Brooke Smith, sales manager at the Courtyard by Marriott and Residence Inn in Chico, promises that Explore Butte County, the non-profit organization funded by the TBID, will help with things such as promoting agricultural tourism, Lake Oroville and local cities. Smith explained that Explore Butte County intends to establish a grant program that will assist local partners, including agritourism operations, in their promotions. Board members of Explore Butte County are primarily hotel and motel operators, but the board also includes Nicole Johansson, a marketing professional and organizer of the popular Sierra Oro Farm Trail.

In the TBID process, local lodging operators agree to assess themselves and ask the local government to collect the money and pass the funds onto a designated tourism promotion organization, often times the Visitors and Convention Bureau or a non-profit organization such as Explore Butte County. Many county and cities in California have established TBIDs, including Napa Valley, Sacramento County, Placer County, Monterey County, San Diego, Long Beach and Oceanside. By the end of 2014, there were 85 California TBIDs. Many of these communities, including Butte County, were assisted by Civitas, a consulting firm specializing in TBID formation.

The next step for Explore Butte County is to hire a marketing firm to work with the board on the tourism marketing strategic plan and implementation program. The marketing RFP has just been released, and proposals are due by June 30 from any interested parties. Local Butte County marketing firms are specifically invited to submit proposals. Please send any questions pertaining to the RFP via email to xplorebutte@gmail.com 

Some call them "Culinary Tourism." Others call them "Farm to Fork." Whatever they're called, dinners on a farm or ranch are increasingly popular with farm fans, and can be profitable for the farmers who host them. We talked with farmers from Full Belly Farm in Capay Valley, Bloomingcamp Ranch in the San Joaquin Valley, and Mother Lode Harvest in the Sierra Nevada foothills to learn a little about their on-farm dinners. Here are their stories and tips for other farmers considering farm dinners:

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  Photo credit: Ashley Muir Bruhn, Hither and Thither
  Full Belly Farm in the Capay Valley, western Yolo County, is now in the second year of offering monthly farm dinners to the public from March through October. Second generation farm partners, Jenna and Amon Muller, prepare the meals for their 30 guests each month in the fully permitted kitchen at their new event facility on the 400 acre farm. No additional permits are required, as Yolo County allows farmers to organize up to eight small events of this type each year. No alcohol is served to guests at the Full Belly Farm dinners.
  
  The popular dinners always sell out, often many months ahead of time, with marketing limited to the CSA newsletter, the website and occasional social media. The pricing is two-tiered: CSA members pay $70 per person, and the general public pays $80 per person. Because Jenna and Amon have small children, they are careful to make their dinners family-friendly. Children seven to thirteen years old pay half price, and children younger than seven are free. All registration is done by phone, and the personal attention helps groups who want to eat together be able to register for the same dinner. Here is a blog post from a recent Full Belly Farm dinner guest
  
  Some tips from Full Belly Farm:
  • It's nice to have a facility that is weatherproof, and to be able to set up the tables inside when weather is stormy.
  • Try to arrange for plenty of shade in hot weather.
  • A tour wagon helps when it's time to take people on a farm tour.
  • Summer dinners start later due to the heat.
  • You may need accessible restroom facilities.
  • Set out a few extra seats, so that guests can sit with who they want to, rather than assigning seating
  • Don't be afraid to experiment with seasonality - using new potatoes and other fresh young crops.
  • Request information about food allergies and special diets so that you can do your best to accommodate guests with menu substitutions.
  • One challenge is that sometimes people don't want to drive home after dinner. It would be great to have more lodging options nearby to be able to refer them to.

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  Bloomingcamp Ranch in Oakdale, Stanislaus County, is also in their second year of offering regular farm dinners to the public. Last year farm owners Courtney and Matthew Smith put on four dinners; this year they're planning six, starting in May. In Stanislaus County, farmers are allowed to put on up to six events each year, but they are required to register the dates and number of people expected with the county sheriff, and to pay a fee, according to Courtney.
  
  Although Bloomingcamp Ranch has a licensed bakery kitchen on site, the Smiths prefer to contract with a different local chef for each dinner, selecting chefs from within 30 miles of their Oakdale farm. The farmers give the chefs a list of what will be available on their farm and from other local sources. The chefs prepare a menu and a food order from this list, and Bloomingcamp delivers the order to them at no charge a day before the dinner. The chefs prepare the dinners in their own licensed production kitchens and bring the food already prepared to the farm. The farm dinner menus are unique and creative, not options from the chefs' regular restaurant menus.  The Smiths generally provide all the ingredients and pay the chefs a per person fee for their time, sometimes trading part of the fee in Bloomingcamp Ranch pies or other baked goods for the chefs to serve in their restaurants.
  
