STAR-BULLETIN / 2000
Jim Reddekopp, Hawaiian Vanilla Co. owner, served ice cream to chef David Rosengarten at a 2000 vanilla cooking contest.
Big Isle farmers learn
of ag tourism opportunitiesA state-funded effort gives farmers
pointers on growing business
HILO >> When people on one of Jim Reddekopp's agricultural and culinary tours visit his Big Island vanilla farm, they learn vanilla comes from orchids and they meet Reddekopp's five children.
In preparation for more farmers setting up tours of their operations, the Big Island Farm Bureau took 35 farmers on a tour yesterday of three farms already conducting agricultural tourism.
"We want to showcase the way we live," Reddekopp said.
The Farm Bureau also wants farmers to earn a few extra dollars. "There are folks who are not making it in farming, and this may allow them to survive in farming," said Farm Bureau executive Mary Leleiwi.
The tour of Reddekopp's Hawaiian Vanilla Co., Dick and Heather Threlfall's Hawaii Island Goat Dairy, and Kurt and Pam Hirabara's specialty lettuce farm is part of a $50,000 effort funded by the state Department of Agriculture, Leleiwi said.
The Farm Bureau knew there were opportunities as they got repeated requests for farms that tourists, especially others farmers, could visit. "Farmers love to visit with other farmers," Leleiwi said.
Reddekopp offers 16 farm and aquaculture tours around the state, all linked to tour participants first seeing how food is produced, then enjoying a gourmet meal of the products.
Once things get rolling, perhaps in March, Leleiwi hopes the Farm Bureau will have 750 to 900 customers in the first year.
The Farm Bureau and the farmers will get a small amount, perhaps $5 per visitor. The biggest chunk of a $75 tour will go for bus rental, gasoline, and pay for bus drivers, Leleiwi said.
The real payoff will come from the personal relationship between the visitors and farmers.
The idea is that visitors will like what they see and taste, like the farmer they see it with, and start making direct orders to the farm for more products after they go home.
Even as the Farm Bureau teaches farmers to sell themselves as well as their products, there are other hurdles: bathrooms, for instance, and neighbors who may not appreciate large groups of tourists disturbing the peace and quiet of rural areas.
Farms aren't necessarily set up to handle visits by large groups of people.
Hawaii County now requires farm tours to have certain permits. But the permits aren't specifically designed for tour groups.
The county planning department is working on new regulations that would automatically permit small tours and would set guidelines for larger tours, said planner Larry Brown.
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Parker Ranch offers
WAIMEA, Hawaii >> The Big Island's giant Parker Ranch is entering a new area of agricultural tourism -- all-terrain-vehicle rides through the ranch's expanses, the ranch said.
2 new ATV toursTwo tours, one to Holoholoku Hill and another along Mana Road, are being offered by Cowboys of Hawaii LLC in conjunction with the ranch. The tours last two hours.
Both tours include descriptions of ranch history and chances to see wild pigs and goats, pheasants, and francolin partridges as well as cattle.
Ranch spokeswoman Diane Quitiquit said the ranch uses the ATVs for many purposes, although there are still areas where a horse can go and a machine can't.
The ranch already offers other tourist attractions such as horseback and carriage rides and tours of the historic Puuopelu and Mana Hale homes.
Star-Bulletin staff
