Adams Family Farm

Romancing the Farm

Wilmington, Vermont

From the bucolic setting on 210 acres of the sixth generation Adams Family Farm in Wilmington, Vermont, one couldn't imagine more diverse -- and integrated -- enterprises creatively woven together to sustain the land and the farmers who farm it. Jill and Carl Mancivalano own and manage one of Vermont's most popular agritourism attractions, Adams Family Farm, leasing the farmlands from Jill's parents. The energetic couple also produce numerous value-added products made in a commercial kitchen using products grown or raised on the farm or from area farmers.

Since 1865, Adams Family Farm has been diversified, usually following agricultural trends. Over the early years, the farm harvested lumber, made maple syrup, raised dairy cows, and offered sleigh rides. Long before "agritourism" was coined, Adams Family Farm welcomed city residents to escape and experience the farm life. Today, Adams Family Farm grows hay crops, raises goats, llamas, rabbits, horses, sheep, donkeys, alpacas, chickens, pigs, turkeys, rabbits and lovable farm cats, and offers agritourism experiences and educational programs in addition to direct marketing many of their value-added products, often made or processed on the farm.

Adams Family Farm is best known for their authentic farm experiences, resonating strongly with a growing audience of people interested in the land, their food and farm life. Visitors to the farm can gather eggs, bottle feed baby calves, or milk a goat. In other words, do chores. "When kids pick up an egg, warm to the touch, they make the connection to the land and the farm," comments Jill who grew up on the farm and returned to it after spending time working in the city. For the farm experiences, visitors happily pay $12.95 per day per adult and $10.95 for children for a One Day Farm Experience Pass.

To appeal to people without children, but still with an interest in farm life and rooster crows, Adams Family Farm developed special seasonal events like Halloween Bonfire Parties, Barn Dances, Corporate Dinner Parties, Wedding Rehearsal Events, and Evening Wildlife Outings that include star-gazing and learning to call in the owls. Hayrides take visitors through the maple sugar grove to explore bear caves before turning back to the farm for "farmgirl" Jill's homemade treats from the kitchen.

Adams Family Farm has, to a large degree, solved one problem plaguing agriculture: the weather. "We're trying not to be so weather dependent with our farm operations," comments Jill, about their focus on farm experiences and education. "There's as much money in entertaining folks on the farm as there is in the farm products or crops we might raise. But you need the crops, the livestock and the products for the entertainment to be successful. They go hand in hand." The diversity of farm experiences account for 50 percent of the farm's gross annual income. There's even an Indoor Livestock Barn and Barn Theatre for visitors during the cold weather months.

Adams Family Farm is a popular Vermont attraction, as opposed to a high production farm, for good reason. "With such a limited population in Vermont, and only 2,200 people in Wilmington, we need to go after the travelers who come to Vermont," explains Jill. "These folks are who we can draw from for our livelihood." During a typical August weekend, over 30,000 tourists might be passing through their area.

Varying by season, Adams Family Farm has made farm life so appealing and participative that it's hard not to find something to do, ride, eat or buy. There are afternoon teas, knitting circles and spinning bees. Sleigh rides pulled by Belgian draft horses run until the snow doesn't fly, then hayrides take visitors around the farm. While the sleigh rides are popular, often transporting 350 people per day through their woods, it's Adams Family Farm's Halloween hayrides which pack in the farm on crisp Autumn Saturday nights, often transporting over 600 people in one day.

"Because of the skiing at the Mount Snow Area, we get over 500,000 people driving by the farm in wintertime," shares Jill. "All we need to do is attract just a portion of all these tourists to our farm." Adams Family Farm hosts more than 45,000 visitors each year, many repeat customers who return for the different activities offered at other times of the year.

Visitors to the farm have changed over the years from when, in the late 1890s, guests would stay on the farm for a week or two. "We offer more daytime and evening activities now," shares Jill. "Visitors are more accustomed to instant gratification and want to be educated and entertained in a lively way. They don't have time to relax for a week or two like they used to do when my great grandparents ran their guest house."

Making up the other 50 percent of their farm income, value-added products provide another area where Adams Family Farm excels. From hand-spun farm yarns made with fiber from their sheep to goats milk soap, from delicious fruit jams to mouthwatering jellies, the farm is always producing something. The farm pastures about fifty sheep, producing the high quality wool, and fifty Angora goats, from which they make numerous goats milk products. “We still produce maple syrup and add value to that as well,” says Jill. “We produce our own line of popular maple mustard and maple barbeque sauce in addition to maple cotton candy and fudge.”

"In this new era of agriculture, more diversification and direct marketing of products to our customers, versus selling wholesale, is required to stay profitable," explains Jill. "Education and entertainment is a part of reaching our customers. We provide a hands-on experience for visitors to learn about where their food and fiber come from. They walk away with a better understanding of what it takes to farm. We also create wonderful memories for our guests."

Adams Family Farm's 1,500-square-feet Farm Store overflows with products made on the farm. Gaps in offerings are easily filled with hundreds of products made in Vermont. Their 800-square-foot Quilt and Fiber Arts Loft features nearly 100 handmade quilts and is the location of their Fiber Arts activities. Having earned such a reputation, their sales have increasingly been augmented by Internet-based sales from their new on-line store.

"We live in a tough growing area where we might have a crop disaster because of frosts or other issues every three years," explains Jill. "So much of our fruit for our value added products comes from growing areas that are not as prone to growing challenges, just twenty miles away. Because of our high mountain valleys, we've not gotten into vegetable production. Our high winds prevent us from trying to grow Christmas trees."

Given Adams Family Farm's steady stream of visitors on a daily basis during the day, Jill concedes that she welcomes a bit of peace and quiet in the evenings. "We have no plans to start a restaurant or open up lodging. We need to balance our operations with a little time for ourselves and our family," she adds, recognizing that among her and her husband's many farm hats is as parents to their two children.