Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Hi, welcome to the confessions in the Home Office podcast. My name is Wendy Hill and I have been working out of my home office now for almost 20 years. I started and I've been running a marketing consulting company. Market momentum started in 2005. And each week on the podcast I either cover an important marketing topic or I have a guest on that's also an entrepreneur. Just to give you some other angles and insights on the whole working from home, working for yourself perspective. And so I'm really excited about today's guest. So let's get started.
So this week we have a really special guest. This is a friend of mine. Since when? The early nineties. Yeah, this is Katherine Garrison Davis. She is one of the owners of Denver Downs Farm in Pendleton, South Carolina, and she's here today to talk all about her agritourism business. So welcome, Kathryn.
[00:01:06] Speaker B: Thank you, Wendy. I'm so excited to be here, so proud of you and your company and this is exciting for me. So thank you.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: Oh, well, thank you. I'm glad that you could do this. I know it's a busy time of year for you and just wanted you to go ahead and jump in and talk about, you know, a little bit of background about yourself. I know you worked in corporate for a while and made some changes and then ended up back in the upstate. And I want everybody to hear about that.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: Oh, sure. Okay. Yeah. So I went to Clemson and got my marketing degree. And back in the day it was really a hot thing to get into pharmaceutical sales. So I was a pharmaceutical sales rep for Johnson and Johnson and did well in that industry for twelve years. I was a hospital rep, covered a lot of South Carolina and Georgia and North Carolina. So I was traveling a lot and then along comes children and that changes things a little bit. So I took a step back from my corporate world and stayed at home with my children for several years. And during that time, our farm, our family farm, had started getting heavily involved into agritourism. So I started increasing my efforts with that and really have been doing that now since 20, 26. So each year we get a little bit bigger. So now it's, you know, it's a full time, full time job. Now. My children are a little bit older, so it makes it a lot easier. And we, I was doing a lot of it remote. I lived in Charleston for 20 years and I would just travel, do most of my work on the computer and planning and then just travel to the upstate for events at our farm. And then I decided to move back to the upstate and be right here at the farm. So I'm right in the middle of everything. And since I've been back, we've really been putting more investment in, and it's really taken off the past five years, and it's growing. It's great business. We're real proud of it.
[00:03:07] Speaker A: So when we were in college, it was still dairy and crops. Right? Mainly at Denver dams.
[00:03:14] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: And then. So talk a little bit about how you changed into agritourism.
[00:03:18] Speaker B: Okay. And I'll give you, like, the history of the farm. So, farms, Denver Downs, has been in the garrison family for over 150 years now. Our great grandfather, t ed, I'm sorry, our great grandfather, WD Garrison, he came back from the war between the states, and he had $1 in his pocket. So he went to work for a local cotton mill. Back then, a lot of cotton mills had their own farms. So he was a farm manager for several years, and he saved up money and he bought his own farm. He bought 200 acres on the side of a little dirt road called Old general's road, and that was in Anderson county. And he had eleven children. So back then, they didn't have tractors in 1869, so he had built a big family and farmed that land, 200 acres, mostly cotton farm. But I imagine they had a general, general crops and things to support the family. And then our father, my dad's name is t Ed Garrison, so Clemson folks will know that name. Dad came back from world War two. He was part of the Clemson called the war class. So when they were seniors, they, Pearl harbor happened, and they, the entire senior class at Clemson stood up and volunteered for service in world War two. So five months later after that, they were in training and heading off. So he was in the Pacific arena for World War Two. He came back and bought dairy cows. So he did great things in his career, built up a really large dairy farm. We were the second largest dairy in Anderson county, and Anderson was one of the top dairy counties in South Carolina during that time. Dad also got involved with serving his community in politics, and he was a state senator for 35 years. So he did a lot for agriculture, for Clemson, and for economic development. So the arena at Clemson, the Ta Garrison livestock Arena, is named for him. And that's. We're real proud of that. That's really fun.
So dad had started the dairy farm, and we did that at our farm at Denver Downs. We had hundreds of Holstein dairy cows for many years in the nineties. So when we were in college, the dairy industry was going through a big change, and it was not a good business to be in. We also had a family tragedy. One of our brothers and a longtime employee were killed in a farm accident. So that was.
Had a big change in, you know, our business here. And we got out of dairy, sold the dairy cows, and became a general purpose farm. So we did just row crops, and we had a produce market. We sold produce and black Angus cattle for the next 20 years, and.
