Over the last few years I've hear more and more about things like organically farmed, locally produced, farmers markets and such. So I figured I'd go check it out. Well at least a version of it. Here in France there are farmes letting you pick your own stuff and buy it by weight. It's a interesting take on it.
From a business perspective it does kind of customer source some of the picking work. After all letting the customers do some of the work has proved very successful for companies like Ikea. But relabeling it and selling the experience I have to say is quite brilliant. I don't think a lot of people want to muck around around in the dirt all day, every day. Every once in a while though, it's nice to get down and dirty, to feel good about yourself. But what I'm thinking is if the concept is exportable and expandable. Will this work in a not so strong economy and wound it work in other places?
Either way I'd love to have a farm or a "ferme" like this back home. I think my home town of Täby, Sweden would be a perfect place to have it. After all we have some pasture, fields for horses and definitively enough farmland. 15 minutes away from Stockholm city center and being a habituational center of many a academic family it could prove to be very successful. I know that I for one would gladly pay a bit less than in the supermarkets and do the work of picking my own veggies. After all if you only spend a few minutes doing it every week it's way more of an added bonus and an indulgence in the slow, quaint pace of life.
Although our visit was quite short, this time I got to eat a bunch of delicious apples off the trees and came home with glorious spoils of conquest worth much more than the 9€ something I paid of my little playtime in the dirt. In fact it reminded me of this 4H camp I went to as a kid. Also of my own garden back home growing up.
Either way, if you have the opportunity try it out. Yeah the 4H camp too, oh and also my dads little back yard veggie and herb garden. Let me know if you're planning to visit first though ;)
Självplock/ i.e. Pick/harvest on your own is actually also common back home! (In Sweden-that is- at many farms especially strawberries can be harvested in June. Mmmm )
ReplyDeleteYou may even taste while on the grounds but need only to pay for what you bring to the counter. Sometimes one can buy eggs and things produced there in a farm/yard store where one is trusted with paying/putting your coins into a piggy bank or something like that.
Since you're not here much, son, it can be tricky to find out.. :-)
Love You