5 Pick Your Own Ideas For Your Land

 

Looking for a diversification idea that won’t steer too far away from traditional landowning purposes? Then pick your own could be the answer...

 

The rising price of healthy eating is causing obesity rates to sore, and families need a solution. By providing the opportunity to pick your own farm produce, you will not only get customers through your door, but create a viable solution to a national problem. Get families back to nature, help solve the obesity problems, and boost profits from your land!

 

A pick your own farm is just one of many diversification ideas we offer visitors at our Farm Business Innovation Show. For a new venture like this, you’ll require finances, project planning, a farm shop, and everything else in between, and that’s exactly what we’re here for.

 

By getting your FREE tickets, you can network with the people who can take your new business idea, whether it be fruit-picking or anything else, into fruition! For more fruit-picking inspiration, read on...

The Benefits of Pick Your Own

By bringing customers through your door, rather than taking produce to the customers, a fruit-picking venture has numerous benefits, for both you and your customer. These include:

 

• Helping people eat healthy, for less.


• Providing a fun family day out.


• Saving you time, by avoiding the need to harvest your crops.


• Saving you money, by removing the direct costs of trading your produce.


• Making more money from your land.


• Avoiding the uncertainties of Brexit by taking control of your land.


• Doesn’t steer too far away from the traditional land-owning purposes you may be more accustomed to.

Pick Your Own Ideas For Your Land

There are a number of different types of pick your own ideas to choose from and, depending on your land, the season, and your customer demographic, there’s an option for all! Here, we’ve listed just five different types of produce you can sell on your land, but use your imagination, and make your farm as unique as you want...

1. Pumpkin Patches

With Halloween on the way, families are flooding to pick your own farms to pick up their spooky “head”, ready for carving. What better way to diversify than by planting pumpkins, ready for a pick your own when Halloween comes around next year!

 

Pumpkins are ideal for the wet British weather, as they require a lot of water to grow. They also need minimal shade, and well-drained, rich soil, filled with manure or compost. So, it’s important that you ensure your land fits these requirements.

 

Growing pumpkins, ready to be picked by families, is ideal for local areas where lots of children reside. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes, alongside the humble squash, and can even be sold year-round as a versatile cooking ingredient.

2. Pick Your Own Fruit and Vegetables

Another great option is fruit and veg, for example, pick your own strawberries. There are countless different types of produce you can grow on your land to entice visitors of all ages. Depending on the time of year, and the popularity of each produce in your area, you can chop and change what you grow.

 

February and March are the best times to plant vegetables like carrots, broccoli, cabbage, and more. May is a great time for asparagus to spring into life, and June is ideal for summer tastes like strawberries, cucumber, and spinach. For more information, the National Trust will help you decide which delicious produce to start with; read more about seasonal produce here.

 

Specifically, vineyards are a great option, and a number of our exhibitors specialise in the growth and maintenance of grapes. Vinecare UK, Vinescapes, and Vitifruit Equipment can advise you with the tools and knowledge needed to grow grapes on your land.

3. Choose Your Very Own Christmas Tree

Christmas is just around the corner (can you believe it!), which means families will soon start thinking about Christmas trees - an essential for any home during this season. Christmas trees take a lot less time to grow than the average tree - 10 years - but are definitely a bit of an investment when it comes to pick your own. That said, once grown, families of all ages can enjoy the fruits of your labour, and you can provide trees every year after this initial time period.

 

If you want to explore the realms of tree-growing, our show welcomes the experts in the business, Green Mile Trees. They can give you the tips and tricks to guide you through whether your land is suitable for the trees you wish to plant. Learn from them at the show, and get diversifying!

4. Pick Your Own Herbs

An interesting choice for older couples, or families with older children in your local area, are herbs. Herbs can elevate your cooking, are pretty simple to grow, and come in a huge variety of types. Be it bay leaves, parsley, basil, lavender, rosemary, thyme, coriander, mint… the British climate is perfect for growing a bounty of greens.

5. Edible and Decorative Flowers

You could even branch out into growing flowers for decorative purposes, or even edible flowers, perfect for cooking! With the rise of instagram influencers, and edible flowers in restaurant food, these are a really unique option for a pick your own to branch out into.

Want to Find Out More About Starting Your Very Own Pick Your Own?

Pick your own is just one of the hundreds of ways you can diversify your land. With the right marketing and business advice, from companies like Landmark Systems Ltd. and Hush Digital, and the loans and funding required to get started, from companies like UK Agricultural Finance and Innovative Farmers, your pick your own venture will flourish!

 

The Farm Business Innovation Show, taking place at the Birmingham NEC on 6th & 7th November, will take you from the very beginning to the very end of a new venture like this. From coming up with an idea, to finding out the best ways to plan it, to actually bringing it to life, we provide it all. Boost your lands potential, get customers through your door, and gain profits, with us!

 

If you’re interested in taking control of your land, especially with Brexit on the way, get your FREE tickets to the show. We can’t wait to welcome you, along with our 7,000 other visitors, to the exhibition. Don’t miss out on the farming and landowning event of the year!