by Susan McCue, editor, Small Farm News
The famous St. Louis arch crowns the Mississippi River and marks the gateway to America's western frontier
After spending two workshop-intensive days indoors at the National Small Farm Conference in St. Louis, Missouri, October 12-15, many participants proclaimed the conference farm tours a breath of fresh air. Participants who chose the agricultural tourism-themed conference tour visited two St. Louis area sites: Rombach Farms in Chesterfield, Missouri, and Centennial Farms in Auburn, Missouri.
Rombach Farms
As tour participants step off the bus at Rombach Farms, audible cries of delight ripple through the crowd. All eyes are on the brilliantly colored pumpkins carpeting the ground in all directions. Facing north, pumpkins stretch in endless rows out to the great pumpkin pyramid towering 20 feet above the grassy field. To the east and west, they overflow out of wagons and wheelbarrows or lie heaped in mounds stacked throughout the u-pick area.
The Rombach Farms pumpkin patch commands immediate attention upon arrival at the 80-acre farm.
To the south, school children pour off buses to prance down rows selecting baby pumpkins. Adults consider the equally tantalizing huge pumpkins weighing in at 20 pounds, or the novelty pumpkins in colors including red and white. Not to be outdone by the pumpkins, vibrantly hued gourds compete for selection as they overpopulate the base of a tombstone-tattooed shed at the foot of the pumpkin field.
A pyramid pumpkin takes center stage at Rombach Farms.
When the children and their adult companions exhaust themselves from their pumpkin or gourd search, they can relax in a wooden pavilion that shelters several picnic tables. From that central vantage point, they can decide to visit the farm's animal zoo, shop at the farm-stocked produce stand, or check out the hand-crafted wooden furniture created by an Amish farmer who places his goods there on consignment. The tour costs children nothing, but co-owner Steve Rombach says having 1,000 children a day during pumpkin season serves as excellent word-of-mouth advertising.
Rombach Farms' gourds and pumpkins spill across the ground in a dazzling array of shapes, colors, and sizes.
Asked how many visitors he receives in a year, Rombach says, "One day I flew over the farm and counted 1,000 cars in the parking lot." As for marketing, he says, "I just take it a day at a time," with a customer base that travels primarily from the St. Louis area 45 minutes away.
Direct retail sales are the only way to market effectively in his area, says Rombach, whose family has farmed the land for three generations since 1928. "We lose 30-75 percent every year, so wholesale is hard," he explains. Buyers call him a few days before they need supply, and "If I have it, I'll sell it to you," he says. On-farm sales are part of the farm's history. In the 1950s, Steve's mother started selling produce at their farm stand. She and Steve's father remain on the farm, which is now operated by Steve, his brother, and a cousin.
Ghosts haunt this Rombach Farms shed during Halloween season when gourds and pumpkins are plentiful.
"Part-time employees are hard to find", says Steve, but fortunately, "We've got a lot of really good friends and family who help us." His wife works off the farm, "I'm kind of a Mr. Mom," Steve adds. After he takes his children to school, he returns to the farm where his work days slide into nights, often ending around 9 p.m.
Steve Rombach discusses his operation with tour participants gathered in the farm's pavilion.
Liability insurance is expensive, and he needs five or six different policies to cover his operation, but Steve and his partners still have plans for the future. Soon they'll start renting out the pavilion for parties, offering hay rides, and limiting the on-farm sales to pumpkins only. "I've got three little boys and I'd kind of like to see it continue," he says hopefully.
Centennial Farms
Owned by the same family more than 100 years, the aptly-named Centennial Farms has passed through six generations since 1854 to current owners Bob and Ellen Knoerschield. The Knoerschields, who share the farm with their children and grandchildren, make sure to keep abreast of agricultural trends that can keep the farm profitable and maintain its century-long success.
Ellen Knoerschield explains the apple butter process that begins with this vat in her shed.
Although they grow specialty crops including apples, peaches, grapes, berries, pumpkins, watermelons, and cantaloupes, the Knoerschields developed a value added apple butter operation that now supplies one-fourth of the farm's income. The Knoerschields sell their highly successful apple butter on the farm, to restaurants and to wholesalers. Six days a week, a huge vat boils down the sauce that is later labeled in-house and prepared for delivery. Prices for apple butter easily beat half-pack apple and wholesale bushel prices, making the value added apple butter a healthy income generator worth the family's efforts.
Desmond Jolly visits the Knoershield greenhouse where herbs and flowers are grown for resale.
The Knoerschields became more involved in what they call "entertainment marketing" 15 years ago, but are only continuing the family tradition of on-farm retail. Like the Rombachs, Ellen says, "Centennial Farms always sold retail by the bushel. In their area, Nobody sells to wholesale," she says, due to the unpredictable weather that makes predictable crop outcomes impossible and therefore, wholesale marketing improbable.
Bob Knoerschield addresses farm tour participants in front of the farm's Halloween-accessorized retail shop.
To facilitate sales, the farm's on-site store brims with apple butter and other value added products available to visitors, including school tour children, who shop for homemade goodies. From April to November, visitors also can stop at the on-site specialty gift shop run by a couple who rent out the original farm house's first floor from the Knoerschields, who live upstairs.
"We keep trying to come up with money-making schemes," says Ellen. "That's one reason why we're so diversified. Every year, we have something that doesn't make it. Recently, the Knoerschields planted 1,000 walnut trees with plans to use them for lumber. On a wagon tour of the farm, Bob Knoerschield points out the new trees, then shares a tip as he passes his peach orchard. To keep deer away, he ties a cake of soap to the tree. The deer don't like the soap, so they stay away, he reports happily.
Then he shares a tip about liability insurance with the tour group. Not long ago, he switched to a package offered through the *North American Farmers Direct Marketing Association noted in the Summer issue of Small Farm News. "It's worth joining just for the insurance alone, and the excellent meetings, if you can get to them," he says.
*For more information about North American Farmers Direct Marketing Association liability insurance, call (888) 884-9270.
