Kate Lewton is a reporter with Community News Service, part of the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.
ROCHESTER — Liberty Hill Farm is straight out of a movie set: stately dairy cows, grandkids playing in the grass, barn cats napping on the porch. Beth and Bob Kennett bought the picturesque farmhouse in 1979 and five years later began hosting visitors for overnight stays. Added income for the Kennetts, a taste of a classic Vermont scene for their guests.
Today, the practice has a name: agritourism.
Beth Kennett still remembers the first family the farm hosted in 1984 that encouraged them to take on the second stream of income.
“We started in February with a family from New Jersey with five kids here for a whole week to ski at the Middlebury College Snow Bowl,” Kennett said. “They said if I could take care of them and their five kids, I could take care of anybody. And they still come back — they brought their grandkids.”
In order to combat changing markets, Vermont farmers are implementing agritourism experiences such as farm stays, tours and more to diversify their incomes, with the help of growing support systems from the University of Vermont’s Extension Office and the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets.
Diversification like farm stays are important because farmland consolidation has made it harder for smaller farms to compete with their larger industrial counterparts. There are more than a million acres of farmland in Vermont, but 313 dairy farms were lost since the 2017 census. Farms counted by the census must produce at least $1,000 in annual agriculture sales. More than 50% of Vermont farms sell less than $10,000 each year, while roughly a fifth sell over $100,00 dollars. Often other forms of income are needed for livable earnings.
Selina Rooney, a former dairy farmer, helps run her family’s sugaring business, Rooney Farm, in Morrisville. She works for the state agricultural agency to help implement agritourism, and said that while no one is getting rich from agritourism, it’s a necessary and creative way to make an additional on-farm profit.
“We’re in an industry where we’re price takers instead of price makers. We’re told how much we’re gonna get for our milk, or our timber, or our maple,” Rooney said. “Being a price taker, you have to figure out other sources of income.”
The term agritourism might feel new to the public, but opening up farms to the public is an old practice that has existed for hundreds of years, according to Dr. Lisa Chase of UVM Extension, who said said the concept term originated in Italy.
“They were seeing rural migration to the cities, but they had landscapes and farm buildings that were thousands of years old and falling into disrepair,” Chase said of Italians. “So they came up with incentives.”
In 1985 Italy passed the Agritourism Law, which provided grants and incentives to farmers coming back to the countryside and opening their farm for visitors and education. The name has slowly gained traction since and Chase helped to delegate its spelling, with an “i” and not an “o”, in Vermont.
In Vermont, farm tours or experiences that allow the public to interact with livestock and agricultural processes can help visitors better understand where their food comes from.
Big Picture Farm, a goat farm located in Townshend owned by Louisa Conrad and Lucas Farrell, is well-known for their goat caramels. Beyond producing sweet confections, they have started Goat Hangouts, which, yes, includes getting snuggles and giving pets.
“It’s really beautiful because I think a lot of people don’t get that ability to just touch a farm animal and really be with them as opposed to just sort of looking at them from the other side of the fence,” Conrad said.
It is not only animals that visitors can see firsthand, but agricultural processes like sugaring for maple syrup. At Rooney Farm, the sugarhouse is open for visitors throughout the season to stop by and see where maple products come from for themselves.
“One of the best things about agritourism is the education piece, because farmers are so passionate about what they do,” Rooney said. “I could talk to somebody about maple syrup for like two days straight. And I wouldn’t get tired of it because I’m so passionate about it.”
The Rooneys also offer overnights at Sunrise Hut, a quaint cabin located on their property available from April to October. Equipped with mountain views, a nearby swimming hole and recreation path, the cabin is perfect for the traveler that might want to experience a farm with some primitive privacy, explained Rooney.
Another form of a farm stay that the Kennetts offer at Liberty Hill is more immersive. Visitors stay in the farmhouse with the family, eat their home cooked meal, and obtain a brief glimpse into the intimacy of Kennett life on their farm.
Beth Kennett believes that these experiences are transformative for families, especially those new to nature. Kennett still remembers a decade ago when three boys of different ages staying at the farm became friends.
They were all from urban areas and after dinner, had seemed to disappear. Being an attentive grandmother herself, Kennett went outside to investigate.
“We brought in hay that day, and it was sitting in the yard because nobody had time to get it unloaded on the elevator into the barn. They were lying on top of the hay bales staring up at the sky, watching for shooting stars,” Kennett said. The night sky, free of light pollution, was clear for miles, Kennett said.
“The dad called me up 10 years later just to make sure we were still taking guests because he said, you have no idea how magical that was,” Kennett said. “They’re like 17 and 27 [now] and they’re still talking about that night lying on the hay bales, looking at the sky.”
