Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/132109
Tougas Family Farm You-pick orchard near Boston draws thousands. Photo by richard lehnert by Richard Lehnert After five years working with sweet cherries, Mo Tougas said he hasn't found a way to make money. His latest effort is this planting under high tunnels. Each spring, a plastic skin is stretched over a steel frame to keep the rain off and result in crack-free cherries. 32 June 2013 GOOD FRUIT GROWER "L et's all go to my place." That was one of the things on Maurice "Mo" Tougas's agenda as he ended his two-year term as president of the International Fruit Tree Association. The association's annual conference was held in February in Boston, just 45 freeway minutes from the Tougas Family Farm at Northborough, Massachusetts. Historically, a winter conference has been held close to the president's farming operation, and a visit to the president's farm is often part of the program. "Orchards here aren't large, and there aren't too many," Tougas said of the area west of Boston. "But we're located close to lots of people, and they want to buy our products and come see our farms." Much of the IFTA agenda has to do with rootstocks, varieties, and orchard designs. About a hundred IFTA members went to his farm on a snowy Sunday during a preconference pruning demonstration to look at his apples, sweet cherries, and peaches and offer observations and advice on pruning. But on the following Tuesday, all 353 of those registered for the conference went back to the farm to see more of the other side of the business—the direct marketing side. The Tougases sell about 90 percent of their fruit using the pick-your-own method. On a sunny fall weekend, as many as 12,000 people come to pick apples. "We try to avoid a mob mentality," Tougas said in an interview with Good Fruit Grower. "If we see that developing, we use Facebook to slow things up a bit. We tell people not to come that day." Mob signs can be obvious. Cars overflow the parking lot and are backed up two miles along the road to the freeway exit ramps. As many as 16 cash registers check out customers. A staff of 15 are in the orchard, running eight wagons and placing signs to direct people to roped-off areas where apples are ripe for picking. Son Andre works with you-pick manager Terry Ward, while Tougas's wife Phyllis and their daughter April run the farm market and checkout area. "We encourage everybody to ride on a wagon to and from the orchard," Tougas said. "It makes it easier to keep track of everybody." Checkout is easy. Customers must buy at least one bag per person to enter the orchard. Bags cost $20 per peck or $30 per half bushel for apples. As customers leave the orchard, they take their bag and it gets a mark so it can't be used again. During peach season, they buy a cardboard box for $32. But it's all prepaid. Mo figures he gets $57.50 a bushel for apples sold that way. But it can take 12 customers to buy a bushel of apples. On a big day, they sell 1,500 bushels of apples to all those people. The big weekend for you-pick is around Columbus Day, October 12. "A lot of the people around here are of Italian descent, and Columbus Day is a major holiday," Mo said. www.goodfruit.com