  Courtney also teams up with a local winery or brewery for each dinner. The winery or brewery uses their own tasting permit and pairs wine or beer to pour with each course of the dinner.
  
  To prepare for hosting these 40-guest dinners, Matthew and Courtney built their own tables. They rent chairs, linens, glasses and dishes for each event, and provide a crew of three or four servers as wait staff. Each dinner is scheduled for a Friday night during the summer months when outdoor seating by the pond is pleasant. The dinners start at 5:30 p.m. with hors d'oeuvres, and are finished by 8:30 p.m. As the Smiths do not have outdoor lighting, they try to complete the dinner service before it gets dark.
  
  Marketing is primarily word of mouth, with promotions on Facebook, the farm website and in the local paper. The participating chefs, vintners and brewers also market the events, and Bloomingcamp Ranch promotes their restaurants, catering services and tasting rooms. Guests pay $75 per person or $125 per couple. Reservations are taken by phone or online. The dinners usually sell out and have a wait list, with people attending from as far away as the Bay Area. Courtney says that some local dinner guests use the dinners as an occasion to convince their Bay Area friends to visit the valley. 
  
  Some tips and thoughts from Courtney Smith,Bloomingcamp Ranch:
  • Allow plenty of time for coordinating all the people and tasks needed for each dinner. It can take at least a couple of months to coordinate one of these events. When we get going, and have a dinner each month, sometimes I am barely able to get caught up. For this year, I have already scheduled the first four dinners, due to start in May.
  • Since the dinner site is by the walnut orchard but not close to the vegetable production area, we are not able to include a farm tour with the dinners. We are thinking about creating a video or picture display to illustrate the growing of the food people are eating, or perhaps creating an educational garden close by.

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  MotherLode Harvest, a multi-farm CSA association near Jackson in Amador County licensed as a non-profit 501(c)5 organization, is planning its first public  farm dinner in June this year as a fundraising event for the association. Emily Beals, president of MotherLode Harvest, shared this report.
  
  The group's goal is to raise $1200 with this dinner to pay for an upgrade to their website. They are aiming for 60 guests, and hoping that many of the farmer-members of the association will be able to attend. In order to keep the event affordable for the farmers, the dinner will be priced at $35 for MotherLode Harvest members (including CSA subscribers) and $40 for non-members. Emily expects that most of the guests will be directly connected with MotherLode Harvest, and that most will come from within 50 miles of Jackson. Other fundraising activities at the dinner will include a silent auction and raffle. The dinner will be held at the farm of one of the association members who has a beautiful view of the Shenandoah Valley. Guests will be entertained with singing and dancing and talks about the solstice.
  
  Rather than paying a caterer to prepare the dinner, the group will cook it themselves in a rented commercial kitchen. The food will be at least 80 percent sourced locally, with much of the menu grown specifically for the dinner by association members. Some members will donate locally produced food, and others will be paid the wholesale price for their products. Local wineries will contribute wine for the dinner. Future Farmers of America (FFA) students will help serve the dinner.
  
  For this event, the association needed to obtain insurance and an alcohol permit to allow them to serve beer and wine. They will be renting tables and chairs, using compostable plates, and borrowing glassware and silverware. A local farmer is growing sunflowers for table decorations. In order to make sure they are ready, the group will be doing a complete rehearsal walk-through of the dinner a month before their event. Marketing activities include a flier that will be mailed to everyone on the mailing list and announcements in the regular newsletter.
  
