By Cathalena E. Burch Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Sunday, June 5, 2011 12:00 am
http://azstarnet.com/news/state-and-regional/history-and-culture/article_cb9ae456-1df8-5bf9-88d6-f0f108e9e2ab.html
QUEEN CREEK – Along a two-mile stretch of country road smack in the middle of bucolic farmland that goes on for miles and miles, three family-owned businesses are breathing new life into the tourism industry here.
Schnepf Farms, Queen Creek Olive Mill and The Pork Shop have loosely teamed up to promote Queen Creek as an agri-tourism destination, a place that allows you to literally return to the land and get your hands dirty in a perfectly delicious way.
Among them, the businesses are bringing as many as 200,000 people to Queen Creek each year to pick vegetables and fruits, sample olive oil and get their fill of brats and bacon.
“They are tourist attractions and they draw people here in an abundant way,” said Marquis Scott, the president and executive director of the Queen Creek Chamber of Commerce. “I think it becomes the attraction for tourism outside of the metropolitan Phoenix area.”
“We’re bringing urban people out into the country to have a farm experience,” said Mark Schnepf, who runs his family’s 70-year-old farm with his wife, Carrie. “All of us have some connections to agriculture even though it might be far removed. (You get to) have that opportunity to reconnect and get your hands dirty in the soil and to have that experience that is very nostalgic and very affordable.”
Schnepf has long dreamed of creating an agri-tourism industry in Queen Creek, where his family began farming in 1941. When he was the town’s first mayor in the 1990s, he reached out to neighboring farms about the idea, but most weren’t interested. Their farmland was more valuable to developers, and Schnepf saw many of them sell out.
So Schnepf took steps on his own, building on his father Ray’s earlier moves in that direction that included opening a roadside produce stand in the 1970s next to his field. The stand eventually gave way to a farmer’s market that is still in operation today along with a casual cafe and bakery.
Over the years, Mark Schnepf branched out into other ventures to bring tourists to his farm. The family’s farmhouse, where he was raised and where he raised his four now teen-age children, was converted into a wedding and reception center. He created a petting zoo and amusement rides for kids and festivals centered on the growing seasons and opened his gardens up for u-pick, allowing consumers to pick their own produce and pay a per-pound price.
In the 1990s, he set aside 250 acres of the farm for Country Thunder USA’s annual four-day country music festival, which ran there from 1991 to 2000. The festival grounds have also hosted the Edgefest alternative-rock event, and there are plans to bring in a Christian-rock festival, Schnepf said.
Tourist traffic has slowed a bit in the last several years, but “it’s slowly coming back,” Schnepf said.
“We have about 150,000 people a year, and quite frankly that’s a huge number,” he said. “That means we’re one of the top attractions in the Phoenix area.”
At the Olive Mill, located kitty-corner from the farm, general manager Rob Holmes estimated 200,000 people a year have visited the marketplace and mill since it opened in 2005.
On a Sunday in early May, hundreds of people strolled through the sizable marketplace, sampling nearly a dozen varieties of handcrafted artisan olive oils and an equal number of tapenades. The line to the 4-year-old Tuscan-inspired del Piero cafe, the centerpiece of the market, snaked almost to the door, and the dining area was filled.
Out in the grove, where the mill hosts a handful of festivals and dinners every year, a jazz ensemble performed while dozens of people sat on picnic tables beneath olive trees nibbling grilled chicken and roast beef panini sandwiches rich with the house EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), or crisp cool salads flecked with candied almonds, pungent crumbles of gorgonzola and crisp green apples.
“We discovered within a year or two that we had stumbled into the agri-tourism industry,” Holmes said, which made sense for the small mill. “We are never going to be a Colavita or Bertolli. The idea is to authentically produce a product but roll that into a well-rounded experience for consumers.”
A couple miles up Combs Road from the mill, the Pork Shop does an admirable business selling 20 varieties of house-made sausages, six varieties of handcrafted bacon and every imaginable cut of pork, from the loin to St. Louis-style ribs.
Greg Combs, a member of another longtime Queen Creek farming family, opened the shop in 1979 as a way to sell his swine products directly to consumers. Aside from a casual lunch counter that sells fresh-made barbecue sandwiches, burritos and ribs, the shop does not have the touristy drawing power of its neighbors.
“We’re just kind of a little meat shop that gets in on the action because of everyone else,” said manager Jason Corman.
Many customers find the Pork Shop thanks to the Olive Mill. A posted sign as you leave the property encourages patrons to visit the butcher and the farm.
“Because of the uniqueness of their personalities as businesses and what they are focused on, they … can be the continuum between history, present and future,” Scott said. “Whatever we are going to become as a future in Queen Creek, those are going to continue the past of what we have been … and what we continue to be here.”
Schnepf Farms
24810 S. Rittenhouse Road, 1-480-987-3100
• Hours: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays. Closed the months of July and August for planting and planning.
• History: Ray and Thora Schnepf began farming in Queen Creek in 1941. The farm is operated by their son Mark and his wife, Carrie.
• What they sell: U-pick-it fruits and vegetables from their garden and groves, with per-pound prices starting at $1.50 for vegetables, about 60 cents more a pound if you buy them from the market. The lunch-counter menu runs $5-$9.