But also during the dairy time in the 1960s, our mom, Juanita Garrison, she started giving tours of the dairy way back then, so we've had school groups coming to the farm. That was very forward thinking for mom to give school group tours way back then, so we've continued with that. 20 years ago, we started a little corn maze, and each year, we try to add to the corn maze and make it a better experience for families to come out and visit. And also with school trips, schools are looking for opportunities to come out and see and where food and fiber comes from. So we provide that for a lot of the local schools.
[00:07:02] Speaker A: So, I didn't know that Juanita was the one who started the real agri tourism movement over at Denver down.
[00:07:09] Speaker B: So that doesn't surprise you, does it?
[00:07:11] Speaker A: No, it doesn't at all. So, yeah, she always had stuff going on, and I would say, when we go over to Denver Downs, I mean, it's someplace you can stay all day. I mean, used to, you could go and stay for two or 3 hours, and now you can go and make a whole day out of it with your family or just kind of a date night or whatever. So you guys have done a great job with it. Thank you.
[00:07:32] Speaker B: Yeah, we keep trying to get better and better and make it a great experience for everybody to come out, and I think. I think we're doing that. So we're adding to it each year and making it better. So this year is. We think it's like our 23rd year of doing the fall festival.
[00:07:52] Speaker A: I can't believe how much time has passed. That's a little scary.
[00:07:57] Speaker B: Funny thing is, a few friends from Clemson, you know, that moved away and come back, and they. They come out to the farm, you know, when we've got a band on Saturday night, and, you know, see all that's going on, and they asked me, was this going on back when we were in college? And, like, no, this was not coming on back. You would have heard about it, and we probably would have been out there.
[00:08:17] Speaker A: We would have all been out there. That's right. That's right.
So, what do you like best about agritourism? I know you've grown up in farming, and that's really been, you know, everybody in your family has done for the most part. What do you, what do you like most about it and then where do you see it going with Denver downs and just in the industry in general?
[00:08:36] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a great question. So some, some of my siblings and I, we went away and worked in the corporate world and did other things, and now we've returned back to our farm. So we are back to our roots and we have seen what's going on in the world and done great things out there. And we're bringing our skills that we've learned from other jobs back to the farm. And we are proud of our farm heritage and we want to keep that going. We want the land to be productive. And so we're thinking of creative ways that we can make, make it prosperous, you know, in today's, today's market. So we are using the skills that we've learned, you know, back in pharmaceutical sales, you know, like a lot of organizational and event planning things that I had to do, I'm using those here at the farm and also just, you know, serving customers and, you know, being professional about dealing with, with groups that really helps this versus if I'd gone, you know, right from college into the tourism with our farm, I wouldn't have the same perspective as I do today. So it's.
[00:09:46] Speaker A: Well, go ahead.
[00:09:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:49] Speaker A: I was also thinking about how you don't just have the maze now. You've expanded it so you can have revenue streams coming in year round. So talk about some of those things.
[00:09:58] Speaker B: Yeah, so we've, we're always willing to try new things at our farm. We're going to be a cutting edge and see what, what it makes.
So we have done concerts at our farm and we found that you can make money with concerts, but you can also lose money with concerts. So we're very, very selective on what concerts we have at Denver Downs. We do have live music every weekend during our fall festival. So with, so that gives everyone a little taste. We are going to do a christian music concert the end of October. That will be the first time that we've had a christian music band here. Okay, so that's October 27 is Jason Crabb, and he is two time Grammy award winner. So we're excited about trying out, you know, having, and there's also going to be a comedian there that day. So we're excited about trying out, you having christian concert here.
