I've thought about setting up a fresh fig operation, and have been happy to see that Harvey is going down that road himself.  I saw him mention possibly doing u-pick, and that got me thinking about a number of concerns regarding that sales method.  I thought about just discussing this via pm with him, but posted it here instead to get a broader perspective.

Some of my concerns are listed below.  What are your thoughts on these?  How would you address them?  Educating customers would help, but would it be enough? 


1) potential for pest/disease introduction -- I worry that people would track in RKN-infested dirt on their shoes (say, from their home gardens), which could then go on to infect and possibly destroy the fig orchard.  How could this risk be averted? 

2) waste -- I worry that people would pick and throw to the ground many figs while searching for 'perfect' figs. 

3) latex hazard -- These trees are a safety hazard for some people.  For example, what if a kid with a bad latex allergy gets some sap on his hands, rubs his eyes, and ends up damaging his vision?  [Would insurance be prohibitively expensive because of the risks of latex allergies?]

4) disrespect of trees -- My trees are like family, but to most people they'd be 'just trees'.  I can easily imagine people, especially kids, disrespecting and damaging them.  I could see kids climbing/swinging on branches and ripping them off for sword fights, and I could see adults taking cuttings for themselves when nobody's looking.  How can a fig lover stomach having a disrespectful public abuse his trees?


I've never really considered a u-pick operation because I think concerns like those listed above would stress me out.  Am I being overly paranoid?

If I ever have a fig orchard, it'll be a "I pick for u" operation because of those issues.
Believe me, I see what happens to my blueberries when other people pick them, and these are adults that I know and love!
I will likely do the picking myself, or supervise the picking, if I can. Between the poison ivy, the ticks, the snakes, and
the carelessness of people not replacing the netting (or tearing it) it's not worth the risks to me.
..if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself...
My plan is to sell extra fruit at the farmers' market, maybe sell small plants too.
I will probably also get a dog or two.
I read (or heard) somewhere that 1/10th of u pick crops are never paid for.

I hadn't thought of pathogens or pests, but I did wonder if I'd want foot traffic trampling and compacting the soil.
So there, I'm more paranoid than you, Fin ;)

well, those considerations stop me from doing anything like that.

i hadn't thot of the latex hazard but that's scarey.

i don't see any paranoia at all. those are real worries.

I've thought of doing that in the future, but my trees are not mature enough.. I think you've now discouraged the idea to me.. 

The other problem I see is usually U pay per full pail or basket.  Figs don't all ripen on the same day, so you'd need a ton of trees!!

I took my sons to pick cherries when they were 8 and 10.  We each had a pail which I paid for, and the boys just climbed in the trees and ate cherries and their pails ended up being filled by mom!!

BUT some cherries never made it to the pails.........

Suzi

You must be thinking about a lot more greenhouses to need a PYO. You do that if you can't pick them yourself. Otherwise there will be damages and losses. Most times kids get in my operation there is loss. Sometimes a finger nail poke here and an unripe fruit picked there. Even adults can't be trusted. Turn around and they have a mouth full of fruit often fruit that looks good but isn't ripe yet.

Most of these concerns are in any "u pick" operation and are not unique to figs (except latex). Just charge 15-20% more to cover what you know people will steel and waste. I know of some places that do not allow kids at all. That's one answer.

Forming the trees to a shape that is handy to people is a key point.
Imagine a 3 meters tall fig tree with of course the figs at the top ... Everyone will bend them down and you'll end crying just after hearing crackkkkkk and "oups sorry! " .
Fig tree wood is really prone to cracking .

So espaliered trees would help avoid that . The trees should be kept productive from 50 cm to 2 meters .
The strain should be a really productive one to cope with customers eating directly at the tree .
The strain should have fig that are easy to tell if they are fully ripen or not.
The duration of the ripening process should be the shortest - My unknown from the Italian some time takes 7 days to fully ripen - a real patience test.
For that, I think that you should go for small sized figs .

For the paranoids, you didn't mention people messing the watering system of your trees .
As for the sap, a disclaimer at the entry should do it .

Or you pick them and sell them at the entry point - but then you would choose strains with big sized figs - to have less work with the harvest .
Just my 2 cents of the day :)

Pre-packaged would always be my choice of offering figs for sale. No one touch my fig trees! haha ;x

Igor,

Other than liability issue, my biggest concern is damage to the trees.

I have a few acres of lemons and 25 years ago, used to invite friends and neighbors to help themselves when in need of some lemons.   But, then I realized the overall damage they were doing.   In addition to breaking new growth and irrigation, etc., damage to new blossoms became intolerable.  You must cut or snip the fruit at harvest!  Yanking or pulling fruit off the tree, ends up shaking off many new buds or blossoms.   So ended the open invitation to U-Pick!  My final solution was to pick and keep on hand a few boxes of lemons for giveaways.   Just sayin…..

