Small Farm & PYO Potential

This is a photo, not a painting, of a u-pick in Washington. So pretty!

1st step is developing a small section for personal use. Next, decide on a basic strategy: u-pick or not. Since it's a small farm, we'll probably be most successful in specialties and not mainstream varieties.

With u-pick, we'll need a plan for excess fruit: beer, wine, jam, fresh wholesale, dried, juice / ciders, chutney. Possibly we'd like to start our own nursury stock for on-farm use, online sale &/or retail sale. There's not much u-pick in northeast Alabama, possibly because residents typically grow their own, but there's a fair amount of thru traffic between Memphis/Florence and Hunstville.

• blueberries - perrenial, can sell fresh, dried, wine, beer, jam, frozen, or juice, easy to grow organic??
• blackberries - perrenial, highly perishable, can sell fresh, dried, wine, beer, jam, frozen, or juice, well suited for growing in Alabama?
• figs - perrenial, easy to grow organic, highly perishable, can sell fresh, dried, or jam
• kiwis- perrenial, highly perishable, can sell fresh or juiced
• muscadines - perrenial, can sell fresh, dried, wine, jam, or juiced
• watermelons - very good selling price, good market in Alabama
• pumpkins - would make Kaitlyn very happy, good late season u-pick item
• pecan trees - takes 7-10 years to start getting fruit, beautiful tree, possible timber value much later
• other fruit trees: have 3 white peach trees already

With non u-pick, we'd probably want to specialize & develop cultivars best suited for Alabama & sell online to specialty grocery stores & restaurants.

• green onion - good market rate, easy to grow organic
• parsley, basil, and other herbs - good market rate, somewhat easy to grow organic, highly perishable
• garlic - would be interested in varietal plantings of gourmet and selling to grocers, restaurants, and online
• kale
• asparagus - perrenial, love this veggie

Regional Annual Avg Daily Traffic

County Population

Regional Climate

Alabama Wine Tour (we're the pink dot)

Here's a link to a great blueberry reference guide for Alabama:
http://www.agrisk.umn.edu/cache/ARL01713.htm