So we also like having, we know, oyster roasts are big thing. You know, living down in Charleston, I know how much everyone enjoyed oyster roast. So we've bring a little taste of the low country to the upstate for that. And we've been doing an oyster roast for several years, being a fundraiser for local food bank. And in the spring we do big Easter egg hunts. And it was funny. So I would tell back when I lived in Charleston, I would let my friends would know I was planning an Easter egg hunt. And it was funny that, you know, a few people thought that, you know, I meant like an Easter egg hunt with like, you know, 1520 people there, like, right. Not going to be a good event, 15 or 20 people there. But we have like 20,000 eggs. It's a big Easter egg hunt and we have. It's the ultimate Easter egg hunt. So anything that you could possibly think, imagine for a really great Easter egg hunt, we've got it. We've got it all set up. So we love doing our Easter egg hunts. And then flowers are a really hot thing with agritourism, so love coming out to pick flowers at the farms. And I know I love flowers. And our mom, Juanita, she was also a writer, and she wrote a gardening column in many of the upstate papers and wrote several books about gardening. So she's since passed. She's passed away about five years ago. But we. And I know she just looks down on us and just loves that we're doing so much with flowers. But we do a sunflower festival in the summer for two or three weekends, and that brings in people from all over the country. People love coming out to see our sunflowers with tons of different varieties of flowers. And we have vendors that have things related to sunflowers, which people get a kick out of. They love that. And then also in the fall, we have sunflowers and zinnias and pick your own bouquets, many different varieties of flowers. So people just love that. So it leans towards people's desire for getting out and harvesting something so they can cut flowers, take home a bouquet with them, and beautify their home. So we also have mums. So I didn't mention the mums. So we plant thousands of mums in the summer and then sell them in the fall. So we'll plant a little, tiny, tiny, tiny little plant, plug in a pot and irrigate, feed it all summer. And then in the fall, it's this jumbo, big, gorgeous mum. So that people are getting to know Denver Downs is the place to come to get their mums in the fall.
[00:13:34] Speaker A: So when we turn off the recording today, I need some help because every time I buy mums from you, I kill them and I don't want to do that. It makes me sad. So I do not have a green thumb. So I do need to talk to you about that. I made a note about that earlier.
So what advice do you have for people that are getting out of corporate and decide to get back into like, a family business or, you know, I mean, you even know, like with us, we've got land we've been talking about doing something with at some point. I mean, just in general, is there any advice you give people of things to watch out for, things to go for? I mean, I'm just always interested to.
[00:14:10] Speaker B: Hear, oh, yeah, I think it's great to do something on your own land because you're going to be, you know, you've got a passion for it and you wanted to make it something really great. And it leans towards being creative and coming up with really cool ideas and being, you know, having a really authentic business. So I think, think about the skills that you have that you learned or developed and over the years and how you can utilize those in a new business venture. And also think about what you are willing to spend money on for entertainment or tourism or what you would be willing to spend money on. And then that's probably the same as what other people would be willing to spend money and spend their time doing. So you got to think about where people going to spend their money and also how you want to spend your day. If you're thinking about, you know, getting into microgreens, you know, or you're going to be growing, you know, if you want to do apple trees, you got to really think about your interest in that if that's the way you want to be spending each day. You know, do you want to be out there, you know, pruning, pruning these things or, you know, being in the dirt. Do you want to be, what, just exactly how you want to be spending the day, you know, or if you're going to be, and also what kind of investment that you're going to be making. So some people may be, you know, indifferent. They may want to do something that they're gonna make money right away.
So they may have to think about borrowing money for the business or they may want to, you know, think about, they're gonna have to do the work themselves for a specific amount of time to be making money and before they expand. So. And having a good business plan is really important to think about how that business is going to be making money because I think what you want to do is just start doing something, winging it, and finding out later that, okay, we're not going to make any money doing this. So then you just.
[00:16:11] Speaker A: Or it's just a hobby. Yeah. I mean, if you're not making any money, it's just if you're fine to be in a hobby, that's fine, but most likely you won't be long term, so.
[00:16:20] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:16:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:21] Speaker B: If you're doing it for a hobby, that's great.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: Just.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: It's good to have something else that's going to pay the bills.
[00:16:26] Speaker A: Exactly. Exactly. So tell.
Go ahead.
[00:16:30] Speaker B: Yeah. Having a good business plan and thinking about how you want to spend your day each day.
[00:16:38] Speaker A: Okay. That's important. That's good advice.
So tell everybody how they can get to Denver Downs. How do they buy tickets? How long is it going to be open this season? All that good stuff.
[00:16:48] Speaker B: Okay, good. And also going back to that, when you asked about also ideas and stuff, there are associations that people can get involved with. And like there's a South Carolina agrotourism association. There's multi or international business corporations called like North America Direct Farm Marketing association. They have meetings every year. So I do know some people that are, you know, wanting to get into a new business venture with their land. They'll attend meetings like this and get ideas and also talk with the different vendors that are at these meetings to get ideas. So that's something I would recommend. And the South Carolina Agrotourism association, this is kind of neat.
And eight years ago, the commissioner of agriculture, he got about ten farms that were doing agritourism together. And we started a South Carolina agrotourism association and to represent us with different things and just be a united front. And it's amazing. There are now 300 members of this association.
[00:18:00] Speaker A: So that's, oh, my gosh, that's grown fast.
