail guide helpful?

In November 2015, the UC Small Farm Program announced online publication of our latest guide, "Marketing Regional Farms and Wineries: A Guide for California Agricultural Marketing Groups"

The focus of this guide is to share the experiences and advice of a representative group of leaders of farm and wine trail associations and other agricultural marketing groups with other groups of California producers with similar goals and intentions.

Now, we would love to hear from you!
Was this guide helpful to your group?
Do you have any comments?

Please take two to five minutes to let us know by answering these few questions.

Thanks very much for your time!
El Dorado County Adopts Agritourism Ordinance Update

Chris Flores, formerly with El Dorado County Dept. of Agriculture, and current Nevada County Agricultural Commissioner, shares this exciting news:

On December 15, 2015, after 8 years of discussion and planning, the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors passed the Targeted General Plan Amendments and the comprehensive Zoning Ordinance (ZOU). All of the draft Ranch Marketing and Winery Ordinance (see Article 4 of the ZOU) changes were approved, as well as the addition of 17,000 acres of expanded Agricultural Districts. The Ranch Marketing Ordinance (in Article 4 of the ZOU) now allows for ranch marketing on grazing land (i.e. guest ranches and supplemental activities).

Congratulations to all who worked hard for this in El Dorado County!
The full Zoning Ordinance Update and the final EIR are now online.

Any other county plan or ordinance changes in the works? Please tell us what is going on in your county and we'll share your news or updates or thoughts in the February newsletter.
A few pics and resources from "Agritourism Intensive" classes  
in Quincy, Modesto & Redding 

A lot of agritourism planning going on...
Shasta County:  
                                         



 

 

 















Plumas County:
























Stanislaus County:































Handouts and presentations from all three class locations are online here

Shasta County class registration for remaining 2 sessions is still open:
http://ucanr.edu/agtourshasta2015
Dates:     Wednesdays, February 10 and March 16, 2016
Times:      8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. each session (lunch provided)
Location: The Lema Ranch, 800 Shasta View Drive, Redding, CA 96003
Cost:       $50 for 3-session course ($25 for additional participants from same
               family/business)
    
 
Information about all classes:
Penny Leff, UC Small Farm Program, 530-752-7779

This material is based upon work supported by USDA/NIFA under Award Number 2012-49200-20030.
 
   

California Small Farm Conference in Sacramento
March 5 - 8, 2016 - Register now  

Guido Frosini, True Grass Farms by Janae Lloyd
The upcoming California Small Farm Conference (CSFC) in Sacramento, CA  is scheduled for March 5 - 8, 2016. Offering field courses, educational and interactive workshops, a trade show, tasting reception and multiple networking opportunities, the CSFC is the state's premier gathering for small-scale farmers, farmers' market managers, agricultural students, educators and advocates. We hope to see you there! UC Small Farm people will be leading the Direct Marketing Field Course and the Specialty Foods Short Course on Sunday March 6.

Mara & Her Basket by Fernanada Vega
Sacramento region food and beverage producers are invited to participate in the "Taste of Sacramento" Tasting Reception on Monday March 7 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The Tasting Reception is the pinnacle event of the California Small Farm Conference and highlights the beautiful bounty of the region. This is a valuable opportunity to show off your products, network, connect with new clients and farmers' market managers from around the state and support California's small farms. We invite you to be a part of this wonderful marketing and sales opportunity.
Some upcoming educational opportunities
  • Cottage Food Workshop in Modesto on February 23, 2016
    This workshop, offered by UC Cooperative Extension Stanislaus County, will go over all the laws and regulations and will involve participants in making some of the products that qualify as cottage foods. Cost: $25, includes morning refreshments and lunch. ...learn more
  • FREE Inovative Ag Marketing Workshop at the Colusa Farm Show
    Wednesday February 3, 2016 - Offered by the Colusa County Resource Conservation District, this workshop will provide unique marketing tools for farmers to increase the sales of California specialty crops. Featuring presentations by Dan and Barbara O'Connell (O'Connell Ranch/Barb's Produce), Penny Leff (UC Small Farm Program), and Anna Farrell and Kristen Staggs (Farrell Design Group) ...learn more
Is your agritourism operation or event on www.CalAgTour.org ?  
 
WHY NOT?   IT'S ALL FREE

The UC Agritourism Directory gets 3,000 website visits a month from people searching for California farms and ranches to visit. Getting your operation listed might help them find YOU.
(Don't forget to upload a picture, too.) 

farm stand  

Check out our link and the expanding agritourism promotion on the Visit California website! 


If you are a working California farmer or rancher operating an agritourism business or organizing agritourism events, we invite you to complete the directory application or the event listing form online to be included in the directory. It's all free. If you're already a member, please check your listing and use the update form to send us changes.

(add [email protected] to your email marketing list or use the event listing form. Please let us know what you've got planned so we can help you promote yourself) 

Some useful resources... 
  • Marketing Regional Farms and Wineries: A Guide for California Agricultural Marketing Groups - published online in November 2015 by the UC Small Farm Program. This guide is based on interviews with and presentations by 24 leaders of farm and wine trails, agritourism associations and regional agricultural marketing groups, intended to help other similar groups.
  • Farm Based Education Network
    A free international member network established to strengthen and support the work of educators, farmers and community leaders providing access and experiences of all kinds on productive working farms 
  • Integrating Safety into Agritourism  
    This website contains a variety of walkthroughs, based on the type of little-girl-laptop.jpg operation, to help owners identify health and safety hazards and provides resources that can be used to help fix these hazards. It's a great tool that can be used to help keep children (and everyone) safe when they visit farms and ranches.
  • North America Farm Direct Marketing Association (NAFDMA) - a membership based trade association dedicated to providing endless peer-to-peer learning opportunities, connections and resources, for farmers who are passionate about the business of agritourism and farm direct marketing.  
  • UC Small Farm Program Agritourism - research reports, factsheets, handouts and presentations from workshops, articles and current projects
  • World Wide Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOF US) - linking visitors with organic farmers for educational exchange
  • Farm Stay U.S. - A website operated by the U.S. Farm Stay Association (and Scottie Jones of Leaping Lamb Farm in Alsea, Oregon), for promoting farm and ranch stays in the United States. The site includes resource sections for farm stay operators and for farm stay visitors.
Thanks for reading to the bottom of the page. Please forward this newsletter to anyone you think may find it useful (Use the "forward this email" link just below),or share using the links at the top.

Penny Leff, Agritourism Coordinator  
UC ANR Small Farm Program 
530-752-7779, [email protected]