Katherine Millonzi: Storytelling Through Agritourism

“When I applied for and was awarded a research grant to work with Slow Food in Italy, the Fullbright Commission actually paid me to eat and drink a lot of really amazing food, all the way through that glorious mediterranean country.” Describes Katherine Millonzi, an ICF certified transformational coach and gastronomy researcher.

“What I discovered in Italy was that the culture, identity and economy of a place is defined by its food and its food producers.” She says. “Following that understanding has led me down a long, winding eight-year road back to the Northeast. Little did I know that eating and drinking my way through Italy would have such direct relevance to my work in Hudson, New York.”

Not only did her time in Italy leave her with a pallet for expensive wine, but it also left Millonzi with a heighted sensitivity to the natural world, which she feels has been rather impossible to shake. “What I see in the Hudson Valley is a flavor, a pulse, a pull.” She describes. “An idea of the experience of a place that propels people to visit farms here. And that pull is the very heart of agritourism.”

A blended mixture of two industries, agriculture and tourism, agritourism is the practice of touring farms and often participating in farming activities. “What does agritourism look like in Hudson?” Millonzi questions. “There are many pursuits categorized as agritourism from workshops on traditional skills such as canning, pickling, cheese making, to culinary tourism, such as farm dinners, wine tastings. To the most prolific form of agritourism, pick your own orchards, and farm stays.”

Millonzi goes on to say that “Unlike hands-off accommodation options such as hotels, farm stays give their guests an opportunity to get their hands dirty. Agritourism might sound like the drip drop of maple sap into a metal bucket. It might look like a child’s smile as they reach under a warm, feathery hen for a freshly laid egg. Agritourism might smell like, well, cow manure. Or sauerkraut being packing into jars.” Describes Millonzi. “In the Hudson Valley, it tastes like crisp apple cider, or locally distilled gin.”

Over the course of 6 months, in order to get a clear picture of the state of agritourism in the region, Millonzi interviewed over 30 local farmers who host guests. In her interviews she asked farmers why people came to stay at their farms.

“It turns out, everyone is thinking the same thing.” She explains. “Every farmer said that people who come to stay and eat and work on farms are seeking a connectedness in themselves that they sense has been lost. They’d like to find it, but they don’t know how. Yet they know intuitively that farms are a good place to start looking.”

People visit farm stays to restore, renew, reactivate, remember and regenerate. They allow guests to not only be closer to the natural world, but to realize that they themselves are part of it and can play an active in in its protection and cultivation.

“At the crossroads of artistic, scientific and physiological knowledges, farms offer a type of hands-on experience that people really crave.” Explains Millonzi “So now we know why people are going to farms. But is it not also important to ask what the agritourists take away with them, when they leave?”

“What do they tell their friends about, what do they remember? If not what they saw, heard, tasted, and touched?” Wonders Millonzi. “Our senses act as gateways to individual epiphanies. And the hope is that they will lead to a greater sense of collective accountability and connectedness to one another, and our natural world.”

“But If I’m a farmer, why bother hosting guests? Apparently, hospitality pays off in more than one way.” She says. “It allows farmers to diversify operations and, in many cases, allows them to maintain family farmland in production.”

In her study, Millonzi also found that Farmers considered that non-financial benefits to farm stays integral to the overall viability of their enterprise. “Many farmers said that opening their doors kept the farms feeling vibrant and engaged with the community, center of giving and receiving. The exchange of inspiration and ideas with guests is also a big perk.”

“Whether filled with grapes in Italy, or apples here in Colombia County, every field has a story, which is waiting to be harnessed and woven together.” Describes Millonzi. “By interweaving these elements, we can begin to translate place-based food, into a wider discussion of place making.”

Millonzi realizes that whilst agritourism is not a panacea for the food and viability issues we face, it does address many mutual goals of land conservation, rural economic development, environmental education and even food security. What’s more, they are mutually beneficial for all participants. Not only do farm stays fill tourist beds, but they also maintain on-farm livelihoods, thus translating an area’s best natural assets into regenerative, cultural and economic ones.

“Farm stays are like the apple was to Eve.” Believes Millonzi. “They are an invitation to try on our more wild selves. Let’s move away from out-of-date models of land conservation, in which we document and revere nature as something out there, to new forms of reverence, grounded in our senses, personal use and engagement.” She says. Let us move the natural world closer into the familiar, into its appropriate place within us, rather than just around us.”

Millonzi’s findings reveal that people want these kinds of experiences that allow them active participation in the cultivation and storytelling of the region’s food. Such experiences also allow for an exchange of knowledge between participants and hosts. This suggests that people seek tourism experiences in which they can learn new skills and forge new connections.

“Through agritourism we can spotlight and protect what is unique to each landscape and designate what it distinctive to the place we inhabit.” Millonzi says. Agritourism gives us the potent opportunity to look into the character, tradition, story and identity of a place, celebrate it, whilst also striving to both cultivate and protect it. ??

How can we use agritourism and farm stays to build synchronised visible identity that links together food, beverage, farm and tourism industries to expand and deepen our connection to the places we inhabit? What can we do to build upon the farm stay industry, in which participation is the new economy, to tell the stories of ever more people and places?

Written by Katie Wilson, EP Business in Hospitality