[00:18:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, at the time there were probably 100 agritours and businesses in South Carolina and now there's like 300. So it's definitely growing. People that have, you know, smaller pieces of land, you know, they may have inherited like, you know, and or, you know, wanted to get into agriculture, that they're looking out for ways to do tourism. So I would encourage people to get involved with things like that.
[00:18:28] Speaker A: So that's fantastic.
[00:18:30] Speaker B: We've got, our fall festival is going on. It's always the end of September and through October and into November. So we started off with an emphasis. We've got live entertainment. On the weekends we've got live music. Saturday nights we have a band, the other nights we have live or just a solo acoustic player. We have bonfires. We have a little lighted pumpkin trail that people can go through and so they can think of it as like a little Christmas lights show, except it's a Halloween theme, so that's fun. Walk through and see the little pumpkin lights and then, of course, do the corn maze and pick flowers. And we've got probably the best selection of pumpkins in the state. So we used to grow pumpkins, but now we have a farm in North Carolina that grows them for us and we ship them down. They do a much better job growing the pumpkins. It's not as hot and humid up there, mountains as it is down here. So the pumpkins have a, they're better quality pumpkins than what we would typically grow. So people can pick out their pumpkins while they're here at the farm. We've got great food. We've got barbecue sandwiches and hamburgers, hot dogs, typical kind of fair food, funnel cakes. And for adults, we have a barley and vine beer garden so people can enjoy our nice little beer garden. We've taken a silo and turned it into a bar, which people get a kick out of. And our famous drink there is called a fall frose.
So it's an apple cider wine slushie.
[00:20:07] Speaker A: I've had some frozen and I enjoyed it very much. So it was good. I'm just amazed. Every year there's more and more. Just when I think you've kind of maxed it out over there, then you surprise me and come back and, and do even more fun stuff. So I think that's fantastic.
[00:20:23] Speaker B: And we've had so like coming up with ideas. So we had, we hosted, we haven't belonged to an association of farmers that have corn mazes across the country, and so there's a meeting in Atlanta. And while the, there are like 500 farms getting together in Atlanta and they came up to our farm for a little outing and several of them mentioned that the only thing they thought we were missing out of all the activities that we have, like the zip lines, the slideshow or the small slide, the fall zone, you know, jumping pillow, cow train, things like that, they said it'd be great for you to build a giant mega slide. So we did. We pushed a big hill or had, it had like big trucks and stuff come out there and redo the whole field and we made a giant slide. It's 250ft long, and you sit on an inner tube, so kind of like snow tubing, but without the right. So that's been a big hit that we added that two years ago and this year we added paintball. So we know people.
[00:21:31] Speaker A: Oh, I didn't know about that. Okay.
[00:21:34] Speaker B: So that's. We know we were looking for more things for, like, teenagers or, you know, we're always looking for things for parents to do with their children. And so the paintball gallery is, has become a really big hit. We're glad we did that.
[00:21:49] Speaker A: That's awesome. Well, I'm hoping that we will get out there in the next couple weeks. I always enjoy coming out there. It just. It's great to just get outside and do something all day. And you'll do such a great job.
[00:22:02] Speaker B: And you smile and you laugh and you don't look at your phone and think about work.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: And it's like a good tired when you get home because you've been outside. And it's just. It's a good thing. So that's awesome. Well, that was all great info. I appreciate it so much.
[00:22:18] Speaker B: Absolutely. And people can get tickets on our website. It's denverdownsfarm.com. so that's got all our opening times and.
And how to get tickets.
[00:22:31] Speaker A: Well, that sounds good. Make sure you get over there to Pendleton to Denver Downs Farm. What's the last day? What? November.
[00:22:38] Speaker B: November 10. So.
[00:22:40] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:22:40] Speaker B: November 10 and the last two weekends, which are beginning of November, are going to be our cider fest. So we're going to have an emphasis on cider. So we'll have hot cider, cold cider, hard cider, and we'll have different little apple thing games going on and some vendors. So in addition to all the regular activities that are going on. So we're just, we're adding that to our calendar this year and hopefully it'll be something people be interested in and come out and have fun.
[00:23:11] Speaker A: Well, good. I'm going to put that on my calendar, too, because that sounds. That sounds right up my alley, so.
Well, thank you so much, Catherine. And this is, this ends this episode of confessions from the home Office. Definitely check out Denver Downs, and you'll see Katherine there when you go. A lot of times she's running the pig races and making announcements and keeping everybody in line. Dimmer downs. You can always see her. So thank you so much, and I'll see you next week.
