Pick your own fruit farm

[for-all-occasions]

Hi just wondered if anyone had any advice on a pick your own strawberry field or similar type of thing. Mainly looking at strawberries, pumpkins and rasberries to start with. Any advice or where to go for advice wiuld be much appreciated.

 

[Stedurham]

One near me does well, but guess it seasonal, they also have a garden centre part, again seasonal. But they do nice coffees sandwiches etc which seems busy all year round.
Not sure you could sustain just having one

 

[Ian J]

There's a big one quite near us but they also sell through local garden centres and greengrocers etc and I'm not sure how profitable these enterprises are when dependant solely on PYO

Having watched my mother eat most of the strawberries that she picked I'm sure that these places would be more profitable if instead of weighing the basket they weighed the person when entering and leaving and charged for the difference in weight

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Ian
Please stop giving them idea's like that. it works ok as it is

 

[webprojectuk]

I like the idea.. Do you have the land or are you looking to rent it out?

 

[Prime81]

We have one near us that is always busy at the seasonal times of year. They have a lovely cafe/shop/butchers that is popular and a little kids area. They run kids parties and have a bit of land for caravans/tents too. There are many ideas you can add to a pick your own site.

 

[billybob99]

instead of weighing the basket they weighed the person when entering and leaving and charged for the difference in weight

I second this idea.

 

[GTL]

I operated one as part of a business in the retail sector.

Personally I would guard against it being the sole source of income as the risks of a bad summer could have a significant impact on footfall thus turnover. Also, you should be aware that a. such investment is not cheap, b. will take a few years for plants to reach best yields c. footfall is limited to the picking season! ( i forget how many months a year - 3 or 4). Oh, and the impact of local widlife eating up the plants and fruit (deer being a particular problem) means that you should look at a site which is well fenced, or can be well fenced. And decent fencing is expensive.

That said, there were several independent small growers near us who used to supply local farm shops, including ours (when their crops were earlier than ours) and seemed to do alright out of it.

We also grew asparagus - which used to shift very quickly and very nicely margin wise. You might want to consider this too...

An organisation called adas.co.uk (horticultural advisers) were always very good.

I may have painted a somewhat negative picture here but am probably slightly biased as it took considerable investment to get my site (which I bought) up to scratch. I would suggest visiting a few PYO's (smaller ones) and talking to the owners if possible. Most of them are pretty sound people. if you produce what you say you are, you'll have no probs selling them - its whether you want the business as your sole cash generator which would concern me unless there are other ways of adding value. Vineyards are not a bad idea, it must be said. Though you wouldn't see a return very quickly......I could go on.

You'll need to take a minimum 10 year view, you might even find a small established pyo for sale. To me, a better option!

 

[Chris Ashdown]

We have a local farm that grows a tall crop and then makes a massive maze out of it and gets thousands of visitors every year

http://hirstysfamilyfunpark.co.uk/activities/summer-mega-maze/

Takes some setting up and advertising , also has the crop at the end of the year

It started with just the maze but expanded every year

 

[BustersDogs]

The farm near me closed its PYO after about 30 years recently. Not enough people were interested anymore. You would need to do a lot of research to find out if it's wanted in your area. In my experience people are time poor these days.

 

[Noah]

I'm sure that these places would be more profitable if instead of weighing the basket they weighed the person when entering and leaving and charged for the difference in weight

There's an unfortunate solution to this - on the part of the eaters, that is. As this is a family forum I am reluctant to go into details...

 

[am:pm graphics]

Sounds a good idea and like others have said, I would look into offering other things and encouraging the family market with something for kids and perhaps a small cafe. Another idea would be to grow Christmas trees as that would boost things during the winter.. I guess garden businesses take time and patience! Good luck and let us know how you get on!

 

[stuart fairall]

Hi, grew up around soft fruit farms and would recommend against raspberries, relatively low yield, short cropping time and susceptibility to pests etc and of course not getting anything from the first year. Strawberries are very different but are you thinking of growing them as the perennials they are or treating them as annuals which is much more common? Do you want to take the intensive route of black plastic mulch, artificial fertilizer and expensive irrigation setup? or something more traditional? Are you looking at cropping yourself and selling on to local outlets when the footfall is not high enough to crop the plants? Only ever grown pumpkins for myself but that is an interesting idea. However the recent run of hot weather is a good example of one of the worst things that can happen.