Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Most tourist facilities will gift something in for the coach driver and guide
for bringing a group of visitors to their facility. This is often expected by the
coach operator and should be costed into the financing of coach-party activities.
Culinary walks
Not all culinary tourists want to drive or cycle to locations, some want to
walk and 'smell' the flowers on the way. Walking tours are another way vis-
itors may like to experience the culinary journey.
This may mean a walk as long as the 800 km 'Camino de Santiago de
Compostela' ('Way of St James') in northern Spain that Linda Stanley took
2 months to walk, or it may be as short as a
30
min walk around the farm.
Walks can also be designed for different demographic groups and age
profiles.
The main objective is that it provides the right amount of exercise with
an educational and culinary experience. The depth of information provided
can be targeted to the audience. For example, a survey of children in the
UK in June 2013 indicated that 25% of children surveyed thought cheese
came from plants. In other words, keep information basic for children. When
working with professional groups, you had better know the Latin or botan-
ical names of plants along the route.
An example of what can be achieved is the 'Urban Herbal Walk' of
Grimsby in the UK. Grimsby is a fishing town located on the North Sea
coast. An entrepreneurial group organized an herbal walk around the town
to indicate to walkers what local plants were edible and to explain food
sources of the past.
Forage walks are also organized in Epping Forest, Oxford and Brighton
in the UK. In the USA there is Forage (
http://foragesf.com/wild-food-walks
)
,
which organizes walks around San Francisco.
In Australia the town of Orange has F.O.O.D.
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week and part of that
week consists of organized forage walks around local farms and vineyards.
The same can be done in any country as every region has its local edible
food plants that are often unknown to the modern urban dweller.
In Australia foraging has been taken to the next stage. Leviathan,
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one
food business, has introduced a Transient Degustation restaurant. The guests
go foraging with the chef and then an eight-course meal is prepared by the
'foodie' with the chef. This must be the true bush culinary experience.
This is also an opportunity to work with local aboriginal communities in
some countries.
When the authors were in Arizona we were fascinated to discover that
the local tribes based their garden foraging on three plants grown in combin-
ation. Known as the 'Three Sisters', this growing method has been adapted
by many aboriginal communities in the region. Beans were grown up the
maize support and also provided nitrogen to the soil and squash shaded
the ground around the plants and eliminated the weeds. Without going on a
forage tour with a local, we would never have found this out.
