My yearly PYO plug

hank · June 23, 2015

Sometimes I wonder why there are not more 'pick your own' farms commenting here. Kikaida's recent posting about farm markets pushed me to start this thread. In this 5 mile area there are now 4 orchards, 2 berry farms, and 3 vegetable farms all PYO. PYO solves the problems of 'where is it grown', freshness, labor of harvesting, cost of transportation, and some costs of selling. Tomatoes and sweet corn are the latest items added by my son and myself. We are competitors. It has taken several years to develop the vegetable end, but together we should sell all we can grow on about 1 acre total of tomatoes. I have done the picking and delivering, and picking and setting up a stand. Marketing them as PYO makes me much happier. Hank

pauldavid · June 24, 2015

Sounds like a great idea Hank! My uncle did this too, when I was younger.

clkeiper · June 24, 2015

I don't do it mainly because I would need to buy insurance to do it.

hank · June 26, 2015

Anybody go to a PYO? How about a tomato PYO? What would you expect to pay for a pound of PYO tomatoes? I have been getting 1$. Sounds light, I know, but it is so easy. I remember a time when I would leave a bag of tomatoes on every house's front porch of our street. Now customers follow our facebook as we direct to come pick and buy. All things considered, tomatoes are fairly easy to grow. I know, because I can grow them. I also know PYO is an easy way to sell them. Hank

June 23, 2015	#1
hank Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: winchester va usa Posts: 106	My yearly PYO plug Sometimes I wonder why there are not more 'pick your own' farms commenting here. Kikaida's recent posting about farm markets pushed me to start this thread. In this 5 mile area there are now 4 orchards, 2 berry farms, and 3 vegetable farms all PYO. PYO solves the problems of 'where is it grown', freshness, labor of harvesting, cost of transportation, and some costs of selling. Tomatoes and sweet corn are the latest items added by my son and myself. We are competitors. It has taken several years to develop the vegetable end, but together we should sell all we can grow on about 1 acre total of tomatoes. I have done the picking and delivering, and picking and setting up a stand. Marketing them as PYO makes me much happier. Hank

June 24, 2015	#3
clkeiper Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: ohio Posts: 4,350	I don't do it mainly because I would need to buy insurance to do it. __________________ carolyn k

June 24, 2015	#2
pauldavid Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: NE Louisiana, Zone 8A Posts: 1,179	Sounds like a great idea Hank! My uncle did this too, when I was younger.

June 26, 2015	#4
hank Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: winchester va usa Posts: 106	Anybody go to a PYO? How about a tomato PYO? What would you expect to pay for a pound of PYO tomatoes? I have been getting 1$. Sounds light, I know, but it is so easy. I remember a time when I would leave a bag of tomatoes on every house's front porch of our street. Now customers follow our facebook as we direct to come pick and buy. All things considered, tomatoes are fairly easy to grow. I know, because I can grow them. I also know PYO is an easy way to sell them. Hank