Here’s what we’ve seen works best:
- Post picks in a timely manner. Judge the ripeness of your fruit and try to post picks a week in advance of the optimal pick time.
- Provide honest, detailed descriptions. The more information you can provide about your fruit the better. For example, even if you don’t know the variety tell potential pickers as much as you can about the color, size, ripeness, flavor, quality, use (juicing, eating or baking), etc. of your fruit and how much fruit is available and how easy or difficult it is to get at (eg. fruit is at the top of a tree higher than the garage).
- Communicate with pickers. Email attendees and start a group conversation with all pickers, even if they’re coming on different days. The more rapport you build with pickers, the more successful the pick will be.
- Choose pick times convenient for pickers. Most pickers have day jobs, so think about scheduling picks early weekday evenings or on the weekends. Or consider setting up a flexible pick where pickers can contact you to arrange a convenient picking time.
- Promote your pick & Fruit Connect. Use your social media or your connections to let people know you’ve posted your fruit on Fruit Connect. The more people who are talking about it, the more potential pickers will see your posting.
These ideas will help, but sometimes there’s just too much fruit and not enough pickers, especially when it comes to crab apples.
While you’re busy promoting your own fruit to be harvested, we’ll continue to promote Fruit Connect and rescuing local fruit. Together we can work together to get more fruit harvested, shared and enjoyed!