Agritourism is an umbrella term for activities that invite the public to agricultural sites for commercial purposes. It’s popular nationwide and widespread in the Pacific Northwest where the culture is obsessed with food and wine. This mass interest presents marketing and logistical challenges that are ripe for reinvention.

First Encounters

My interest began in early summer of 2023. Outings in previous years to some of Portland’s most popular u-pick farms were lackluster. These u-pick farms provide good products and variety. They simply can’t endure the demand of the metro area for an entire summer. The experience differed greatly with options further from Portland. I was not involved in selecting the locations on any of these occasions. Someone suggested the locally well-known place and we followed. That was about to change…

I was planning a local vacation for my family. We had chosen a farm theme given our timing near fruit season in PNW. The farms in the nearby town of Salem were unknown to us, so I was on a fact finding mission. Research led me to social media that I abandoned long ago. I was fascinated to learn that Facebook and Instagram were the marketing tools of choice for farms in Oregon. Their Facebook pages were public and providing rapid status updates on conditions and predictions for opening dates. Some had websites with more current information, but discovering them was like finding a needle in a haystack. The effort to find the farms was high and determining which had active u-pick was even higher.

First Solutions

This trip planning coincided with exploration of ChatGPT. I was curating a collection of genai prompts for general productivity. In a weekend, that effort spun into the first U-Pick Report on FruitLady.farm. This website name was a tribute to my partner’s love for u-pick farms. I joked in previous years about creating her t-shirts with this nickname. This website would have to suffice. Through the summer it provided us and our friends an edge on weekend fruit picking. It was a black hole for my time and the butt of many jokes. Regardless, my interest grew stronger.

First Pivot

By the end of summer in 2023, I was attempting to have conversations with farms and relevant organizations in exploring new methods of promoting u-pick. Still enthralled by ChatGPT, I imagined a funnel of u-pick updates powering a chat based experience. It was the grapevine for u-pick. Thus, the idea for #Cropvine was born to focus on “trending ripe now” at u-pick farms.

Unsurpringly, the farms were hard at work and focused on maximizing summer months. I was still solutioning months later, but my focus has shifted to the crops. I started asking questions about crop availability beyond u-pick:

• What fruit would be at which farmers market?
• When were these markets? Which farms were attending?
• What other choices did consumers have to acquire crops?
• What’s the most economical option for consumers on any given day?
• What was on the route to and from these destinations?
• What other factors were driving consumer choices?

Maps became an obvious requirement. After some self education, I enrolled in a GIS program. Learning more about geospatial analysis reshaped my vision of the solution. In the coming articles, I’ll explain the opportunity, challenges, attempted solutions, and future direction.