Harvest Host offers an easy option for farms to dip a toe into agritourism
With fields of flowering cover crops, orchards filled with bird song, and herds of cattle munching their way through the knee-high pasture, biological farms are a place of beauty. Increasingly, people looking for unique travel opportunities are visiting and staying on farms. While travelers get the chance to experience rural life and fresh food, farmers gain economic resilience through income diversification. According to the USDA, agritourism revenue more than tripled between 2002 and 2017.
Harvest Host is an online platform that links RVers with farmers offering overnight stays. RVers pay an annual fee to access Harvests Host’s directory of farms. Guests are not charged any camping fees, but they are encouraged to purchase goods from the farm as a way of saying thank you. It is free to list a farm on the site. When farmers sign up, they create a profile with information like maximum nights available, maximum rig size, and a description of the farm. RVers looking to visit will request an available date range using a calendar on the farm’s profile, and farmers can choose to accept the request.
Dan and Julie Perkins of Perkins’ Good Earth Farm in De Motte, Indiana, have been hosting with Harvest Host since April of 2021. They operate a year-round organic vegetable CSA with 175 members. They also have a farmstand and a commercial kitchen where they make soups and salads. When they first heard about Harvest Host, they realized that the grass lane along their windbreak would work well as an RV site.
In three years, Dan and Julie have hosted over 250 guests through the site. “There’s an expectation that [guests are] purchasing something, but there isn’t a requirement,” said Julie. Even so, very few people have stayed at the farm without spending at least $20.
Dan and Julie have learned how to make the hosting process as easy as possible by putting up signs so guests can get situated without help. According to Dan, “Harvest Hosters are often coming in at all kinds of random times, and we didn’t necessarily want to have to go out to meet and greet each person.” They offer Wi-Fi and electricity that guests can pay for through an online store. Julie communicates with guests leading up to their stay, and Dan helps with parking if need be.
Over the course of three years, the average guest has changed. Dan and Julie used to see more families who were homeschooling or working remote. Now, they host more retired couples and dog owners.
The Perkinses have enjoyed their foray into agrotourism and have decided to expand. They now offer two Airbnb’s on their property. Because Airbnb guests are paying to be there, they expect a certain level of service. Harvest Hosters are more independent and always leave their site clean and well kept. Overall, Dan and Julie have had had a positive experience with both sites and plan to continue using them. According to Julie, “Most of the guests are great, and we have had a really great experience with it.”
Lucas Hubbard operates a market garden in southern Michigan.
