Farm Bureau celebrates agritourism on podcast

INDIANAPOLIS — Fall is the peak time for folks to visit agritourism destinations around the state.

“We’re gearing up for the most popular time of the year for agritourism destinations in Indiana,” said Garrett Kelly, digital and video editor at Indiana Farm Bureau, during an episode of “The Breakdown with INFB” podcast.

“There are more than 300 agritourism destinations in the state, including farm tours, u-picks, farm markets, Christmas trees, flower farms, wineries and a host of other activities that bring people out to the farm.”

Linda Baird, co-owner of Cornucopia Farm in Scottsburg, shared her story during the podcast.

Meet Cornucopia Farm

“Cornucopia Farm is a very diversified farm. We grow corn and soybeans, but our agritourism operations are primarily in the fall,” Baird said.

“We have a corn maze, soybean maze and petting farms. We do school tours, a pumpkin patch and a u-pick flower patch that’s really popular.

“We grow about 8,000 mums on the farm, so people can come out and get a selection of mums while they’re here.”

The Backstory

“Kevin and I own the farm, and we’re first-generation agritourism. But we are third-generation farmers. I grew up on a dairy farm in east Tennessee. Kevin grew up on a dairy farm here in Washington County,” Baird said.

“We met and moved back and forth some. The last time, I said, ‘I’ll move back to Indiana if we can grow some pumpkins.’ He agreed. So, we started growing pumpkins. We grew two acres the first year and have added over the years.”

Family First

“We have two sons who grew up picking pumpkins and gourds. I always said they’d either love it or hate it. They seem to love it. Both of them are married now and their wives help,” Baird said.

“Our oldest son, Michael, he and his wife live locally. They both are very involved in agritourism. Jared and his wife live in Rushville. She’s a full-time veterinarian. So, she’s our veterinarian. She usually comes on the weekends in the fall to help on the farm.”

Growing The Farm

“Over the years we’ve added to it gradually. We’ve added new attractions, new crops. But we still do corn and soybeans,” Baird said.

“We grow about 20 acres of pumpkins, 8,000 mums, and we also this year have a zinnia u-pick field, along with a regular u-pick field of fall flowers. We also have sunflowers. It’s a fun time to come out to the farm.”

Making It Happen

“Preparation is a year-round process. After the season ends, we’ll sit down and have a family meeting,” Baird said.

“We take a survey on what we want to continue and what we don’t. That’s when we come up with new ideas for the following year.”

Tech-Friendly Farm

“Something new this year is we’re going to have an app for our farm. The app will show the types of pumpkins we grow, events that we have, etc. You can just click on event to learn about it and buy tickets. You can see photos of what’s going on at the farm,” Baird said.

“We’re really getting tech savvy. We started doing online tickets prior to COVID. That’s been a change we’ve adapted to. I think that, overall, it’s been positive. So, we decided to go with an app.”

Subscribe and listen to “The Breakdown with INFB” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube, as well as at infb.org/podcast.