Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Williamsburg, Virginia and Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts
have developed similar themes as a tourist attraction.
Monselice near Padua in Italy holds a Medieval fair every September.
The village already had a weekly farmers' market, but once a year it sets up a
medieval fair when all the villagers dress up in medieval clothes and practise
the old farming and food-preparation techniques.
Nostalgia is a big tourist draw, as tourism and culinary tour venue oper-
ators try to search out the traditional values they remember from their youth.
Many of the traditional agricultural skills are being lost and need to be pre-
served to ensure the skills are passed on to the next generation.
Many culinary tourists are looking for traditional ways of food produc-
tion. Traditional methods may be more expensive and time consuming, but
particularly the older consumer is prepared to pay for the real experience.
There are a number of ways we can preserve the traditions.
Promote the seasonal calendar
Farming communities live by the seasons and understand the seasons,
whereas visitors from the city have less understanding of the seasons.
Modern food distribution means that many urban dwellers assume straw-
berries are harvested all the year round from the same field, as they are avail-
able as a year-round fruit on the supermarket shelf.
Most farming communities work on a four season calendar, but this not
always the case. In Australia the aborigines rely on a six season calendar.
The authors live in the Noongar Aboriginal region of Australia and the
seasons are Bunuru (February-March), Djeran (April-May), Makuru (June-
July), Djilba (August-September), Kambarang (October-November) and Birak
(December-January). Promoting these seasons and how they affect what is
grown creates further interest in food tourism and encourages tourists to
return in different seasons to experience how the land and crop production
has changed.
Historic harvesting and adding value techniques
Today the visitor is familiar with modern machinery travelling across the field
and often controlled from a satellite. They are less familiar with a Clydesdale
horse travelling across fields as the original 'horse power' and this can be an
event in itself. Visitors are fascinated to learn how butter, cheeses, cider and
other foods were prepared on the farm in days gone by. How food was pre-
pared before the industrial kitchen was invented is something that will be
discussed on Facebook and Twitter when a family returns home.
The Tullamore Farm Show in Ireland is one of the biggest events in
the country and thousands of visitors go to see more traditional farming
activities.
Traditional festivals
Many counties have traditional festivals based around food. In the UK, cheese
often appears as the reason for a festival. In Randwick, Gloucestershire
18
they
have the May Day Cheese when three Gloucester cheeses are decked with
