The Official U.S. Maple Syrup Almanac 2014 2nd Edition | Page 86

MAPLE
ATTRACTION
Offering school tours
can help you grow
your business

BY DEBORAH JEANNE
SERGEANT

If you open your farm to visitors, consider doing so for the youngest segment of
the market: schoolchildren. Though minor
spenders compared with grown-up tourists, they represent a group with a great deal
of influence over how their family spends
money.
Recent studies have shown that children’s
spending had roughly doubled every ten
years for over three decades, and tripled in
the 1990’s.
Kids between ages four to 12 spent just
$2.2 billion in 1968. But by 2012, kids’
buying power and influence had reached
$1.2 trillion.
Reaching children with the taste of maple
syrup can help influence spending now and
cultivate lifelong maple customers, according to sugarmakers who regularly host
school tours at their operations.
“It might help reach the kids who haven’t
been hooked on Aunt Jemima, Log Cabin,
and so on,” said Bill Ingels, owner of Red
Schoolhouse Maple in Fulton, N.Y. “It is
always good to have them taste and see if
they like it.”
Touring a maple farm offers schools an
unusual outing during a time of year when
getting kids outside presents a challenge,
sugarmakers say. There’s not much to do
outdoors in early spring. Maple itself lies
86

Critz Farm employee Jim Tobey reads to schoolchildren during a tour

outside of the usual animals-and-produce
line of agriculture, too.
“It’s a crop that not too many people think
about as to how it’s harvested and what goes
into making it,” said Robin Stuart, school
and groups program coordinator for Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary in Lincoln,
Mass., which offers a yearly maple tour for
schoolchildren. “Not too many people realize why pure maple is expensive until they
see how it’s made.”
Sugarmakers recommend that you plan
way ahead and let an area school district
know you would welcome their children for
a field trip.
Think long and hard about how many
kids your facility can accommodate, if you
can provide bus parking and sufficient restrooms, and, maybe most importunely, if

your insurance covers visitors.
If the school is unable to provide sufficient adult supervision, recruit friends, relatives and retired teachers to assist. Curious,
excited children are not likely to behave as
well in a new environment as in their home
or classroom.
Juanita Critz, co-owner of Critz Farms
Inc. and Harvest Moon Cidery in Cazenovia, N.Y., said that offering the schoolteachers information on the tour ahead of time
can help them enhance the experience educationally and know how to prepare.
Warm clothing, non-slip footwear, and
ac