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.
The actual field trip to Zenda Farms was extremely informative and helpful.
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
summer. In class we went over how to make business plans with Marc Compeau, and what to focus on for our classes’ SWOT Analyses. Also, the whole class did a basic SWOT analysis with each other with Compeau’s help. The conjoined SWOT allowed for new and different ideas to be passed and shared amongst each other. My group, Group A, had to combine all of our SWOT Analyses together to create a final SWOT for Zenda. We all met together in the Price Hall Classroom to work on the paper. There we decided to split the entire SWOT into different sections for us to work on. I was tasked with completing our group’s internal strengths section of the SWOT. In order to properly combine all of our SWOTs together, I researched all the main points that each person wrote in depth. For example, I searched to find exactly what type of birds that Zenda Farms possess, how much land they own, and the surrounding area, especially the Town of Clayton. My group met together for a second time to once again work on the SWOT analysis and do the final revisions. Recently, the class had started working on idea jams with Erin Draper.
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
Zenda’s silo to make our final idea jam presentation more feasible. For the future, I plan to spend more time addressing the strengths of Zenda Farms and which plans that the class’ groups presented embody those strengths the best. I also plan to spend more time revamping my group’s idea with the rest of my team, addressing the concerns and questions that were brought up during our presentation. Then I will carefully select which team’s idea and plan I feel would be the best to work on. A goal that I have is to choose to work on a project that I feel would be the best for Zenda Farms, and something that I would easily be able to invest myself in.