  Since this is the first dinner planned by the group, Emily promises to let us know any lessons learned after the event. She offers this advice:
  • Everything needs to be planned well ahead of time.MotherLode Harvest started planning four months ahead of the dinner in order to tackle these needs:
    • getting people on board to help
    • getting the menu set
    • making sure that local growers are growing the needed ingredients
    • getting volunteers assigned to jobs
    • renting needed things, including the porta-potty

I just checked the weather. Only a few clouds in the forecast, some sunshine and temperatures in the low 70s this weekend, sunshine again next weekend. It looks just perfect for a family trip out to a farm or two to enjoy a picnic on the green grass under the blossoms. Here's a few suggestions for getting out there:

Blossoms, Bees & Barnyard Babies by
Sonoma County Farm Trails Sunday April 18, 2010
A one-day event offering the public "a behind-the-scenes peek at Sonoma County's finest food and agriculture" For $25 per vehicle or $10 per person, visitors can walk through orchards and fields in bloom, see newly-born animals, sample local honeys and learn the art of beekeeping, and a whole lot more. Reserve Your All-Farm-Pass today, available until sold out. On-line at the site above or 707-837-8896

Mariposa Agri-Nature Trail presents A Weekend in the Country - April 24 & 25, 2010 - Saturday 10:00 am - 5:00 pm ** Sunday 10:00 am - 4:00 pm ** (866) 425-3366

A full schedule of events is planned, with farmers, vintners and ranchers at 11 different beautiful foothill locations opening their gates to the public, offering tours, demonstrations, tastes and even catch-&-release fishing for the kids. Tickets are $10 per person or $25 per family, purchased in advance at the Mariposa Visitors Center, participating wineries or at the first location you visit on the day of the event. Check out the schedule of events and a very sweet video at their website

Apple Blossom Festival - April 17 and 18, 2010 presented by the Apple Hill Growers Association, El Dorado County

Experience the incradible beauty of mother nature as thousands of apple trees flaunt their spring bloom. A variety of activities are offered by many of the 55 individual ranches who are members of the assoication. There's an Apple Blossom Cross Country run for the ambitious. (register at www.applehill.com) Other adventures: complimentary wine and dessert pariehs, a train around Cider Lake, horse and pony rides, an opportunity to get inside a real bakeshop kitchen, at-the-orchard cooking classes, quilt show and quilt raffle, wine tasting, and even artists painting "in the open air" Lots to enjoy before there's even an apple in sight! (530) 644-7692

New this year – snow in Lathrop!

Christmas carols fill the air, Santa chats with children in the general store full of sweet treats and local crafts and families meet live raindeer and baby farm animals. Meanwhile, a crew of farmworkers-turned-snowmakers work 24 hours a day blowing 100 tons of snow onto a tube-sledding slope. It's all at the Dell’Osso Family Farm right off Highway 5 just south of Lathrop. Welcome to the latest family adventure in the San Joaquin valley, Holidays on the Farm.

Ron and Susan Dell’Osso started taking their October pumpkin patch and corn maze seriously about eight years ago, and last year about 140,000 people showed up to buy pumpkins, enjoy the corn maze, haunted house, pony rides, pumpkin blaster, and otherwise play on Dell’Osso Family Farm. Tourists contributed about 50 percent of the San Joaquin County farm’s gross annual income. The other 50 percent of income comes from 350 acres of pumpkins, Indian corn and other seasonal specialty crops sold wholesale through a broker to grocery stores throughout the Western United States.

This March, the Dell’Ossos started researching Christmas attractions in order to extend their agritourism season. They bought a train and a zipline, built a general store with a bakeshop, learned how to make snow and opened the first annual “Holidays on the Farm” in late November. The train, zipline and store make business sense when they are amortized over both the October and December holiday seasons. The Snow Tube Mountain is already popular, with online reservations recommended for the $15.00 90-minute sessions of tubing, since the hill can only hold 250 tubers each session.

Why would these third-generation farmers turn to corn mazes and snow-making? Susan Dell’Osso explained that agritourism spreads the risk. Commercial farmers hope to make a three percent return on crops like alfalfa or pumpkins, and some years, like last year, 50 percent of the pumpkin crop can be wiped out by wet weather and mold problems.

Holiday attractions like Dell’Osso’s are also great ways to connect to and support the local community and offer low-cost entertainment for local families. Dell’Osso Family Farm tries to keep the prices low. There is no charge for parking or admission and some activities like the hay rides and go-cart speedway are free. They also include more than twenty local non-profit organizations by offering concession opportunities for volunteers to donate their time to benefit organizations including the Lathrop Senior Center, the Lathrop Police and Fire departments and the Lathrop Square Dance Club. In addition to extending the work season for many farmworkers, all of the agritourism employees are hired locally, and the popular operation is a major contributor to the local tax-base.

Watch for more pumpkin patch operators to jump on the December holiday wagon next year!