Zenda Farm Swot Analysis

HP200 Journal Assignment 1 The first assignment that I completed as part of the Honors Seminar was the summer assignments. The summer assignments included the papers that we had to write, the SWOT analysis, the assigned readings, and the visit to a farm that offered agritourism. The most notable part of the summer assignment was the visit to the farm in my home-state, Connecticut, to compare to Zenda Farms. I feel that visiting the farm over the summer was very useful because the visit allowed for me to draw major parallels between the farm I visited and Zenda. Both farms were in the beginning of their journeys to becoming a large and sustainable farm, also both farms have limited financial income and few workers at their possession.
What I was able to learn at Zenda Farms allowed for me to achieve a better grasp on the exact situation that Zenda is actually facing. For instance, the Thousand Island Land Trust (TILT) embellished how great Zenda Farms was doing in the provided readings and caused me to believe Zenda to be far more developed and capable than what they actually were. In reality, Zenda has a long way to go before becoming anything close to a permanent tourist destination. I was with Brenda’s group during the tour of Zenda, and she really outlined a multitude of goals that Zenda and TILT want to achieve in the future. Brenda described the goals that TILT and Zenda had for the creamery building, as an example. TILT and Zenda’s goals for the creamery included turning it into a permanent office building, and maybe even offering classes for students. Brenda also mentioned some of the strengths and weaknesses of the farm that were not explicitly included in the readings that were supplied over the
In order to do the idea jams, the class separated into their respected groups and freely discussed ideas. Together my group was able to come up with a plethora of ideas together that were, potentially, doable. The ideas that my group came up with included ideas like creating a petting zoo, as well as creating a pick your own fruit and vegetable area on the farm. We also deliberated ideas for recreational and educational activities. The group met together to discuss how we were going to do our presentation. The group did a vote on what would be the best idea to pursue. The group collectively decided that renovating the old barn and silo, so that it could be an observatory and a museum, were the best ideas. Once again, my group divided our project into separate parts for each of us to work on. I was entrusted with deciding what would be included in the silo observatory, what exactly would be up in the silo, and what could be observed from the observatory. This part of the idea jam presentation caused me to do independent research. Before my team settled on a specific idea, I researched what would be the most successful items to plant on Zenda, the different types of produce that could be grown in the cold climate of Northern New York, and what attractions to tourists in this part of Northern New York, typically gravitate to. Then, I had to complete research on observatories and compare them to