We just finished our 3rd year of having a U-Pick and have never regretted it. We offer U-Pick blackberries, blueberries and muscadine and sell the other fruits and vegetables we grow at a prepicked price at our fruit stand.

Here are some answers to your questions:

1. How far do people drive to your U-pick?

We have people driving over 100 miles to visit our U-Pick, but mostly they live within a 30 minute drive from us.

2. And do you have to lower your prices to help attract them to make the drive? We've thought about offering our produce 1/2 of the grocery store prices??

We set our prices based on what we feel the product is worth, not what the local market sells them for. Remember, people are coming to pick your fresh fruits and vegetables because they are tired of the bland flavor of the produce sold in the stores as well as for the farm experience that goes along with the picking. The key to remember is that a U-Pick is a "memory farm". In other words if they remember picking it as a child there is a better chance they will want to bring their family and pick it as adults. Your goal is to make them feel at home and safe once they arrive. If they are able to relive the positive memories they had as a child, they will be back and the cost really won't be the deciding factor.

One of the many bottom lines to remember if you decide to go into the U-Pick business is to post your information on every internet U-Pick website you can find. It's free and that's where a majority of your potential customers are going to find you. Simply relying on friends and past customers probably won't do it, especially if you're going to be sitting out there everyday waiting for them to come pick. A website also helps too!

BTW, we just had a great dialog on the Fruit GardenWeb blog a couple of weeks ago on this subject which might offer some additional information to you. I've included the link below.

Hope this helps,

Ken Barber
Millbrook AL

Here is a link that might be useful: Fruit and Orchards U-Pick Blog Entry

I have always worried about liability, do you get extra insurance for that? I agree that you should not cut your prices, fresh of the plant tastes so much better than store bought, that is added value.

We've found somenoe on our local website/classified looking to pick berries. She was willing to $6/lb for her to pick and $10/lb if we picked. The first year, she picked over 14 lbs. The following year, we didn't let her, she was SO disappointed. Last year, we weren't able to pick, so she picked again.

Are you worried about the pickers stomping on the plants and destroying them? That's a major concern of mine.

I thought about discounting the on farm price by 10%, if we picked and maybe 25% if they picked. It would save alot of labor costs.

Marla

Marla,
I dont have a UPick, but I've been to plenty for my own use. I would absolutely NOT lower your prices, it's not necessary. People will pay MORE for fresh, locally grown anything, even eggs. As a consumer, I'm more than willing to pay MORE for fresh, better tasting produce.

And I have been to some sketchy places advertised as Upick. one time I drove to pick blueberries, drove in to a very secluded area, past a few trailer houses, no one came out to greet me, there was some odd/shifty looking guy working on a car just a ways away from the "blueberry" plants. He completely ignored me but that was even more odd to me, so red flags were up. The blueberry patch was overgrown with weeds. I was instantly worried about snakes. After an uncomfortable amount of time (the lady knew I was coming, I called ahead and told her I was on my way and confirmed a time to come by) I screached out of there and was very upset that I had driven so far for a complete bust.

dont under estimate the value of what you have. I know pricing is a tricky venture, but you have something that others desire and it's better than anything they can get anywhere else, and that's where the value is in my opinion.

the local u pick in my area closed the number o people willing to pick strawberries has dropped a lot yearly.

they did not ell getting smaller was worth it.

so so not get too big?!

My local upick also closed last year, but I had alot of people ask me if I knew where they could upick.

Marla

Ken-Thanks a bunch for all of the info. to ponder.......So glad the upick has been a good avenue for your business! We're still trying to find our niche, but we're getting closer.
Marla - yes, I do worry about he destruction of plants factor. Where we are right now, we're only going to be able to "invite" friends and regular customers from the market that are on my email newsletter loop....We are in an acreage "neighborhood" that has covenant restrictions on us inviting the mass public to our home business. We didn't know we suburbanites were going to become so agregarian or we'd have kept looking! So.....since we will currently know most of the people that will potentially come, I don't think that destruction will be as big of an issue....Thanks for your insight into this!

I know another person that has a tomato upick, I've thought about that also.

Marla

I love the farms I go to for picking. I have several nice places in Ohio available to me. I pick all of my berries and this year I am going to also pick green beans and tomatoes so I can preserve them. I seem to eat all of the ones I grow ;-)
I have made friends with the farmers and I know what I am getting. I pay $1.35/lb for strawberries and I think $3/lb for all others such as blueberries, black and red raspberries.
It's a highlight of my summer!
Just this morning my son wanted toast with strawberry freezer jam on it. When I opened the jar, he said it smelled like summer :-)

Andrea

spogarden: Liability insurance is very hard to find for a U-Pick for some reason. So far we have only been able to find one insurance company that will cover us in Alabama. But we definitely recommend having it.

Marla: We haven't had too many issues with folks destroying our bushes, but then again we have blackberries, blueberries and muscadine, so that's really not a concern. However, if folks were to grow vegetables and, at the same time, allow children to pick with their parents, that might be a concern.

Andrea: You're the reason we enjoy opening our U-Pick. It may be hard work to make it all happen, but the gratitude we receive from our visitors makes it all worthwhile.

As far as U-Picks closing and for those folks considering the thought of opening one, make sure you have other sources of income and you're only goal with the U-Pick is to have fun and maybe break even on its cost. That way your stress level stays at a managable level. For us, it's a combination of selling at 2 farmers markets and having U-Pickers come the other days of the week we're open. I don't think we would be able to survive if we didn't do both. However, this year we're thinking about selling to resaurants rather than going to one of the FMs that's 50 miles away. But that will all depend on what we can get for our berries.

Ken