Excellent point, Ken. Sounded like the author was much more interested in price than quality or the time well spent with family building a family tradition. Being a 2 hour drive from downtown Chicago, I am amazed at how many families will travel that distance for the "experience " of picking apples. And because they do drive that distance, we offer them "entertainment" to make the trip more worthwhile so they can spend the day here. We have been open since the fall of 1997 and are now having 2nd generation families continuing the tradition of going to Royal Oak Farm to pick apples. I think the author completely missed the boat!
Dennis Norton Royal Oak Farm Orchard http://www.royaloakfarmorchard.com http://www.theorchardkeeper.blogspot.com http://www.revivalhymn.com ----- Original Message ----- From: Ken Hall To: Apple-Crop Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2007 10:28 AM Subject: RE: Apple-Crop: U-Pick whining A couple of the commenters at the linked article made a key point--apples fresh from the tree ought to be worth something more than apples that may have traveled extensively and done time in CA storage. That doesn't make the latter bad apples by any stretch, but I doubt many would argue that fresh-picked (and hand-picked by the end user) are better. Add the value of the experience to the presumably superior quality of the fruit, and the price premium can be justified easily. It's up to the market whether to bear it, and the community should make sure it is making that case. Best regards, Ken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Matt McCallum [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2007 10:38 AM To: Apple-Crop Subject: Apple-Crop: U-Pick whining Apple crop gang, I thought you would find this interesting reading. As the former owner of a pick-your-own operation I was not very happy to read her opinion. Matt http://www.wisebread.com/who-saves-money-when-you-pick-apples-the-grower
