5 Agritourism Ideas for your Flower Farm
Agritourism (sometimes referred to agro-tourism) is an offering that connects the production or processing of a working farm with tourism to serve visitors and create income for the farmer. Agritourism can be a viable way to help diversify and increase income on farms, while also educating and inspiring visitors.
The best activities are ones that are manageable for you to create and deliver, while being both engaging and memorable for participants. No matter your skill level or farm size, there’s a way for you to participate in agritourism.
Here are 5 Agritourism Ideas for your Flower Farm
Classes
Learning something new in a beautiful environment is a popular offering that can be tailored to your skill level.
Beginner farmers can offer a “cut and create” class where participants harvest a Mason-jar quantity of flowers and learn to arrange them into a market bouquet. If the weather doesn’t cooperate - or you aren’t prepared to have guests picking from your field - you can pre-harvest stems and let participants select their ingredients bouquet-bar style.
Farmer-florists with design skills can hold “garden-style flower arranging” classes that introduce guests to the basics of floral arranging. If arranging isn’t your thing, collaborate with a local florist who can offer the design demonstration while you provide the flowers.
2. Tours
Tours are a popular option for flower farms that can be combined with another offering, like classes, or held on their own. People are curious about what it takes to produce a flower bouquet and this is a perfect opportunity to educate and inspire new customers.
Pro tip: Offer longer stand-alone tours by reservation for a small fee that’s refundable with a purchase, to encourage folks to follow through with their tour reservation.
3. Pick Your Own
If you’ve been flower farming for any length of time, you’ve probably had people ask if they can come pick their own flowers. Even if you don’t offer this option on the regular, you can create special picking events a few times per season. Here at Tanglebloom we hold popular peony picking events each June.
Consider designing your picking event around a certain crop that’s popular and familiar, like peonies, sunflowers, or dahlias. This will help boost interest (and you can still let folks pick other crops or fillers too).
Pro tip: No matter how many times you explain the correct stage of harvest, most guests simply can’t resist picking fully open flowers. Consider it an opportunity to sell blooms you otherwise couldn’t - and also make sure to tuck a few stems cut at the proper stage into their bucket. They’ll thank you later.
4. Picnic
Hosting picnics on your flower farm is a great way to connect with your community that’s family friendly, affordable, and easy to manage.
You can charge a small fee for people to picnic in a designated area. A “pack it in, pack it out” model won’t leave you with lots of trash, recycling, and compost to sort through. Provide some picnic tables or tell folks to bring their own blankets or chairs. Consider providing lemonade or sparkling water as an added delight.
With a higher ticket price you could add on live music, or flower picking (or simply charge a la carte for picking and bouquets).
5. Farm Stays
Connect even deeper with tourists by providing overnight lodging, known as farm stays. These overnight accommodations can be as simple as camping, or you can offer glamping stays in a yurt, treehouse, or cabin. Accessory dwelling units like tiny houses are also becoming popular for farm stays.
Farm stay guests should be invited to connect with the farm in a special way, such as participating in chores, picking a bouquet, or even enjoying a self-guided tour. While most farms make these activities optional, we’ve found that the majority of guests are eager to spend an hour learning about their surroundings.
Plan and Prepare
No matter which activities you choose, you’ll want to be sure you’ve researched and are in compliance with any local rules or regulations, and follow best practices for things like health and safety. Check with your insurance agent to see if you need to update your coverage. Sharing your plans with your lawyer and accountant are also recommended.
Make sure you have restrooms available, whether that’s a plumbed bathroom, outhouse, or rented porta-potty. Think through logistics like parking, walking paths and distances, and tell guests what they should wear and bring in order to prepare for their activity. Also consider who the event is appropriate for including age and mobility, and whether you can make any accommodations.
Agritourism is an integral part of our farm and I’m excited to see what you come up with on your flower farm! Have you tried any of these agritourism ideas? Which do you think would work best for your farm? Share in the comments below.