Agritourism Enterprises To Be Toured in Southern Illinois -- October 5
Published: Aug. 17, 2006
URBANA - Great Boars of Fire, Blue Sky Winery, and Darn Hot Peppers all have catchy, unique names -- but their names are just one aspect of their many creative marketing strategies. All three are examples of agritourism enterprises in southern Illinois and have been selected for the final tour this year sponsored by the University of Illinois Agroecology/Sustainable Agriculture Program. The tour will take place on Thursday, October 5.
"Sustainable agriculture is a broad topic and while many folks identify 'sustainable' only with crop production, management systems and other ecological factors, profitability is also a key to sustainability," said John Pike, U of I Extension educator at the Carbondale Center who helped select the locations for the tour. Stephanie Rhodes, Director of the Southern Illinois Tourism Development Office also played a key role in planning the tour. "Agritourism is increasingly being utilized as a marketing tool that adds value to products by creating an 'experience' that goes along with purchasing the product.
"Consumers can buy wine, cheese, relishes, meat and other products in a variety of convenient commercial businesses, however, it is increasingly common for people to seek out wineries, pumpkin patches, farm markets and restaurants where they can enjoy a relaxing or unique experience while making their purchases," said Pike.
Pike said that the three locations that will be visited on this tour are all utilizing agritourism as a marketing tool. While there are many other similar businesses in the region, these businesses will offer people the opportunity see a variety of the many agritourism-related businesses that operate in Southern Illinois, said Pike. The "triple tour" will begin at 1:00 p.m. at Blue Sky Winery in Makanda (www.blueskyvineyard.com/). Visitors will take a walk through the vineyards for a close look at the tresseling systems that are used and can participate in a wine tasting of some of the varieties.
From the winery, the tour will continue to Darn Hot Peppers in Cobden (www.darnhotpeppers.com/). Darn Hot Peppers is a small family farm with a focus on growing specialty hot peppers and producing numerous pepper products. "This is our third year of operation, said owner Jerry Jimenez. "Our products are sold through several farmers markets in both central and southern Illinois, at selective county and community fairs and through an active online market. This year we opened our specialty peppers store on the farm during the Memorial Day weekend."
Jimenez said that people who have come to the specialty pepper store comment about the beautiful view -- which is actually the farm's name, "Rancho Bellvaista." "We practice natural gardening and all of our peppers are grown without the use of herbicides and pesticides. We are learning more each year and struggle with pesty pests and ugly diseases and weeds that like to invade our pepper field," said Jimenez.
The afternoon tour will end with a dinner served at Great Boars of Fire in Anna (www.greatboarsoffire.com/). The operation is a lodge and fully mobile catering service that specializes in hormone-free pulled barbequed pork. Visitors will be able to tour the banquet facility that can seat over 400 guests, the five-cabin bed and breakfast, and the deer camp. "In cooking competitions over the years, we have been world champions for our barbeque and beef brisket and have won several state championship titles as well. We have been catering for over 17 years and can cater groups from two people to over ten thousand," said Great Boars of Fire employee Shari Smiley.
A fee of $20 per person will be charged for the tour, which includes lunch. Registration at least one week in advance is required. Visit www.aces.uiuc.edu/asap/topics/tours.html to register and for more details about each of the tours including a map and agenda or contact Deborah Cavanaugh-Grant at (217) 968-5512 or cvnghgrn@uiuc.edu.
The tours are sponsored by the Agroecology/Sustainable Agriculture Program in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois, University of Illinois Extension, the North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Professional Development Program, the Illinois Small Farm Task Force and by the Agriculture Tourism Partners of Illinois (www.agritourismillinois.com).
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