Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
The tourism opportunity
Heirloom varieties are a tourism opportunity to expose the public to more
unusual varieties and cultivars.
When John was on Vancouver Island in Canada he saw this excellent
sign outside an agricultural tourism business:
Did You Know. . . . that if you ate a different variety of apple every day,
it would take
20
years before you ran out of choice.
With over 7500 known apple varieties to choose from consumers could easily
have an 'apple experience'.
Plus every apple has a story and telling consumers the story not only
helps to provide the education they seek, it can provide nostalgia and an
opportunity for theatre.
For example, in the late 1800s an Iowa Quaker farmer was growing
Hawkeye apples in an orchard, a seedling emerged and he tried to destroy it
on two occasions. On the third emergence of the seedling he decided that the
Lord had decided it should live. He grew the tree on for
10
years and then
picked a fruit. He ate it and commented that it was 'Delicious'. The rest is
history.
Today's culinary tourist can visit heirloom farms such as Cashmere Cider
Mill in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State. They can also attend
Heirloom Apple Butter workshops at the same farm.
Heirloom variety tourist attractions around the world include:
•
Kelowna Farmers' and Crafters' Market, British Columbia, Canada;
•
Monterey Bay Certified Farmers Market, California;
•
The Huckleberry Festival, Montana:
www.huckleberryfestival.com
•
National Heirloom Exposition, California:
www.theheirloomexpo.com
•
The Sun Valley Harvest Festival, USA:
www.sunvalleyharvestfestival.com
•
The Hood River County Fruit Loop Heirloom Apple Celebration:
www.
hoodriverfruitloop.com
The pedigree breeder is the custodian of one of our national heritages.
'A Brief History and Description of the Lincolnshire Red
Shorthorn Cattle', written in 1943.
Preserving old varieties and cultivars is not exclusive to the fruit and vege-
table sector of the farm.
Stand in the middle of a herd of White Park Cattle in the UK, a breed
from medieval times, and you can be taken into a time warp into another era.
Of the documented livestock breeds, 22% are at risk; 1881 of the 8262
breeds around the world could be lost forever in the next few years.
17
It is not only the larger animals, such as sheep, pigs and cattle that are at
risk. A 2004 survey by ALBC (American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, now
