The Adirondack Cuisine Trails were established in 2018 by the New York State Department of Ag and Markets. Since then, the project has been in the planning phase by the Adirondack Cuisine Trail Network, a non-profit made of local-food partners created to administrate the six trails across Essex, Clinton, and Franklin Counties. In the summer of 2021, the Adirondack Cuisine Trail Association selected Adirondack Harvest to lead the cuisine trails.
See the full listing of Adirondack Cuisine Trails here.
Why Join the Adirondack Cuisine Trails?
The goal of the Adirondack Cuisine Trails is to promote local-food businesses in the Adirondacks. By joining, your business will be a part of Adirondack Harvest’s collective outreach efforts to grow awareness of local food, farms, and agriculture in the Adirondacks.
With your Cuisine Trail Membership, your business will:
- -Have all of the Adirondack Harvest membership benefits (business profile on website, included in marketing outreach, use of Adirondack Harvest logo on packaging, signage for your business…etc)
- -Be listed on both the AdirondackHarvest.com interactive cuisine trails page and the main AdirondackHarvest.com directory
- -Be listed on cuisine trail print maps and brochures
- -Be a part of special cuisine trail digital and print marketing, advertising and press outreach
- -Be invited to participate in a special “Open Farm Weekend” event that will aim to highlight one cuisine trail each year
- -Have a potential opportunity to have your business name listed on permanent highway signage (TBD)
Who Can Join?
Operations eligible to apply for membership (as designated by New York State Department of Ag and Markets): “cuisine trail” shall mean an association of producers, that may include a combination of producers, food or agricultural product processors and retailers including, but not limited to, restaurants, that are in close proximity to each other, and that sell in a cooperative manner a complementary variety of unusual, unique, gourmet or hard to find fresh farm and food products and foods prepared primarily with such products for on or off-premises consumption, including but not limited to, herbs, meats, vegetables, salad materials, wines or other alcoholic beverages and/or non-alcoholic beverages, cut flowers, mushrooms, or fruits.
New York State Requirements for Cuisine Trail Membership
Insurance: Member businesses are required to hold their own business insurance.
Open to the public: The business is required to provide operational hours that are clearly posted to the public (examples: website, social media, business signage, etc.). Seasonal operations are allowed, but the business must be open with regular hours at least 3 days a week during the season.
Business Location: Business must be within 5 miles of New York State-designated cuisine trail route.
Visible to the Public: Businesses must be visible to the public through at least one of the following: website, Facebook, Instagram, Google Business, promotional flyers, etc.
Restaurant Eligibility: Restaurants must use at least five (5) local products in their food preparation and highlight them as best as possible on their regular or special menu. Local is defined as foods grown, caught, and/or processed within a 250-mile radius of the business location.
Membership Fee: $25 (suggested) Adirondack Harvest Membership + $25 Cuisine Trail Membership. To join the Adirondack Cuisine Trails, businesses must be a member of Adirondack Harvest. Adirondack Harvest membership is a $25 suggested donation with many benefits to expand the visibility of your business. It is an additional annual charge of $25 for businesses to join an Adirondack Cuisine Trail. This contribution directly supports signage, marketing materials, and outreach to promote cuisine trails.
The Adirondack Harvest and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Essex County team will re-open enrollment for joining the trail network in 2023. If you’d like to join the Adirondack Cuisine Trails, please contact Laurie Davis at info@adirondackharvest.com
