Nevada County, with gold country foothills and Sierra Nevada mountains, has almost 100,000 residents and many visitors. Nevada County Grown, dedicated to promoting, empowering and connecting local farmers, ranchers and food makers, is twelve years old and ready for new adventures. On Saturday and Sunday, July 7- 8, 2018, twelve local farms and ranches will host the public for tours, tastes, demonstrations, workshops and music at the first annual Nevada County Farm Trail Weekend.

Nevada County Grown board member Sammie Bass is coordinating the event. Today, a few days before the big weekend, she shared a little bit about the process and challenges of organizing something never done before in Nevada County.

Organizing participating farms and ranches: Sammie started planning the July event in April and May, so, understandably, communication with potential participating farmers was a major challenge. It was difficult to get clear answers from farmers about what tours, product sales and activities each would be offering to visitors, and to make sure that each participating farm was appropriately safe and prepared. Sammie visited each of the farms and worked with the owners to plan parking and safe access. Would room for ten cars be enough? Is the turn into the driveway from a busy road safe enough? She had no way to know.

Permits needed? Nevada County recently adopted new zoning ordinances that clarified that agritourism activities including tours, farm dinners and U-Pick are allowed by right on agricultural zoned lots over five acres. To make sure that all interested farms and ranches qualified under this zoning, Sammie shared her list of fifteen potential participants with the county agricultural commissioner. The Commissioner rejected several on the list as being less than five acres or zoned rural residential rather than agricultural, so not eligible to host visitors on their land without an expensive conditional use permit. However, as a work-around, these few farms are allowed to have farm stands and to sell their products during the event, but not host tours or other activities.

Insurance? Nevada County Grown required that all participating farms and ranches have liability insurance coverage of at least a million dollars, and that each list Nevada County Grown as an additional insured on their policies. In addition, Nevada County Grown has insurance coverage for events that they organize.

Day-of ticket sales? The Passport Weekend ticket (actually a wristband) is priced at $20 for advance sales and $25 on the day of the event. It was tough to organize enough volunteers to staff check-in and ticket sales tables at each of the twelve participating venues. Therefore, four visitor check-in hubs will be set up at four of the venues. If visitors show up at the other locations without wristbands, the participating farmers and ranchers will include them in tours and activities and instruct them to check in and pay at one of the four check-in hubs for their next stop.

Food? Lunch stop? Since this is the first-ever Nevada County Farm Trail Weekend, and since most of the farms and ranches are not set up to cater food for guests, Sammie investigated inviting a food truck to feed the guests. However, she could not promise more than 150 - 200 visitors total, which is not enough to pay for a food truck's time, labor and travel costs. Instead, the Nevada county Food Bank, one of the stops on the trail, will put on a barbecue, offering lunch for a donation (on Saturday at least) and giving tours of the Food Bank Garden. Farm Trail visitors may want to bring along a picnic this time.

Promotion: Good Day Sacramento came out and took videos, as did CBS13, helping to promote the event. In addition, local newspaper, The Union, interviewed organizers and wrote an article showcasing participating farms and ranches to local readers.

Sponsors? Maybe next year.

Sammie Bass and other Nevada County Grown organizers are expecting about 150 to 200 visitors for the first annual Nevada County Farm Trail Weekend. This will definitely be an adventure. If you see Sammie on the trail, be sure to say hello and thank her for her hard work. Learn more: nevadacountygrown.org/

 

California agritourism operators report regularly that navigating the permitting and regulatory process is a major challenge for farmers trying to invite the public onto their land for festivals, tours, dinners, classes, lodging or other activities. Some help is now available, at no cost, in some places.

Five Northern California counties offer non-enforcement person-to-person consultation to farmers and ranchers exploring the regulations and permitting requirements for agritourism, food processing or other farm-related activities. If your farm or ranch is located in Marin, Sonoma, San Mateo, Yolo or Solano Counties, you can call your Agricultural Ombudsman or Farmbudsman to discuss your ideas and plans.

County Agricultural Ombudsmen help farmers and ranchers understand what rules and regulations will apply to an individual diversification idea or plan, and will help them to navigate the various permits and departmental approvals that might be required. The ombudsman will make the process approachable and accessible, and will explore options and alternatives with the person planning an expansion or a new activity on his or her farm or ranch, including giving the farmer or rancher a sense of where "red flags" might be in the process. Importantly, these services are confidential. Marin County Agricultural Ombudsman Vince Trotter explained the job this way, "We try to bring the conversation to "How can we make this work?" We don't expedite the process ourselves, but we do try to bring the rancher together with the regulator."

