Web sites help market Georgia produce

ATLANTA --- The taste of fresh-picked peaches, berries and vegetables is a summer treat for many people, and the state is trying to help consumers and farmers find one another.

The Georgia Department of Agriculture's Market Bulletin prints its pick-your-own edition every spring and posts the list online. It includes 23 vegetable farms and 38 offering fruit.

Buying at the farm can be a bargain, but the Market Bulletin offered practical advice.

"If the travel distance is too great, the trip may not be worth it, even if the prices are lower than retail," the department's staff wrote.

To encourage more of what travel experts call agri-tourism, the Tourism Division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development created a Web site, www.gamadegagrown.org, which receives 225 visitors per day.

"Routinely, we are getting calls from people who are either professionals in the tourism industry who want to take a group to a farm or individuals who want to pick their own produce or have a picturesque place for a wedding," said Gilda Watters, the director of the Georgia Tourism Foundation, which oversees the site.

The site is free to both farmers and consumers. It also includes Georgia companies that produce food items, such as pecan candies and barbecue sauces. Since its beginning in January, the site has listed 65 companies.

In conjunction with the University of Georgia, Farm Bureau and the Georgia Agribusiness Council, the state is sponsoring three workshops this fall to foster cooperative marketing between farmers in the same region.

"When people come up to pick pumpkins, we want them to be sure to mention the corn maze that's 10 miles down the road," Ms. Watters said.

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