Valley tour entrepreneur hopes to shine a light on local agriculture

WASILLA — The Valley’s agricultural heritage isn’t lost on most residents, but an emerging local entrepreneur is hoping to make the region a tourist destination for a glimpse into the region’s unique farming and ranching history.

Farm tours are not a new thing in the Mat-Su Valley, but Margaret Adsit hopes her newly formed Alaska Farm Tours will bring a centralized agricultural focus not only for the Valley, but eventually to other parts of the state.

“I know that agriculture is one industry that can really benefit from folks coming together and improving the economic opportunities through diversified sources of income,” she said in an email. “Let’s say someone out in Talkeetna wanted to start a tour, or down on the Kenai. I want there to be that economic opportunity and a hub to support diverse options for agricultural tourism.”

Adsit, 29, is the former director of the Alaska Farmland Trust and grew up on a Wisconsin grain farm. After working for the trust, the Northwestern University graduate moved to event planning, where she helped organize the Mat-Su Farm Bureau’s annual farm tour, a hugely popular event.

“About the same time, I started a writing business doing content writing for small businesses,” she said. “I’ve known for the past few years that I wanted to get back into agriculture in some way, and the idea of putting together an organized farm tour just took hold.”

Over the years, farm and ranch tours and “farm-to-table” events in various forms have been popular in the Valley. Adsit said from Clyde and June Oberg and Janet Kincaid’s tours several years ago to Geri McCann’s tours of LeRoi and Margaret Heaven’s homestead in more recent times, the impetus is there.

“I remember the first time I went to visit Heaven’s Hayfield, a property protected by the Alaska Farmland Trust, and I thought to myself, ‘I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a prettier farm in all my life,’” Adsit said. “Not only the vistas, but the incredible stories behind these farms makes you want to pull up a stool and listen for hours.”

Adsit said so far, operators involved in the summer tour include Moonstone Farm, Sunderland Ranch, Juice, Jelly, and Jam of Alaska; Arctic Organics and Kenley’s Alaskan Vegetables and Flowers.

She said for $95, tour participants — a group of no more than 14 — will meet at the Palmer Museum at 9 a.m. From there, the group will take a walking tour of the Grow Palmer program and visit the gardens of the Palmer Art Museum and Historical Center for an introduction to the variety of plants grown in the region. From there the tour will travel by van to visit three farms and conclude with a brown bag lunch at one of the farms. Adsit said a second tour in the afternoon starts with a brown bag lunch and will then move on to the farms.

“There are very few places left on earth where you can talk to someone that opened up their own farmland using the tools they had at their disposal — sometimes dozers, sometimes horses,” Adsit said. “Alaska’s climate is also challenging and the incredible ingenuity of farmers here to ‘make it work’ has really redefined what conditions humans can grow food in.”

She added that a portion of proceeds from each tour will go back to the agricultural community.

“Five percent of the net profits will go to one of our nonprofits that we have chosen including Grow Palmer, Alaska Farmland Trust, Palmer FFA and Palmer Museum of History and Art,” Adsit said. “In addition, each farm will also receive a 5 percent of net profit per ticket sale.”

While March means the fields and meadows are still brown and frozen, Adsit said her Outside marketing is getting geared up.

“My main focus currently right now is getting known through group marketing companies to let then know that we exist,” she said. “Then, come April, May, June and July we’ll do a lot more viral marketing, online marketing and the standard rack cards to anyone that will take one in the state.”

Adsit said she has a couple groups in mind with the new business.

“Our two target demographics are currently the farm enthusiast tourists who either are from a farming background or have a strong interest in agriculture,” she said. “These folks tend to be around retirement age and are traveling to Alaska for the first time.”

Whether addressing food security, history or simply the quality, Adsit said the message of Valley agriculture was worth hearing.

“Over the past 100 years, the Matanuska Valley has been shaped by the history of these farms,” she said. “There is no better place to begin to tell the story of agriculture here in Alaska. Of course, I hope one day we can expand, but I have to think small for the moment, and dream of other fields for future years.”

Contact reporter Steven Merritt at 352-2269 or steven.merritt@frontiersman.com

Find out more

Alaska Farm Tours

Margaret Adsit

Phone: 907-519-7067

Web: www.alaskafarmtours.com