Farms: Bedford Co. bison farm creating boost for area business

Original Air Date: 3/17/14 By: Melanie Gillespie BEDFORD CO., Pa. --A farm in Bedford County is not only providing for a family, but it's giving a new sense of agriculture and business to the region.The Bison Corral has been around since the late '80s and has become a tourist attraction.It sits tucked away off of Lincoln Highway near Schellsburg.There's nobody else around here that has buffalo or sells buffalo,‚ Cynnamon Darrow said.Darrow‚„s family owns the farm that sits on 200 acres of land and filled with roaming bison. It started with four, and has turned into hundreds of bison grazing, a bison-themed gift shop. We sell the meat, and breed them; and also sell the meat to other people,‚ Darrow said.Melissa Jacobs owns the nearby Jean Bonnet Tavern. She said, ‚“Whenever you can work cooperatively with another business that caters to visitors in the area, it's definitely a win-win.‚The restaurant has carried bison meat on its menu for more than a decade, and sold as many as 5,000 bison burgers last year alone.To use a local product, we get a lot of visitors to the area, and they're interested in trying something that's produced here in Bedford County,‚ Jacobs said.It's a product that‚„s locally grown, bred and raised and gives an economic boost to the business in the county.The gift shop refers so many people to come and try the bison meat here, so, it's had a positive impact on us,‚ Jacobs said.Several other area businesses also buy meat from the farm to sell in their restaurant.Bison have come as far as North Dakota, and even Canada.