Also……. good point about potential for new pest/disease introduction.  Never thought of that but, sure my grove manager is all over that issue.  

Some other concers;
You may want to buy insurance in case someone gets hurt.   
The time required to managing the people and their children would be the toughest challenge. 
Washroom and garbage collection needs.

Maybe just for friends and very regular customers that you trust.

If you really want to do it, don't focus on all the pitfalls at once.  It's very overwhelming.  Come up with solutions to fix your anticipated problems one at a time.  It's a wonderful idea and 10 acres would make a lovely fig farm.  Read jdsfrance's post.  He's got really great ideas for some of the basic problems that you came up with.  

A disclaimer and rubber gloves could fix the latex issue.

I have thought about this too but the legalities are beyond my little brain's ability to deal with:

1) business license needed?
2) nursery or other food related license needed?
3) business insurance to cover someone falling out of the tree (not that they are allowed to climb but you know kids!), twisting an ankle due to uneven soil, bonking head on low limbs, etc.. I doubt home insurance would cover this.
4) traffic issues for the neighbors if any? Complaints to police...
5) lawsuits due to laytex issues...Someone has sevear reaction and ends up in the hospital. Do you have them sign a legally binding waver, letting them know of the potential irritant as well as the uneven ground (potential falls) and other potential hazards? Will that stop lawsuits? No.
6) loss due to sampling in the field...
7) damage to trees as other's have mentioned.
8) compacting the soil due to (hopefully) excessive traffic. If your not going to anticipate a lot of traffic why do it?

Short of doing it yourself and selling them up front as they ripen.
You probably should either have a disclaimer that holds "Gold against any lawyer" because if a kid or an
adult not paying attention gets poked in there eye by a branch that could be a problem and any other injury as folks want to sue for anything nowadays.

I was root pruning some years back and was poked in the neck by my own tree and thought nothing until i saw my
clothes had blood on it.

Stuff happens and will happen in time to kids and adults.
Remember the case where a lady baught a cup of coffee and then spills it on herself  ?

http://www.slip-and-sue.com/the-famous-infamous-mcdonalds-coffee-spill-lawsuit-revisited/


It made headlines here and probably elsewhere.
She claimed the coffe was too hot.
The judged awarded here - go figure.
CYA = Cover Your A..

Sue is right!  You need a good attorney prior to starting up something like this.  Someone who specializes in agriculture and U-pick operations in your state.  Every state is different.  My first son became an attorney, and he lives in wine country, so his specialty is vineyard law.  He only services California.  Laws vary by state.

Because I have a marketing background, I think you should investigate the market for the fig product.  For years, I hated figs because my only taste of figs came from my grandma's tree which was probably a brown turkey.....  Long gone.  What are the chances you will get customers?  I never bought a fig at the grocery store until I discovered this forum.  I never tasted a good fig until I got some from UC Davis and this forum.

How will you market to them?  When I think Kansas, I think wide open spaces with fields growing some blowing grasses.  My dad's family was half Cherokee and they left Chanute Kansas for California.  I did get the Cherokee Cheekbones!  LOL! 

I wish you every success! 

Suzi

http://www.pickyourown.org/howtostartapyo.htm

I'm thinking you could turn a small fortune in Kansas growing figs. That's provided you start with a huge fortune!!

Just imagine the huge fortune I could turn if I started with a mega fortune!

Thanks everybody for the links and for all the nice replies.  I'm still curious about Harvey's thoughts, hopefully he'll see this thread and chime in.

As I said up in the original post, I've never really considered a u-pick setup because I think it would stress me out, and after this thread I'm even more sure of it. 

Suzi, I live near Manhattan.  Yes there's a lot of grass, but there are probably 100k people within a 15 mile radius of me.  I wasn't planning on a u-pick, and was instead thinking I'd start with a CSA and later on put up a steel-building on-site to sell through (it's at a busy intersection). 

Most people are going to need to be educated on how to tell if a fig is ripe.  Otherwise they will be picking unripe figs that have turned color.  That will not taste very good.

GreenFin ,
If you run it as a CSA , you may find the members are more respectful of your trees than you expect.
We ran a 220 member CSA in southeastern PA for 15 years and many of the crops were u pick.
I was worried at first , but knew we couldn't do all the harvest and give folks as good a deal as we wanted.
It worked out well, because people as members felt some ownership of the place . And we traded a share of produce to an elderly couple who were around enough on harvest days , (they were like garden grandparents for a lot of the children who came), and while there they helped people understand the proper way to harvest different u-pick crops.
I found my excessive worry was not necessary .
Insurance is a must ,and check out Growing for Market magazine , which is put together right there in Manhattan,KS  I believe or somewhere in KS anyway. Many articles on this sort of thing over the years , a great resource of info for small farms.