By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

LANSING, Mich. — Still looking for a place to pick a pumpkin? Need a U-pick farm market to pick apples or some other commodity?
The Michigan Farm Marketing and Agri-Tourism Assoc. has built a website that will help; it’s called “Family Fun on the Farm.” There’s also a paper version of the directory available at area Farm Bureau offices.

“Not farmers’ markets, farm markets,” said Val Vail-Shirrey, co-owner of a company that helps manage the association that produces the website. “They are the actual place of production: U-pick pumpkin patches, U-pick apples, peaches, strawberries – that’s a huge one. Some Christmas tree U-pick operations are on here. Some farmers’ markets advertise on here, too.”

The website began three years ago. “We’re just getting ready to upgrade the website,” Vail-Shirrey said. “It’s going pretty well. This is such a big business. Michigan is second only to California in its variety of commodities.”

The association is going to do a survey next year at farm markets to find out how people find out about the markets they visit, so marketers will have more data at their fingertips. But right now, the webmaster knows how many visitors there are to the website and what pages they click on, providing some indication of how they might be benefiting from the site.

Here’s a brief overview of how the website works: A search for a farm market can be performed by product, county or region. For instance, under a product search the user can choose from nearly 60 product choices via a drop-down menu.

Under a search for farm markets that sell apple cider, for example, about 80 businesses are retrieved from across the state. A listing includes the business name, street address, city, county, telephone number and website address, if any (these addresses are hyperlinked for easy clicking).

Under a search by region, the tool can be a little confusing at first, but it allows the user to search in any of seven different regions of the state, also via a drop-down menu. Number One is the Upper Peninsula, Two the northwestern section of the Lower Peninsula and so on. A numbered map displays the regions in color-coded sections.

For instance, the famous Gene The Pumpkin Man is listed in Region Six with his street address and telephone number. Six is in the southwestern section of the Lower Peninsula and includes Kalamazoo, Gene’s home base.

(Gene Rhodes and his wife, Carol, became well known in the area for wearing orange most of the time, a tactic that was part of a multi-year marketing effort.)

Finally, there is the county search. Just as it sounds, this search brings up all the members of the farm market association in that county. In Washtenaw County, for example – just west of Detroit – the county search option brings up about 21 farm markets, from Adams Farm in Hartford to Wiard’s Orchard and County Fair in Ypsilanti Township.

To check out the website, just go to www.michiganfarmfun.com