@thecityman Kevin, are you still selling fruit this year? Any new experience?
Hey Sara! Sadly, I am not. You may or may not recall me mentioning that the City I work for is in a big lawsuit with a land owner right across the street from me because he has built and is trying to open a big retail farm stand in the middle of an agriculture/residential area. Now, there are countless differences in my little self-serve fruit stand and what he is trying to do, but I still felt it wouldn’t be a good look for me to be selling fruit while at the same time suing him for selling his farm products. But it honestly isn’t as hypocritical as it sounds. While he is going to be selling some produce, his is a full blown commercial store (selling everything a convenience store sells) and has a drive-through window and a deli restaurant and so on. I’m sure people here might think its awful to go after a “farm store” but if you all saw it and understood that its really just a convenience store that also happens to sell some farm products, you’d understand. Its surrounded on all sides by houses, so just imagine someone putting a 7-11 in the middle of your neighborhood- complete with commercial dumpsters, paved parking lot, sandwich shop, etc. I hope everyone knows that I’d be a big fan of a little produce stand or even produce store, but that’s not what this is.
Anyway, that is a long (you know me!) way of saying I’m not going to sell fruit this year while me and my employer are trying to stop someone else from selling their produce (and a whole lot more!)
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Gee, that sounds BAD! 
I would be very very upset if someone build a monster like that close to my house. Hope the city win the law suit.
I had a bumper crop of plums this year and I posted on a small internet group to sell some. People just loved my fruits and I enjoyed showing them my fruit trees (with mask on), all 9 of them! 
some said they haven’t had such good fruit for 20yrs(maybe they were just trying to be nice)
Right now, I am charging less than super market price, but would like to charge more. I think my fruit deserve a premium.
Someone suggested I put them on some stand. And I thought of this thread: your Apple and coffee can.
My plum are all gone. So I am just collecting info for the peaches that are coming.
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Sarah,
I have charged either comparable to or above supermarket prices. I have my customers tried my fruit. They all love them. They cannot find plums or peaches tasted this good, even from WholeFoods (which is very expensive). I am a small backyard orchard. I have limited number of plums and peaches to sell. I have repeated customers (this will be only my 3rd year selling). I should thank you for inspiring me to sell my excess friut.
My best seller? Mirabelle plums. My customers have already ordered all the crop at a premium price a month before the fruit ripen!!
We have a small farm stand at the front of our house. We are currently selling peaches for about $2 a pound. We have two mature trees fruiting right now and seem to have more supply than demand!
Mamuang, I am glad your fruits are selling well, even more glad that I had something to do with it! 
It seems we are in similar situation, our fruits taste really good, people like them and come back for more.
This is the first time I am selling directly to this group. Like you, I also have them tasted first, some buy 10 lbs first, and come back a few days later to buy another 10 or 15 lb.
Wegman has black plum at $2.8/lb, I am selling at $2.5/lb. next year, I will definite charge above wegman price. How much premium do you charge for your plum? How about peaches?
It does feel good when people really like my labor of love, calling it Michelin of the fruits!
Now I just need to figure out what price to set for the peaches.
Thank you for sharing your experience! Is your price above or below your local grocery store price? Are you in a suburb or more rural setting?
That is so great, Sara! I can absolutely identify with the feeling you get when people rave about your fruit. You may know that I gave away the vast majority of my fruit in little fruit gift boxes with a mix of whatever is ripe. Well, that may sound all generous and charitable, but truth be told its also for my own enjoyment of what you just talked about. Having people rave about how good the fruit is and how much better than store bought and so on is a lot of fun and, if I’m honest, a little bit of a self-esteem builder! ha. ANd its just plain fun seeing people discover how good fruit can be, Not because my fruit is better than any other home grower on here, but it certainly is miles ahead of supermarket fruit and that is all that most people have ever had. In fact, most people often remember that one time as a child when they got a peach from a tree somewhere or a plum from a relative and it was so impactful that 30 years later they are still talking about how good it was. Then they get to rediscover that quality of fruit from my trees and its so much fun. The fact is that fruit left to fully ripen in the sunshine, on a tree,m where it can fully develop its sugars and flavors just makes it incredible. So I’m glad you are spreading the same exact joy on your side of the world and having the same fun reactions. But I’d charge more than grocery stores!!! You know people will be happy to pay it. You have a much better product and I’m certain it costs you more to grow it than a commercial orchard and those who have tried it will pay happy to pay a premium for it. All that being said, I know you aren’t in it to get rich so whatever you charge, I’m glad you are enjoying selling it. Good luck.
We are more expensive than Walmart which is 1.70/lb and the same price as our grocery store when the peaches are on sale. We aren’t suburbs or rural really some where in between. Ours should be more expensive since they are so much better than what you can get in any store, but it is better than them going bad.
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Kevin,
Only a fellow fruit grower can understand the joy and happiness we get when people think highly of our fruits，after we put in our money and sweat and only get back a fraction of the money we put in 
I did set the peach at above market price, and it sold very well. Now I have one more peach tree to go. It’s exhausting just to pick the peaches in this hot and humid weather. I have made a promise that I will do a much better job pruning so I don’t have to sell that much fruits next year.
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I am thinking of selling. We just moved to a property that has a very old Duchess apple tree and 2 red delicious and three golden. I could never give away the amount of apples I have to family and friends. I will donate some but wanted to try selling too. I was just about to purchase 50 1/4 peck bags but the shipping was more that the cost of the bags $10.49 for 50. I also was going to go by the honor system. I to leave near a Whole Foods and a Wegmans so would price under them. Anyone still
Out there contemplating this stuff on a rainy Labor Day in Ny ?
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Just curious because I am new to all this ! How many apples would fit in a 1/4 peck bag and 1/2 peck bag
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Not sure how many average size Apples fit in a half peck bag but it should weight around 5 pounds.
Our PYO price for Apples this year is $15/half peck or about $120/bushel. Customers normally overfill the bags slightly which reduces the actual price per pound
Very few PYO Apples in our area so they sell quickly. We are really selling family entertainment rather than Apples but we do not charge any entrance fee like another orchard in our area.
It took a while for us to understand that people are happy to pay for the “farm experience.” It’s a lot cheaper than a trip to the movie theater and the customer gets to take a good quality fruit home with them after they leave the farm.
We noticed larger orchards in Apple growing country in Virginia charge $1.50 a pound but they have a lot of acres to sell and a lot of competition.
The price of Apples in the grocery store has almost nothing to do with how much customers are willing to pay for fresh apples picked right off the tree.
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