There’s a seasonality to agritourism.

But what if there’s a way that you could extend the magic of the season? Many operators are turning to side gigs to extend their businesses and add income.

Michelle and Aaron Peck own and operate BEL Christmas Tree Farm, just east of Salina, Kan. The couple have found several different smart opportunities to extend the marketability of their farm outside of December’s rush.

An opportunity

Seven years ago, the owners of BEL Tree Farm were retiring after 60 years of providing holiday memories for the families of Saline County. And although owning a tree farm wasn’t on Michelle’s Christmas list to Santa, as she says, Aaron had special memories of working at the farm during winters when he was a teenager. Both knew that if the tradition was to stay alive for the community, they would need to buy it.

“It’s more a labor of love, and something that we want to try to keep open and keep going for the community and the new generations that like to come out,” Aaron adds. Michelle is the executive director of The Garage Automotive Museum in Salina. Aaron used to sell grain for Cargill, but now has an agricultural spraying business. And now each fall and winter, they put on their Santa hats.

But they knew that if they were going to make this business work, they needed to expand what the farm offered and think creatively, Michelle says.

“To keep this going, you have to be really thrifty and really creative,” she says. “You’ve got to find great partners to work with, great vendors to work with. It takes a lot of people.” That’s where Michelle’s background in marketing comes in very handy.

They took stock of what they had on the farm. They had acres of trees in various stages of growth. They had a barn that also served as a gift shop. And they were just a few miles outside of Salina — close enough for families to continue their traditions of going to the country to pick a tree for Christmas.

The next step was to start adding complimentary business enterprises.

More than just trees

The Pecks have introduced a lot of things in seven years to add to the magic of BEL Tree Farm:

Social media has really made these added ventures work, Aaron says. Michelle’s marketing expertise helps, but having a presence on Facebook and Instagram is vital to enticing customers to come experience the tree farm for themselves.

Making memories

Even though there’s plenty of added side gigs to bring in income, there’s still plenty of free things to do at the tree farm, Aaron says. “We try to not nickel-and-dime a family, and still be profitable and watch our overhead at the same time,” Aaron adds. “We just want all families to be able to come out here and enjoy the farm.”

For example, it’s free to come out to the farm and walk among the trees and the giant fiberglas Christmas decorations like the waving Santa Claus at the front of the property.
“That Santa is probably about the same age as I am,” Aaron says with a smile. Generations of Salina families have pictures of themselves with it, Michelle says.

“We offer free popcorn, and we do free apple cider with the cinnamon syrup we make that we also sell in the gift shop,” Michelle adds. “We still offer a free Christmas ornament with every tree purchase.”

The Pecks also offer free horse-drawn hayrack rides the first weekend in December. And now they have added two Christmas donkeys, Belle and Yukon Cornelius, to the delight of children and their parents — as well as a small group of goats. Aaron says it’s a good way to add a little farm education to the family excursions to select their trees.

The Pecks say there’s a lot of opportunities that agritourism businesses could add to their operations to extend their seasonality. But the key to extending the holiday magic is choosing something that fits within your operation’s labor and capital resources — and is enjoyable.

“We just love Christmas and all things Christmas,” Michelle says.