The Rural Voice, 2002-04, Page 26w
es urban dwellers have with
*II kilt
i I IS
slow to get 'em down on
the farm
(and keep them happy)
Speakers at rural tourism conference pass on tips for
wouldbe agritourism operators
By Keith Roulston
Rural tourism will continue to
grow but trying to get more of
the consumer dollar by
attracting visitors to your farm is
more than just putting a sign at the
gate, speakers at the Beyond City
Lights rural conference in St. Marys
say.
Seven speakers dealing with
everything from emerging tourism
trends to dealing with regulations for
your farm -based business enlightened
farm and tourist operators at the
southwestern Ontario stop on a
province -wide series of one -day
conferences.
Most farm -based businesses could
only dream of the kind of success
Dan Mader and his family have built
at Bellamere Country Market and
.Winery, their farm/retail business and
fruit winery at Hyde Park, northwest
of London. It was a business born of
necessity, Mader told the audience,
22 THE RURAL VOICE
as four siblings all graduated from
University of Guelph in the same
year and all wanted to return home to
the family farm, which was only 70
acres but had the benefit of being on
the doorstep of London.
The Mader family began
exploring what they could do with
the farm to increase income enough
to support all the family members.
They began growing sweet corn and
strawberries and they built an 18 by
32 foot farm market. The market
operated at this level in 1983 and
1984 but they began to realize that
adding more attractions built traffic
SQ they built an addition to the
market and opened a bakery.
Addition followed addition as they
moved to a full. -scale produce
department and added other
attractions.
They, were also renting land and
growing 1,500 acres of corn and
JACOB NOVO C
q ,
soybeans at the time but they decided
to give that up and instead "build
something so big that the City of
London would notice," as Mader
remembers.
They decided to build a huge two-
story, timber -frame barn/market so
they sold all their field crop
equipment and used the money for
the new market. The banks wouldn't
finance the unusual project but they
showed the plans (which they created
themselves after reading books on
post and beam construction) to
Copps Buildall and the company
decided to finance the landmark
structure.
The concrete work began in April.
The timber frames went up in June
creating a stir because in one day the
building went from being invisible to
being a huge skeleton. By August
they were in the building.
"We decided our business was
selling food but the hook was to
make people have fun," Mader says.
• The big barn had been designed to
get attention and no thought was
given to a use for the second floor.
Dan Mader's mother and sister took
over that space and began selling
craft supplies, later evolving the area
into a upscale gift store.
To make the farm a destination
they decided they needed some sort
of food service so they created a