• While you’re there: Head out to the fields and pick some veggies and fruits. If you have young kids, turn them loose on the carousel, train and hayride, or let them pet the animals. There’s also a country store, bakery and patio cafe that uses fresh products from the farm.
• Sample time: Taste jams, jellies, pickled products and dressings.
• Special events: Apples and spring vegetables are on deck for u-pick in June. Mega Farm Market Festival will be Sept. 24-25, and the fall festival is in October.
• Online: www.schnepffarms.com
• Make at home:
Peach Paradise
Serves: 6 to 8
• 1 box vanilla wafers
• 1 stick softened margarine
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 pounds sliced peaches
• Cool Whip
Crush vanilla wafers, spread all but 1/4 cup on bottom of a 9×13-inch pan. Mix the margarine, powdered sugar, milk and vanilla and drizzle over wafers. Then layer peaches over that. Spread Cool Whip over peaches. Sprinkle remainder of wafers over top. Refrigerate until it sets.
Recipe courtesy Carrie Schnepf, Schnepf Farms
Queen Creek Olive Mill
25062 S. Meridian Road, 1-480-888-9290
• Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
• History: Owners Perry and Brenda Rea started growing olives in 1997 and soon began experimenting with olive oil. They opened the mill and marketplace in 2005.
• What they sell: All manner of foods flavored with olive oil, from baked goods and pastas to rubs and sauces. Flavored olive oils (blood orange, chili, garlic Parmesan, chocolate, vanilla bean, Mexican lime) start at $12.39 for 250 ml and $18.19 for 500 ml. Seasonal and house presses start at $10.99 for 250 ml. Boxed gift sets start at $23.99. Tapenades and spreads are $9.49 for a 9-ounce jar.
• While you’re there: Take a tour of the olive groves and learn how they cold-press the fruit into oil soon after it’s hand-harvested. In the fall, you can watch them press the oil. Tours are $5.
• Sample time: There’s an olive-oil tasting bar where you can sip several varieties, including the fruity and fragrant blood-orange-infused, the intriguing vanilla-infused and the truffle olive oil with pronounced earthy tones. You can also sample the tapenades, from the savory Asiago Parmesan with salty flecks of cheese to the sweet and tangy sun-dried tomato.
• Special events: July 2-4, July 4th Grill in the Grove, featuring live jazz music and a special holiday menu. Sept. 3-5, Labor Day Grill in the Grove. Oct. 15-Nov. 13, Olive Harvest.
• Online: queencreekolivemill.com
• Make at home:
Mexican Lime Olive Oil Cake
Serves: 6
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 10 ounces Queen Creek Olive Mill Mexican Lime Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 10 ounces milk
• 2 ounces lime juice
• 3 teaspoons lime zest
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (325 if convection oven) and grease a 10-inch pan or make into cupcakes.
Whisk the eggs, sugar, olive oil, milk, citrus juice and zest.
Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
Mix the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and whisk until blended.
Pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour. No frosting necessary.
Recipe courtesy of Queen Creek Olive Mill
The Pork Shop
3359 E. Combs Road, 1-480-987-0101
• Hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays; closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
• History: Greg Combs, a member of one of Queen Creek’s pioneering farm families, opened his small butcher shop on the family’s homestead in 1979.
• What they sell: Pork chops and loins (from $4.09 a pound) to ribs (starting at $3.49 a pound for spare ribs) to fresh and smoked sausages (starting at $3.99 a pound) to lunch meats (starting at $5.79 a pound) to hams (starting at $3.19 a pound). A half hog (75 pounds total) is $219.
• While you’re there: Grab one of their popular barbecue-pork burritos and a soda and sit outside, where you can inhale the tantalizing perfume of the smokers doing their magic on the handcrafted bacons. The small lunch counter at the store also sells pulled-pork sandwiches, ribs and green-chile burritos starting at $4..
• Sample time: On any given day, you can snack on six to eight varieties of The Pork Shop sausages at the counter. The shop also puts out nibbles from the smokers, including ribs, pulled pork and bacon.
• Special events: Brat Saturdays every Saturday in October and March.
• Online: theporkshopaz.com
• Make at home:
Beer brats
Makes: 12 brats
• 64 ounces of beer – the cheap stuff; leave the good stuff for drinking, says Pork Shop manager Jason Corman – enough to fill a cookpot.
• 1 roughly chopped onion
• 1 stick of butter
• 12 Pork Shop brats
Combine the beer, onions and butter in a crock pot or cookpot and bring to a boil. Turn down and let simmer.
Grill the brats until cooked through, then transfer them into the beer mixture and simmer for 45 minutes.
Serve on a bun and dress up with the onions from the sauce.
Recipe courtesy Jason Corman, The Pork Shop
Driving to Queen Creek
To get to Queen Creek, take Interstate 10 West to Exit 211 (Coolidge/Florence, Arizona 87). Continue on Arizona 87 19 miles and turn right onto 287 East. Turn left onto North Attaway Road then left onto Hunt Highway, where you will continue for about 12 miles until you reach North Gary Road. Turn right onto North Gary Road, which becomes South Rittenhouse Road. All of these are located off Rittenhouse.
“We’re bringing urban people out into the country to have a farm experience.”
Mark Schnepf,
Schnepf Farms
Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@azstarnet.com or 573-4642.