Pick-your-own farms are becoming increasingly popular with growers and customers

ABC NEWS (Australia)

In a bid to keep their fruit farms viable, some growers in southern NSW are encouraging consumers to pick their own fruit.

Transcript

00:00Is there a more wholesome sight than children picking apples with their grandparents?

00:14Not a screen to be seen in this Batlow orchard.

00:17I think it's really cool.

00:18There's a bunch of apples, I reckon they'll taste pretty good, sun's out, yeah it's really

00:24nice.

00:2512 year old Max Gaylard enjoys picking his own fruit.

00:29It can be fun, it can connect you to the environment and other people that do it and it can just,

00:36it health benefits you too.

00:38I thought apple trees were like big trees, not vines like this, yeah but it's really

00:45cool seeing them here.

00:49With his Queensland coasty grandsons visiting the Riverina Highlands, it's an opportunity

00:54for Kevin Chaplin to teach them about where their food comes from and get them off screens.

01:00Yes, it can be a challenge sometimes with the technical stuff but you get them outside

01:05and they turn into totally different kids and get out and explore and have lots of fun.

01:11Apple grower Greg Mullett and his family have been running their Pick Your Own farm for

01:1640 years near Batlow.

01:18And it's the Pick Your Own farm and roadside sales that helps keep his business afloat.

01:24We probably sell about 20% of what we grow but that would account for around 50% of our

01:31income.

01:32We're dealing direct with the public, we're not having any middlemen, there's no packing

01:35charges, of course you've got all your growing charges and everything else but you're dealing

01:40direct with people and allowing people to have really fresh produce.

01:48Greg Mullett has welcomed the Federal Government's direction for the Australian Competition and

01:53Consumer Commission, the ACCC, to conduct a year-long inquiry into Australia's supermarket

01:59sector.

02:00I don't think we'd be here as a business if we had to rely purely on either of the two

02:07large supermarkets.

02:09They're quite brutal in the way that they price their fruit.

02:13You have to be growing really high quality fruit, you have to be attaining very high

02:17yields and getting very good packouts.

02:19You can all do that but at the end of the day we are dealing with a perishable product

02:25and we're dealing with Mother Nature at the same time.

02:31About an hour and a half northwest of Batlow, a Pick Your Own strawberry farm on the urban

02:36fringe of Wagga Wagga is growing in popularity.

02:39It was started by Kylie and Michael Cashen and their two daughters as a family side hustle.

02:45We started in 2017 in November and we opened our gates up to the public.

02:52There was a lot of interest in coming to Pick Your Own so we decided to let people in and

02:57we haven't looked back since.

03:00On the day we visited, they were hosting their first country music festival, the Bidji Country

03:05Jam.

03:06Their strawberry farm is becoming a major tourist and entertainment attraction for Wagga

03:13Wagga.

03:14Hello!

03:15Hello!

03:16Despite the diverse income streams their strawberry farm produces, Michael and Kylie are still

03:21keeping their off-farm jobs.

03:25If you want to do it to make money, don't.

03:28If you want to do it because you want to see a difference in your community, then do it.

Category

Transcript

Recommended