Why this exists
Nobody should drive an hourto a closed gate
Pickeria is a checked list of American farms you can pick at yourself. Every listing is confirmed by a person before it goes up, and we say so when we are not certain.
Why we built it
The listings are usually wrong
Search for somewhere to pick this weekend and you will find plenty of lists. Most were copied from each other years ago and nobody has been back since. Farms close and the page stays up. Prices are from three seasons ago. The good small growers post their hours to Facebook and nowhere else.
Timing makes it worse. A cherry orchard sells for about six weeks a year. Strawberries are done in Florida before Michigan has started. Plenty of farms open only on weekends, and some only once the crop is actually ready, which is a call the grower makes that week.
So we do it the slow way. One farm at a time: confirm the public can really pick there rather than just buy at a stand, record what it grows and the months it is genuinely ripe, and leave off the ones that have quietly stopped. When a farm is out of season or shut, the page says that instead of staying quiet and letting you find out at the gate.
Our Mission
Fewer wasted Saturdays
The whole job is making sure that when a family gets in the car, the farm is open, the fruit is on, and it is worth the drive. Growers get found by people who actually turn up, and nobody wastes a day.
How we work
Three rules
A person has to confirm it
Someone checks that the public can actually pick there, not just buy at a stand. If we cannot confirm it, it stays off, and we would rather have a short list than a wrong one.
Say the boring part
What it costs to get in, which days they open, whether there is a restroom and somewhere to park. That is what decides whether a morning works, and it is what most listings leave out.
The grower comes first
These are small operations with a few weeks to make their year. Sending them people who turn up on the right day is worth more to them than another page of traffic.
Free
Always free to browse
We open one region at a time, because checking a farm properly takes a great deal longer than copying a listing from somewhere else. Run one we have not found yet? Tell us about it.
Go and pick something
See what is ready near you, then go before the window closes.