A Diversifying and Marketing Strategy for Sustaining Small Farm Agriculture

Fall Farm Weekends, inviting visitors to our farm for outdoor sales and educational opportunities, were begun as a way to diversify our farming practices and provide another way to market farm products that we and our cooperators could produce. Educational and entertaining aspects: wagon rides, fiber arts demonstrations, and presentations about our apple and other farming operations have proven more successful than sales aspects. Although we had a very small turnout this year, we feel that intense and expanded advertising to take advantage of the tourism industry, which is such a big part of the local economy of our western NC mountains, will make Fall Farm Weekends more successful and a project that could be emulated elsewhere. Hopefully, weather will not be such an enemy in future years.