Find Local Foods by Picking Your Own Produce

Instead of taking produce to consumers, some farms sell directly to consumers by inviting consumers to come to the farm and pick their own produce. Pick your own or U-pick operations provide consumers the opportunity to choose the freshest possible produce, and because you provide the labor, prices are usually lower than produce sold in markets.

At a pick-your-own farm, you'll often bring your own containers, which are weighed before you go to the fields and reweighed after picking. You'll usually pay for the products by weight.

When picking large quantities of produce, be prepared to cook or otherwise preserve your fruits and vegetables quickly. N.C. Cooperative Extension offers a website with advice on safe home food preservation.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that North Carolinians spend $350 billion on food. If North Carolinians spent just 10 percent of their food dollars on local foods every year, it would be worth $3.5 billion in the local economy, part of which would flow back to farmers and food businesses.

There are web-based resources that can help you find pick-your-own operations near your home. These are a few that may benefit North Carolina consumers.

Websites

N.C. Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services' Farm Fresh: Allows consumers to find pick-your-own farms sorted by region or by county.

Carolina Farm Stewardship Association: Helps consumers search for local food resources in North Carolina by name, city or ZIP.

Home food preservation: N.C. Cooperative Extension offers a web page on how to safely preserve a variety of food products.

Regional partners

These websites link consumers to local food resources for a given region of the state.

Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project: Focuses on western North Carolina counties, but has a great product finder tool.

Foothills Fresh: Six-county program in southwestern North Carolina, featuring farmers' markets, products, pick-your-own operations and agritourism.

Feast on the Southeast: Eight-county program in southeastern North Carolina, promoting local food resources through county-specific pages and a farm-to-chef guide.