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Whether its pick-your-own produce or a towering ropes obstacle course, farmers expanding to popular tourism draws to subsidize their traditional agriculture production are now getting more protection with the help of the Legislature.
Act 27, introduced by Cumberland County House Rep. Barb Gleim, R-199, gives limited liability to the agritourism industry as long as farms posts signs and provide a written waiver to customers.
And other legislation is proposed as small farms often struggle to make ends meet relying solely on the crops they harvest and need to boost revenues by using their land for less traditional farming activities.
To supplement their income, farmers have turned to agritourism models like pick-your-own produce, seasonal events like haunted hayrides and fall festivals and other unique education or entertainment attractions.
When the Market at Styer Orchard opens this summer, fans of the Middletown store can count on cider doughnuts, pies and more filling the shelves.
But the new market operator, Tim Field, who for years has separately run the farm on the same Middletown property, is working to fuse the two together so that for the first-time in decades much of what is purchased at the store is produced on the farm.
Before any baking or creating can happen, the market needs repairs and will remain closed for a few more months.
The market needs new floors, ceiling tiles and some dry wall so Woodbourne Road store is ready for business before the July 4 holiday.
Talks to sell Styer Orchard between Middletown Township and a Bucks County nonprofit group fell through last year when the trust fund set up to maintain the farm would not release money for its acquisition, according to a review of a lawsuit in the dispute.
Township officials said earlier this month that discussions to sell the 109-acre property to the Heritage Conservancy of Doylestown ended last summer, leading them to review operations on the Woodbourne Road farm as the long-term leases for their tenants a farmer and retail shopkeeper ended.
The review led officials to end their lease with the operator of the farm market on the property and enter into one lease that put the orchard and market there under a single operator.