Small Scale Pick Your Own

[powerontheland]

Have any/many of you diversified with small scale pick your own?? We are going to have a go this year with a pumpkin patch and some sunflowers, but i am keen to maybe try a couple of acres of spuds?? If not PYO, then sold at the farm gate. Haven’t a clue where to even get seed from ( Accept that it may be too late for this year) Any advice gratefully received.

Bit of background, I am a first generation farmer, all tenant ground. Looking to achieve a small income away from the Hay and Haylage business.

 

[Kidds]

The trouble with potatoes is that you can pretty much get them anywhere and they are cheap. Set yourself up in buying by the pallet already bagged and selling at the farm gate.
People don't want to work for their food and they are horrified at getting soil on their hands.
Pumpkins work, you have plenty of folk in your area. Sunflowers are good and pretty easy, you don't need fancy varieties you can use the birdseed version cheap as chips. Charge entry for them to take their Insta pics and sell them flowers as extras.
Strawberries work too but a bigger investment and a fair bit more skill involved.

 

[bobk]

Have any/many of you diversified with small scale pick your own?? We are going to have a go this year with a pumpkin patch and some sunflowers, but i am keen to maybe try a couple of acres of spuds?? If not PYO, then sold at the farm gate. Haven’t a clue where to even get seed from ( Accept that it may be too late for this year) Any advice gratefully received.

Bit of background, I am a first generation farmer, all tenant ground. Looking to achieve a small income away from the Hay and Haylage business.

We had 10 acres of strawberries back in the day , v profitable but big hours
Not sure the general public can be arsed now

 

[Nearly]

Bag of spuds and 4 microwaves you might have a chance.

 

[powerontheland]

We had 10 acres of strawberries back in the day , v profitable but big hours
Not sure the general public can be arsed now

You could be right on that, used to be a few strawberry places around, but all disappeared now. Could be a possibility, but nearly all my ground is on short term tenancys so a little wary of investing too much

 

[Kidds]

We had 10 acres of strawberries back in the day , v profitable but big hours
Not sure the general public can be arsed now

1-2 acres on tabletops is the go these days, under a Spanish tunnel if you think it will rain. Probably the same weight of crop as your 10 acres were.
Strawberry varieties have advanced incredibly over the years. We thought Favourites were good until Elsanta came along, I would challenge that todays varieties are just as big of an advance.
Very big investment though

 

[Bogweevil]

Round here American and Asian people love to buy sweetcorn, fill their car boots with the stuff.

Garden type flowers, Alstroemeria, dahlias, gladioli, pinks for example, popular too but more work.

People love the authentic farm feel and supermarket spuds overfed with nitrogen and over irrigation are sad tasteless things. I am rather impressed 'Carolus', as good as 'Cara' but blight resistant.

I would not say strawberries were skilled - you simply buy 60 day plants and shove them into coir bags. https://horticulture.ahdb.org.uk/kn... cropping system,to this form of manipulation.

If you like working with the public, are very tolerant and have a sense of humour, why not? Good luck.

 

[powerontheland]

@Bogweevil the garden type flowers do appeal, im just not sure if i have the time for them at the moment

 

[Jasper]

Have any/many of you diversified with small scale pick your own?? We are going to have a go this year with a pumpkin patch and some sunflowers, but i am keen to maybe try a couple of acres of spuds?? If not PYO, then sold at the farm gate. Haven’t a clue where to even get seed from ( Accept that it may be too late for this year) Any advice gratefully received.

Bit of background, I am a first generation farmer, all tenant ground. Looking to achieve a small income away from the Hay and Haylage business.

If you’re allowed get a few small animals Pygmy goats etc alongside your pumpkin patch public love it

 

[Muddyroads]

Location is key. Have you got good numbers of people nearby? Maybe some road frontage for a stall or honesty shop? Perhaps a local market half a day per week?
I did 1/4 of an acre of spuds for the first time this year and they’ve proved remarkably popular. Keeping them could be an issue without some kind of storage. There is some inexpensive older kit available to grow them.
We’re giving PYO pumpkins a try this year so will see how that goes. Sweetcorn is a good idea. Not expensive to grow and they taste good. Could work well with PYO but you only have a short time when they’re at their best. A range of varieties will extend the season.
If you have a big enough acreage, how about a maize maze?

 

[Simon Chiles]

Location is key. Have you got good numbers of people nearby? Maybe some road frontage for a stall or honesty shop? Perhaps a local market half a day per week?
I did 1/4 of an acre of spuds for the first time this year and they’ve proved remarkably popular. Keeping them could be an issue without some kind of storage. There is some inexpensive older kit available to grow them.
We’re giving PYO pumpkins a try this year so will see how that goes. Sweetcorn is a good idea. Not expensive to grow and they taste good. Could work well with PYO but you only have a short time when they’re at their best. A range of varieties will extend the season.
If you have a big enough acreage, how about a maize maze?

Location is key. One local farmer, many years ago, had a bit of land near the outskirts of Croydon so he decided to try a pick your own enterprise. It was extremely popular with the locals, so much so that he managed to shift everything he produced. The only slight minor snag was that everyone came at night and not one of them paid for any of it.