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FORT WAYNE – Steuben County farmer John Schlup handed a customer romaine lettuce that had been harvested less than 36 hours earlier.
Shoppers who lined up to buy Schlup’s early lettuce and strawberries at the Historic West Main Street Farmers Market this month were doing more than buying groceries. Visiting a farmers market is considered agricultural tourism, a growing revenue source for Indiana farmers.
Farmers markets, pick-your-own produce farms and other agritourism operations give city dwellers a chance to experience a rural setting and buy farm products. Several new agricultural attractions have opened this summer or are planned in Fort Wayne. These include farmers markets at Jefferson Pointe shopping center and on West Main Street, a farm stand planned at Park West Shopping Center and the potential reopening of a northeast-side apple cider press.
Agritourism offers farmers another way to earn money. The income Indiana farmers earned from agritourism more than tripled between 2002 and 2007, according to agricultural census data.
In 2007, Hoosier farms earned almost $2.7 million from agritourism projects and renting land to hunters and fishermen. The number of farms involved in agritourism jumped 55 percent during that five-year period.
The state Department of Agriculture last month published a directory listing more than 580 agritourism venues. That’s 45 more than last year’s inaugural directory, said Jeannie Keating, media relations manager.
“It’s a convenient way for the general public to find and experience agriculture,” she said.
City residents need not travel beyond a local mall for a taste of farm life.
Jefferson Pointe started a Wednesday farmers market near West Jefferson Boulevard and Illinois Road two weeks ago. The market’s nine vendors sell only locally produced foods, including vegetables, cheeses and Kobe beef, said Chris Ford, the shopping center’s marketing manager.
The market gives the shopping center the chance to attract more shoppers to stores, Ford said. It also fills a demand for locally grown food.
Organic produce drew Christine Milakovic to the Historic West Main Street Farmers Market that opened near her home last month. The teacher has bought rosemary, potatoes, strawberries and rhubarb.
The market, run by the Nebraska Neighborhood Association, is open Friday afternoons and evenings at 1936 W. Main St. It runs through Oct. 23.
Milakovic said she likes buying from local farmers.
“You see the same vendors every week,” she said.
Farmers want to build and capitalize on those relationships, Keating said. More consumers want to buy local foods, and farmers can earn more by meeting that demand.
Schlup, the Angola farmer, said the market setting allows consumers to learn more about the food they buy.
“They can come talk to someone who knows how the product’s grown, where it was from,” he said.
Another area farm, Lincoln Ridge Farms of Convoy, Ohio, plans to set up a farm stand at Park West Shopping Center, east of Jefferson Pointe.
The Fort Wayne Board of Zoning Appeals on Thursday approved Lincoln Ridge Farms’ open-air market, which will sell produce and flowers.
Park West hosts a Christmas tree stand each winter. The farm stand should help draw summer crowds to the shopping center, said John Martin, vice president of property management for NAI Harding Dahm, the center’s real estate broker.
Visiting an agritourism operation can be a nostalgic experience for those who remember visiting a grandparent’s farm.
Don Goeglein and his relatives are trying to revive the Maysville Road apple cider press his grandfather opened in the 1920s.
Goeglein Properties LLC, a firm related to Goeglein’s Catering, has agreed to buy the cider press across the street from the Goeglein Homestead reception hall – from the Hartman family. The cider press could become a school field-trip destination and make products for Goeglein’s Catering menus, Goeglein said.
“We’re trying to restore something that always used to be,” he said.
The press could reopen as soon as the fall of 2010, but the project could take up to five years. Goeglein’s Properties plans to update the cider press to meet Board of Health standards, establish storage space for the catering business on site and possibly open a bakery. Goeglein said he did not know how much the project will cost.
These agritourism operations benefit both farmers and consumers, said Chris Shatto, manager of the West Main market. Consumers can buy high-quality local produce at a reasonable price, he said. The arrangement also helps small farmers, who would earn less selling to wholesalers.
“We’re doing a really good job bringing the consumer in front of the farmer,” he said.
