Family Farm Day Goes Virtual for 2020 This Saturday

In a press release, it was just announced that the annual Family Farm Day will be conducted online this year due to the COBID-19 pandemic.

“With the necessity of cancelling Family Farm Day this year, we created an opportunity to keep farms and farmers’ markets foremost in the public eye, to promote awareness of agriculture, and to help farms build stronger customer bases,” said David Cox, Cornell Cooperative Extension Agriculture and Horticulture Program Leader. “Since COVID-19 hit hard in March, customer interest in our local food supply has grown considerably. Farms and farmers’ markets have been selling most everything produced – sales are expected to be robust for the season.”

“People are coming every day to ‘U-pick’ whatever I have,” said Willy Bruneau, Middlefield Orchards. “It’s great for them and for our business… I love it!”

As a result of the confluence of these two forces – food availability during a pandemic and being unable to offer farm tours as in past years - CCE decided to produce an Online Farm Listing, showing participating farms with products offered and their contact information.

“We’re promoting farm product sales ONLY this year, not farm visits, encouraging customers to initiate the contact for farm product purchasing,” Cox added. We’re using social media to promote the listing and keep it refresh during the season.”

The event is Saturday August 29, from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.  For details and to view the complete Online Farm Listing at www.FamilyFarmDay.org.  For more information, contact CCE Schoharie and Otsego Counties at 518.234.4303 (x111), or email at schoharie@cornell.edu.

Cornell Cooperative Extension provides equal program and employment opportunities.