We made about $150 this fall from our Honor Stand, just a cardboard box with Hichiya persimmons in it, a sign saying 3 for $1, and a 50 cal. ammo can with a money slot cut in it chained to a tree. We’re in a working class neighborhood with a lot of rentals and a few halfway houses and drug rehab houses and LOTS of homeless walking by every morning and evening.
I scoffed when my wife suggested it last season, but it’s worked out well. You wouldn’t believe how fun it is to open the box and pull a wad of dollar bills out of it. This would be fruit that just falls on the ground and rots, as we can’t process all of it. We switch over to plums in the summer and get similar results. People knock on the door when the box is empty asking when we’ll have more, and sometimes ask for a whole box if they have holiday baking coming up.
I encourage you to try if you have a lot of fruit around, it can be something that the kids look after and learn some capitalism.
On our way to my son’s daycare they have one of those with tomatoes.
I’ve bought plants at another honor stand. People can be surprisingly honest sometimes. I’ve seen quite a few in PA area, though non in my neighborhood. Not enough traffic around here I think. Stuff would just sit there.
I live in a subdivision with only the minimum don’t do’s. This might be an option that I might want to try but I was wondering if there would be any laws prohibiting the sales from my yard. I checked online but came up empty.
I thought of doing a similar thing myself. I cannot find any laws preventing me from doing that either. I have seen a few places doing that over the years. I hope it keeps working out for you.
Here it’s a mixed bag. Many years ago I picked blueberries at an honor stand. There was a ton of cash and checks in a clear jar, but, as far as I know everyone was being honest. Eventually this place closed. I don’t know why.
I’ve talked with another person who had an honor stand closer to our farm. It worked for a couple years then someone ripped the steel money box off his table. He did a better job of bolting the box to the table, but then they stole the table. The guy then mounted a steel table in the ground in concrete. Unfortunately someone then started coming by and stealing all his produce on the table.
He found out who was doing it. He showed up at their trailer and they were reselling his produce in a trailer park.
About 98% of my customers I would trust with an honor system, but there are a very few who spoil it for everyone. I get some theft of fruit just about every year. Based on what a customer told me, I think one year some thieves were stealing my peaches and selling them at a local market. I’m pretty sure the odd criminal would steal cash at my stand if left unattended. Thieves ruin it for everyone.
There was a lady a few years ago who had a peach stand about 30 miles from my orchard. Some wacko came by and stabbed her with a knife for the cash she had on hand.
Here’s my setup for the money box; it’s a 50 caliber ammunition box with a slot cut in the top. A loose 1/2" carriage bolt fits through a 1/2" hold drilled through the side and the handle. The bolt has a 3/16" hold drilled through the shank that just fits a trailer coupler lock that also goes through the chain. The other end of the chain is padlocked to a big tree.
To open the box, you undo the lock and push the bolt in, allowing the handle to lift. We empty it out enough so that there’s never more than $10 in it.
