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Old 02-13-2016, 01:16 PM   #1
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Harvest Hosts?

Hello to everyone and thank you to all who enjoyed my last post about bringing our new 17A home through the December rains.

I am now curious to learn if any of you have any experience with staying with members of the Harvest Host program. I have heard good things but would like to hear more first-hand reports.

Much Thanks
Allan
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Old 02-13-2016, 06:27 PM   #2
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Hi Allan
We joined Harvest Hosts for the first time last year and will be using it again on our next trip. We used it on three occasions. Two of the hosts were great experiences, one not so much.

Our first experience, the not so good one, was at a country store in the Okonogan valley of Washington State. The place where we were to park was on a slope and would have required a major levelling job and disconnecting the trailer. We gave up on the place.

Luckily there was another Host 30 minutes away who took us on short notice. We were camped in a peach orchard on the banks of the Columbia River. Next morning we bought a lovely breakfast and some take out quiche for lunch at their coffee shop/fruit stand.

Our second successful stop was Pedrozo Dairy and Cheese near Redding California Pedrozo Dairy and Cheese Co This is a small family farm which milks about 20 cows and produces wonderful, unpasteurized cheese. The family gave us a tour of the dairy operation on the evening we arrived and a tour of the cheese operation next morning. We thoroughly enjoyed learning about their farm operation and getting an insight into the life of a farm family. We still have one wedge of their delicious cheese in the frig. We hope to go back on future trips.
It seems that 90% of Harvest Host operations are wineries. These are not a great interest of ours. But cideries, fruit stands, country stores, cheese, etc are. We are planning to go to a date operation near Death Valley later this spring.

So to conclude, I think HarvestHost is a good organization. You soon recover the annual cost of membership if you use it a few times a year. And it connects you with people in a unique and meaningful way.
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Old 02-13-2016, 08:45 PM   #3
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We have been very happy with our Harvest Hosts memberships. We have stayed at wineries, coffee shops and apple orchards. The quality of the stay, varies, but we have camped right on the banks of the Columbia River in the middle of an apple orchard with the smell of ripe apples all around us. We camped at St. Croix Wineries in Deming, NM. It was just a gravel lot, and we ended up buying a case of wine. More expensive than a campground, but the wine was good and it was on sale.

We like Harvest Hosts for the "one night stands" where we are just going to pull in and have a place to park overnight. The other alternative for these occasions is usually a Walmart or a Cracker Barrel.

We haven't done a Harvest Host yet this trip, but hope to now that we are "wine country".
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Old 02-13-2016, 09:56 PM   #4
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Can you search their directory by the type of place you want to stay at? Wineries don't interest me that much, but a dairy farm or a place that makes cheese - yeah, I'm there! Love cheese!

I cruised their site a bit but since I'm not a member I couldn't tell how searchable their directory is.

Not sure I'd want to visit the alligator farm - saw enough on an episode of Dirty Jobs to last me my lifetime.

Oooo, read the press reviews. Where's the donkey rescue? I'd stay there in a flash, if possible. Heck, any animal rescue (well, the furry 4 legged kind, that is).
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Old 02-14-2016, 02:08 PM   #5
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HarvestHost Directory

The directory is available as a pdf file or you can view it on a webpage. Locations are shown on Google Maps. Here is a screenshot. Searching is done by narrowing down options by geographical area and a fairly broad category represented by the colour of the map symbol.

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Old 02-20-2016, 05:44 PM   #6
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A belated Thank You! to Dave & Leon for your input about Harvest Hosts. I think that I am going to give it a try for this year.

Allan
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