Grow berries and small fruits for fresh sale, u-pick, or value-added products. Berry patches can produce for decades once established.
Consider these related business ideas and specializations:
Grow berries and small fruits for fresh sale, u-pick, or value-added products. Berry patches can produce for decades once established.
Consider these related business ideas and specializations:
San Juan Islands-specific considerations for this business:
Test this idea before investing heavily:
Plant a small test patch (25-50 plants) of one berry type suited to your soil. Sell at farmers market in year 2-3.
How do they grow in your specific conditions? What's the actual yield? How labor-intensive is harvest? Is there enough demand?
Your test patch sells out quickly and customers ask if you'll have more.
Expected startup and operating expenses:
Areas where quality investment pays off:
Virus-infected or weak plants never produce well and can spread disease to healthy plants
Good enough: Certified disease-free stock from established berry nursery
One flock of starlings can strip an entire berry patch in hours—protection isn't optional
Good enough: Quality bird netting properly installed; deer fence if deer are present
Berry plants need consistent water during establishment—drought stress during first years means weak plants forever
Good enough: Drip irrigation on timer; doesn't need to be fancy but needs to be reliable
Areas where cost-cutting makes sense:
Financial timing and planning notes:
Strategies to reduce risk and increase odds of success:
Join shomby today and start selling to your local community. We provide the platform—you bring the passion.
We build shomby around your business—not the other way around. If there's a feature, integration, or tool that would help your berries & small fruits business succeed, we want to hear about it.
Grow and sell fresh, local vegetables directly to consumers. Even a backyard garden can produce significant income when focused on high-value crops with strong local demand.
Grow beautiful blooms for bouquets, events, and subscriptions. Local flowers offer freshness, unique varieties, and sustainability that imported flowers can't match.
Propagate and sell plants, from vegetable starts to ornamentals. Spring seedling sales and year-round houseplant demand create multiple revenue streams.
San Juan Islands-specific considerations for this business:
Test this idea before investing heavily:
Plant a small test patch (25-50 plants) of one berry type suited to your soil. Sell at farmers market in year 2-3.
How do they grow in your specific conditions? What's the actual yield? How labor-intensive is harvest? Is there enough demand?
Your test patch sells out quickly and customers ask if you'll have more.
Expected startup and operating expenses:
Areas where quality investment pays off:
Virus-infected or weak plants never produce well and can spread disease to healthy plants
Good enough: Certified disease-free stock from established berry nursery
One flock of starlings can strip an entire berry patch in hours—protection isn't optional
Good enough: Quality bird netting properly installed; deer fence if deer are present
Berry plants need consistent water during establishment—drought stress during first years means weak plants forever
Good enough: Drip irrigation on timer; doesn't need to be fancy but needs to be reliable
Areas where cost-cutting makes sense:
Financial timing and planning notes:
Strategies to reduce risk and increase odds of success:
Join shomby today and start selling to your local community. We provide the platform—you bring the passion.
We build shomby around your business—not the other way around. If there's a feature, integration, or tool that would help your berries & small fruits business succeed, we want to hear about it.
Grow and sell fresh, local vegetables directly to consumers. Even a backyard garden can produce significant income when focused on high-value crops with strong local demand.
Grow beautiful blooms for bouquets, events, and subscriptions. Local flowers offer freshness, unique varieties, and sustainability that imported flowers can't match.
Propagate and sell plants, from vegetable starts to ornamentals. Spring seedling sales and year-round houseplant demand create multiple revenue streams.