Germinated by the 2016 New Hampshire agritourism law and fertilized on the trail of the dude ranch, New Hampshire has spawned the hybrid dude farm.
At the Western dude ranch you can take a narrated trail ride with a bow-legged cowhand named Zeke who guides you through the manicured wilderness, terminating with a boxed lunch at the ‘ol chuck wagon, which doubles as a souvenir shop.
At the New Hampshire dude farm you can picnic in a hay field, cut flowers in the landscaped garden and take a selfie in front of the charming old farm truck on your way past the free-range chickens to the snack bar or farm store.
These businesses are tourist facades that profit both from driving people through the admission gate and racking up Facebook followers. The newly erected dude farms include a small agricultural component to hide under the very broad agritourism law. Dude farms are sneaking into residential neighborhoods and racking up impressive profits while commercializing and destroying the country charm they peddle. This is wrong.
State legislators need to take another pass at this law and put these tourist centers back under the commercial/retail headings where they belong and make working farms the beneficiaries of agritourism as intended.
BARBARA MARTY
Warner