Regarding the future of agritourism

By Glen Johnson

Agritourism, is it a good thing or bad? A wedding in a farmer’s backyard is a great place and time to congratulate the couple, while also putting the spready on the table. Foods from area farms could be shared, marketed and sold to these wedding attendees.

Most smaller farms still have a farmyard with a barn and a storage shed or two with space between them that allows for parking that doesn’t encroach on or impede the production of crops in the field. I was in the business about two decades ago, or at least I gave it a try. The one wedding we hosted was truly a hoot, nobody got hurt, and we were able to educate and entertain the guests.

We had a farmstand and parking lot snugly situated in our orchard and we also had said farmyard, so we had ample parking for the 100 or so folks who attended the soiree. We spent extra money for insurance, which kept us abreast of the laws that regulate such events. The fire marshal was most helpful as I worked my way through the permitting process. Without some regulation, people will pack 4,000 people into a small space in the middle of a pandemic!

The Tulip Festival is well regulated and it does bring money to the community. The complication they bring is that the show is scattered across a 10,000-acre footprint. If it weren’t for their large patchworks of color, RoozenGaarde and Tulip Town wouldn’t be able to handle the crush. Yeah, county roadside shoulders have become long parking lots, where county sheriffs scold and cite the scoundrels that block the tractor’s path.

If the tulips bloomed in July and August, the rest of the farm community could sell their farm crops straight from their fields to the tourists. Thus, the notion of a mid-summer music festival makes all the sense in the world. July and the first half of August is between planting and harvest, very few large tractors and equipment are trying to quickly get from here to there.

Tulip Festival parking could be used again, making them more efficient. Thursday, Friday, Saturday for five weeks could make the monies of the Tulip Festival look like chump change in comparison. Large and small farms alike could reap the rewards of a well-regulated festival, not to mention the incredible music and food we’d get to share with each other.

Heck, Chris Stapleton and Zack Brown Band could just as well play here as Lumen Field. As a community, we could create the sort of finances that Lumen Field brings in at a fraction of the cost.

We just have to be a bit brave and speculative, like Bernadette Roozen who talked her papa, brothers and mama into creating RoozenGaarde. We owe others a great debt of gratitude also, Tom and Jeanette DeGoede come to mind. Tulip Town was a creative place, it takes long term visioning to create something that sustains.

Skagit Valley resident Glen Johnson farmed here for decades.