A Montreal area-based farmer and agrotourism operator says the majority of the farm's visitors each year have never been on a farm.Established in 1982, Quinn Farm is a 200-acre agricultural and agrotourism operation that produces horticultural crops, more than 18 varieties of apples, Christmas and balsam trees, raises chickens, pigs and sheep, and houses a large farm store that features the farm's produce, and a variety of local products.Farm cofounder Elwood Quinn says the farm's location, on the outskirts of a major metropolitan area 15 minutes away from an international airport, results in a diverse mix of visitors.
Quote-Elwood Quinn-Quinn Farm:
We are in the suburbs of Montreal and we're probably the nearest public farm to a city center to a major city centre of any city in the world.I think, from the day we started the farm in 1982, we realised how great the necessity would be in the future for public awareness, for trying to show people how animals are kept and we have some many farm visits just to see the animals.
They can get right up close, touch them and those are the things that make our farm unique and of interest.That's the kind of visits we get, is the people right next door on a regular basis and the far away visitors who just have a couple of hours and it is an important thing for them to do.It's only one percent of the population of our area that we serve but, to that one percent, we are important to them and their families.
Quinn says it's all about connecting.He estimates 80 percent of the approximately 100 thousand people that visit the farm each year would be urban, most having never visited a farm.For information on Quinn Farm visit quinnfarm.qc.ca.For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Source : Farmscape.ca