Tennessee Agritourism Association- Northeast Rolling Workshop Collaborations

In late July a group coordinated by the Tennessee Agritourism Association visited twelve farms in the Northeast by bus, hence calling it a “Rolling Workshop".  Extension Educator, Christi Powell, worked with Tennessee Agritourism Association and Tennessee Department of Agriculture representatives to scout and select various farms from Southeastern Pennsylvania (which is where most of the tour took place) during the Spring of 2021.  From the research, the Northeast Rolling Workshop bus tour was formally put together and was promoted to agritourism operations in Tennessee, as well as some surrounding states, including Mississippi and Virginia.

The Rolling Workshop was designed to help show agritourism operations, through the Tennessee Agritourism Association, some of what the Northeast has to offer in terms of various agritourism factors featuring:  agricultural education, Christmas trees, farm markets, farmers supporting farmers, festivals, growers’ cooperatives, operational efficiency, product development, product displays, pick your own (PYO), virtual field trips, and wedding venues.  Farm owners and operators from each agritourism operation featured during the tour spoke with the attendees on successes, failures, history, recommendations, navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, the upcoming Pennsylvania Agritourism Activity Protection Act 27 of 2021, and more.  On days 3 and 4 of the workshop tours Extension Educators Becky Clawson, Miranda Harple, Brian Moyer, and Christi Powell were able to join the attendees from the Northeast Rolling Workshop at Maple Lawn Farms (New Park, PA), Cherry Crest Adventure (Ronks, PA), The Country Barn (Lancaster, PA), Flinchbaugh’s Orchard & Farm Market (Hellam, PA), Unangst Tree Farm (Bath, PA), Klein Farms Dairy & Creamery (Easton, PA), and Grim’s Orchard & Farm (Breinigsville, PA).  Extension was able to network with the attendees throughout the stops and was able to observe similarities and differences between what agritourism operations in the Northeast have to offer and what attendees from the South wanted to learn and potentially adopt for their own operations after completing the tours.  Brian Moyer and Christi Powell also gave a brief presentation during a part of the tour to attendees on what all Penn State Extension offers, specifically from their program areas (including agritourism and farm markets) within the Energy, Business & Community Vitality Team.

Overall, the 2021 Northeast Rolling Workshop through the Tennessee Agritourism Association seemed to have gone well and did a great job of showing excellent agritourism representation throughout the Northeast, particularly in Southeastern Pennsylvania.  Our participating farms and agritourism operations partners should feel proud to have been featured on this tour.  Penn State Extension is also grateful for the connections through the Tennessee Agritourism Association, Tennessee Department of Agriculture, and the University of Tennessee (UT) and Tennessee State University (TSU) Extension Services and will hopefully connect in the future for other related projects.

The 2021 Northeast Rolling Workshop was partially funded by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Tennessee Department of Agriculture through the Specialty Crop Block Grant.

Reference:  Tennessee Agritourism Association