Does your town or community have any pick your own produce farms or produce stands?

Families love to pick their own blueberries.

If your answer is no then there is a tremendous opportunity for you to fill that void.
My kids love McDonald’s, but my wife and I do our best to force feed fruit into their diets. We tell them there are other things to eat besides chicken nuggets, honey mustard, and french fries.

Fresh fruits are not only healthy for you, but are becoming very sheik and trendy for many of those in our community. People love fruit, people want to eat healthy, and people want to take their children to the farm to pick fresh produce.  We have hosted thousands of families over the years at our farm.  In fact in the past year we have added 5 more acres of blueberry plants, blackberry plants and peach trees specifically for the commercial u-pick market.

Look at a few examples of how
you may benefit from the demand for fresh fruit.

Blackberries:
990 Blackberry Plants per acre (12 ft row spacing by 4 ft plant spacing)
x 8 lbs per plant
7,920 lbs of fruit
x $2.00 lb
$15,840.00 gross revenue per acre

Blueberries:
660 Blueberry plants per acre (12 ft row spacing by 6 ft plant spacing)
x  18 lbs per plant
11,880 lbs of fruit
x $2.00 lb 
$23,760.00 gross revenue per acre

Muscadines:
200 plants to the acre (12 ft row spacing by 20 ft plant spacing)
x 50 lbs per plant
10,000 lbs of fruit
x $2.00 lb
$20,000.00 gross revenue per acre

That is roughly $60,000 of gross revenue off of 3 acres. Obviously there are things to consider before you put the shovel in the ground, what is the population within 30 miles of your location, are you convenient to get to and are there other growers in your area that are marketing local produce.  There are also other terrific fruiting plants to add to the 3 we have mentioned above.

We all have to eat, will it be fruit or always fried Fast Food.

I will be happy to assist you in developing a strategy that will work best for you and your area, feel free to call me and we will develop a plan that will be profitable to you and and asset to your community.

Greg Ison
Ison’s Nursery & Vineyard
GIson@isons.com
www.isons.com

Ison’s Nursery & Vineyards offer many varieities of fruit trees, berry plants, nut trees and grape vines.  Including Muscadine Vines, Blueberry Plants, Blackberry Plants, Raspberry Plants, Fruit Trees, Apple Trees, Plum Trees, Peach Trees, Pear Trees, Olive Trees, Pomegranate Trees, Persimmon Trees, Berry Plants, Grape Vines.