There is no getting away from it, pick your own farms are more popular now than they ever have been and Ontario Canada is no exception. So whether you live in London, Barrie, Hamilton, Niagara, or Toronto there is a pick your own farm somewhere near you. If you are looking for seasonality and ‘out of the ground’ freshness, then there is nothing finer.
When it comes to healthy eating, then by using a PYO farm you know that your food has absolutely no carbon footprint. Whereas a chain store supermarket on the other hand will ship in fruit and veg from all over the world that probably would have travelled hundreds, if not thousands of miles to arrive on the shelf at your supermarket. So PYO reduces those air miles.
With the increasing popularity of pick your own establishments let’s have a look at 5 more reasons, why you really should.
Saving money
Yes you may have to put a little more gas in your vehicle to get to a pick your own establishment , but you don’t have to pay the added costs of someone else picking the fruit or vegetable, plus packaging, storage and shipping costs. This means that the farmer can pass that saving directly on to the consumer.
Picking perfect produce
How many times have you got your container of fruit or vegetables home from the supermarket to find an over ripe or under ripe one lurking at the bottom. This is not only annoying, it’s also wasteful. When you pick your own, you control what goes in the container so this means that every single fruit contained within is going to be at it’s very best.
Getting back to nature
Even if you’re not a compete outdoor lover you have to admit that being out in the open, getting your hands dirty, listening to the birds and admiring the scenery on a lovely sunny day, is a great way to purchase fruit and veg. Besides, if you have kids, then they too can discover what a strawberry or potato plant looks like. On top of this they’ll learn how to pick the finest, and to tell when something is ripe and you can’t teach that in the branch of your local Metro store.
Keeping the farmers in a job
As you are probably aware farmers are under heavy competition from foreign imports and often cannot compete with the big boys in terms of price. By supporting local pick your own farms you are keeping them in business. It may well be true that local food costs that little bit more, but when you think about all the painstaking work that goes into growing, watering, harvesting and packing the produce for the supermarkets, you probably wouldn’t mind paying that little bit extra for top quality fresh produce.
Knowing where your food comes from
A great thing about pick your own is that it is easy to understand where your food has come from, you’ve probably met the grower and the staff who work for them. You will know whether they use pesticides or not and you will know their farming practices. You just don’t have that connection with foods bought from the food store.
If you haven’t tried to PYO then might I suggest that you give it a try, you’ll be surprised at how much fun it really is.