In the quest to find a quiet solo excursion to get back to nature, to take time to read a book and decompress Penny Burton had trouble finding what she was looking for.
So she created her own oasis at Brae Ridge Farm & Sanctuary, an alpaca sanctuary she owns and operates in Puslinch.
The A-frame style cabin is called the Meadow Lark and is situated on 25 acres of farmland.
The idea of having guest accommodations on a farm isn't unfamiliar in the Guelph and Wellington County area. Burton's is one of several farm stays, as farmers find ways to generate supplemental income apart from their main business.
All of the local farms who use sites like Airbnb to manage their bookings specialize in different kinds of farming from livestock and crops to trees.
For a lot of these farms the guesthouse side hustle as part of their business spawned out of the pandemic and some of the farms started offering their cabins in the summer of 2020.
Burton gets a lot of solo women staying in the cabin.
“I think because it's owned and operated by a woman. And I'm close enough that if they need anything, I'm right there to help. But far enough away that they're totally private,” said Burton.
The cabin is open mid-May to the first week of November.
So far the revenue from the farmstay has generated roughly $24,000, about the cost of building it, since it opened in 2021. Burton won’t know until next year the true amount the cabin makes, but all the money it does generate goes right back to the farm and alpacas.
Burton’s sanctuary isn’t the only farmland in Guelph and Wellington County that has guest accommodations, about an hour away from Puslinch is the Elliott Tree Farm in Hillsburgh.
The tree farm has a bed and breakfast with three cabins for guests to stay in. It’s open all year around, even in the winter.
“We give privacy … we provide the continental breakfast and you've got the space to yourself. It's very rustic. There's no running water,” said Derek Elliot, tree farmer.
“I think we're more of a two day getaway.”
The guest experience started in 2020 and is an addition to the list of experiences the farm offers, which include maple sugar shack in the spring and Christmas trees at this time of year.
The farm has three cabins, two are open all year, a one night stay starts at $165 and can accommodate two people per cabin.
A glamping experience can be found at the Pfisterer Farm in Kenilworth in Wellington County.
The experience first started in June 2020 when the provincial system to book campsites was sold out and people were looking for things to do.
"So we thought, okay, this might be a good opportunity to bring folks out to the farm in a safe environment, where it's only, you know, one family, and that they can really experience what we get to (do) every day," said Jessica Pfisterer, owner and operator of the farm, along with her husband Ryan Pfisterer.
At the time her son had some medical complexities so the secluded camping experience allowed others who were worried about their health to be able to getaway to a safe environment.
Guests drive down in a farm truck to where the tent overlooks the farm's fields. It is a large emperor tent with a queen bed and a futon. It can sleep up to six people. It costs $238 per night, and can be booked through Airbnb.
She didn't grow up on a farm but her husband did, and now they have a farm of their own. "But you know, we're very lucky to live out here. And the experiences that we kind of take for granted now, are definitely unique to a lot of our guests," said Pfisterer.
What sets the glamping experience apart from other Airbnb stays is the fact there is so much space on the farm to roam around. She has a lot of guests from Toronto who were stuck in apartments during the pandemic and coming to the farm their children never had so much green space to run around in, she said.
When their glamping tent first opened, blogTo picked up on it and published a story. Every day of the week was booked for the rest of the summer. They were able to break-even their first year.
On a 100 acres of farmland where they sell meat like beef, poultry and pork using regenerative and sustainable farming practices, glamping is another way to diversify their farm income, she said.
"You know, we're always looking at ways to increase our revenue streams on the farm. So this was one way for us to do it," said Pfisterer.
The cabin is available to book between mid-May to the weekend after Labour Day.
In Guelph/Eramosa Walnut Ridge Family Farm is situated on 130 acres with a cabin fit for four on the property.
At first they offered homestays in the family home on the farm and it generated a lot of interest.
Then they decided to use their office, separate from the farm, and turn it into a guest cabin and call it The Farm Shed. It was originally a farm machinery shed and pig pen.
It is winterized with gas heating in the winter and air conditioning in the summer.
The farm used to be a beef farm but they sold their cattle some years ago. Now it is a cash crop farm and they grow corn, soybeans and wheat.
There are also chickens who roam free on the property and give them fresh eggs, along with their cat Theo.
In the winter most of their work revolves around the business and marketing of the farm.
It allows for a more consistent cash flow for the farm business, said Trish Scott, owner and operator of Walnut Ridge Family Farm with her husband Dean Scott, who both grew up on family farms.
“Our experiences here, why we built a home where we raised our family, we farm, and I call it my little slice of paradise or a little slice of heaven, because we're close-ish to the city,” said Scott.
Close enough to the city but far enough to see the stars in the night sky, she said.
It is a place for people to come and relax, to have a cottage experience without having to drive far away to get there, Scott said.
Considering the cost of running the cabin and subtracting it from the revenue, she doesn’t know just yet how much the cabin has generated since it has been opened, she said.
“It’s not going to save the farm, it’s not going to replace farming as a main source of revenue,” she said.