Examples of Agricultural Ombudsmen's help include:

• Helping a rancher understand the state registration process required for a new pond.
• Helping a poultry farmer understand the state, federal and local regulations they needed to confirm to for on-farm commercial slaughtering.
• Helping a pumpkin patch operator know when a permit is required for a farm dinner.
• Explaining the size limits for starting a small winery under an administrative permit.
• Helping a brewery and winery design their expansion to avoid buffer issues
• Researching an existing use permit to clarify that a vineyard operator with short-term lodging was allowed to hold one-day open house events without an additional health department food permit.

In addition to their consultation work with individual farmers and ranchers, most of the agricultural ombudsmen organize useful information online - guides, factsheets and links to common permit applications. See the end of this story for contact information and websites links.

Marin County was first, creating the position of Agricultural Ombudsman in 2002 to ease the regulatory barriers faced by farmers and ranchers trying to diversify to ensure longterm viability of their agricultural operations. The county funded the position through a cost-share between county general funds and the Ag Commissioner's office. The Marin County Ag Ombudsman is not a county employee, but an employee of the UC Cooperative Extension. This distinction is important as the Ombudsman is perceived as a neutral, non-enforcement person with whom farmers and ranchers can freely discuss their ideas and plans. Lisa Bush held the position for twelve years until her retirement. The current Marin County Agricultural Ombudsman is Vince Trotter, who also wears the hat of UCCE Sustainable Agriculture Coordinator.

Following Marin County's lead, Solano and Yolo Counties both included the position of an agricultural ombudsman in their General Plans adopted by Solano County in 2008 and Yolo County in 2009. After years of discussions with interested stakeholders from the agriculture communities, the Boards of Supervisors in Solano and Yolo Counties and the Solano Community College Board of Trustees adopted in January 2013 a joint operating agreement to fund and manage a Farmsbudsman program that served Solano and Yolo Counties. Michelle Stephens served as Farmbudsman for both counties for three years. In 2016, Yolo County withdrew from the joint agreement. Currently Yolo County funds their own Agricultural Ombudsman position housed within the Agricultural Commissioner's office, working closely with the County Planning Department. Solano County continues the Farmbudsman program with Humboldt State University's Nothern California Small Business Development Center (Norcal SBDC) administering the program. Currently, the Yolo County Farmbudsman is Stephanie Cormier, also Cannibus Taskforce Manager; the Solano County Farmbudsman is Sarah Hawkins, who is also a full-time farmer.

The Sonoma County Agricultural Ombudsman position grew out of a Food Forum held in 2011 to improve the regulatory process for farmers. In July 2013 Sonoma County approved the position, which is administered through the Sonoma County UC Cooperative Extension and paid with county funds. The Sonoma County Agricultural Ombudsman is Karen Giovannini, who says that the ombudsman position comprises about 20 percent of her full-time work with UC Cooperative Extension.

San Mateo County's Agricultural Ombudsman position developed from a 2012 agricultural workshop organized by a county supervisor to help agricultural producers deal with regulations. The county put out a request for proposals to local organizations to administer the position, and the San Mateo County Resource Conservation District placed the winning bid to host the ombudsman. Adria Arko started as the San Mateo County Agricultural Ombudsman in April 2015. She works out of the San Mateo County Resource Conservation Service office, where she also works as a Program Assistant.

Contact your local Agricultural Ombudsman:

Marin County:
Vince Trotter, Agricultural Ombudsman
tvtrotter@ucanr.edu
415-473-4204
http://growninmarin.org/Resources/Resources_for_Farmers/GIM_Factsheets/

Sonoma County:
Karen Giovannini, Agriculture Ombudsman
klgiov@ucanr.edu 
707.565.2328
http://ucanr.edu/sites/CESonomaAgOmbuds/

Solano County:
Sarah Hawkins, Farmbudsman
SolanoFarmbudsman@gmail.com
925-984-4548
https://www.solanocounty.com/depts/county_admin/farmbudsman.asp

Yolo County:
Stephanie Cormier, Farmbudsman
530-406-4800
Stephanie.Cormier@yolocounty.org

San Mateo County:
Adria Arko, Agricultural Ombudsman
adria@sanmateorcd.org
650-712-7765 x 105
https://agwm.smcgov.org/agricultural-ombudsman