Your Beginner Guide to Harvest Hosts
Updated: Oct 20
When we first learned about the "Harvest Hosts" concept, we were immediately intrigued. The program is brilliant: a massive network of farms, wineries, breweries, and other unique local businesses that offer RVers a free place to park for the night. In exchange, you simply purchase some of their local products or services. For us campers, the membership costs $99 a year (we scored a discount for our first year, and you can too—get 15% off your membership using code HHFRIENDS15 here)—a price that essentially pays for itself after just two nights of skipping standard RV park fees.
The catch? You have to be self-sufficient. This style of camping—parking outside of an established campground without any water, sewer, or power hookups—is known in the American RV world as "boondocking." Many Harvest Hosts locations offer certain amenities though, and filtering for amenities in the app works seamlessly.
The Boondocking Reality Check
Many American RVs come partially equipped for boondocking. Typically, you'll have a freshwater tank and a water pump, plus a standard 12V battery that runs your lights, slide-outs, and that pump for a couple of days. You also rely on propane to fuel your stove, fridge, and heater. While some modern RVs come with installed solar panels and extra batteries to power the whole house on wheels, there are plenty of easy options to upgrade your off-grid power if yours didn't come with them.
We described our setup in detail in the recent post Rig Tour: Our 2017 Winnebago Minnie 2401RG Specs. To cut it short, our Minnie is pretty clever; she can run the refrigerator off propane, and her 12-volt battery easily powers the lights and safety equipment for a couple of days. Later on our trip, we equipped ourselves additionally with a solar generator and two solar panels which allows us to plug the trailer occasionally in and recharge the 12V battery, as well as charge our phones, laptops and other devices and even watch TV and use microwave on sunny days when the generator gets constantly recharged. But the air conditioner? That requires serious power that would drain our solar generator fully in 2 hours.
Our very first Harvest Host experience was in Alabama in June, so the heat was suffocating, we were still inexperienced campers who didn't know all the tricks and intricacies of their rig and didn't even think about solar upgrades at that time. So, our search for Harvest Hosts was always with the filter "electric hookups provided". And there are many! Some of the hosts offer them for free, some charge you 10-30 bucks. In many cases water hookup is provided as well. We even met couple Harvest Hosts with their own sewer hook-up arrangement! It's amazing how many farms in the program are working hard on providing a nice, designated Harvest Host parking spot with accessible hookups. So, paying a little extra for your comfort makes sense.
After we bought our membership, everything went very fast. We found our first stay in Grand Bay, AL on the Mason Hills Farm. As we were not yet sure how well the app worked, we contacted the hosts by phone and made sure we get a spot with electric hookup. They were incredibly kind and gave us the needed confirmation and necessary instructions on how to reach them. So, our climate control was saved! After almost four hours of completely monotonous highway landscapes, we pulled into the farm. We were immediately greeted by wide-open spaces, a massive, ancient oak tree, and absolute peace. Herschel, the father of the host, welcomed us personally, showed us the spot, so parking and settling in was easy.
Stories, Steaks, and Serenity
Meeting Harvest Hosts in person, learning their stories, seeing their farms, wineries, shops, observing their daily routine as workers and as families is one of the most fascinating sides of such journey as ours. Getting to know people of the country is key to getting to know the country itself. Every story is different, and we learned so many in only one year!
The first one, though, is always the one you remember so well. We met Joey Mason, the 39-year-old owner of Mason Hills Farm on our only evening in the state of Alabama. He told us that he founded the farm four years ago. Interestingly, he came from the corporate business world, completely unrelated to farming! He bought the land, built a meat processing facility, and focused entirely on cow genetics and clean nutrition, resulting in high-quality meat completely free of antibiotics and hormones.
Naturally intrigued, we headed straight into their tastefully decorated farm shop to hunt for our "stay fee." We found the absolute perfect cuts for a barbecue dinner: a beautiful fillet and a massive ribeye steak. We still remember how good the meat tasted on this perfect quiet evening, as the farm workers headed home, leaving us with the entire property to ourselves. It was an absolute triumph of a dinner and of our first ever Harvest Hosts stay.
We slept incredibly well and spent the next morning leaning into a lazy, pleasant farm routine. Before hitting the road, we went back to the shop and loaded our freezer with an assortment of steaks, sausages and Herschel's special hamburger meat. Now that is the kind of souvenir you want from an Alabama farm!
There is so much we could tell you about Harvest Hosts, we could not possibly fit everything in one post. So, stay tuned for the future posts with more tales and tactics from this fun way of boondocking in North America!
Tactics from the Road: Nailing Your First Harvest Host 🚜
Know Your Limits: "Self-sufficient" means exactly that. You always see in the app if the host offers hook-ups. If not, then you need to make sure you have enough water, holding tanks capacity and power (relying on your batteries, solar, or a generator).
Support Your Host: The stay is "free," but it is recommended to support their business with a purchase of around $30. It is a win-win: you get fresh local goods instead of a simple patch of gravel!
Book ahead: Don't show unannounced, book in advance through the app and wait for the approval of your stay, or give the host a quick phone call to ensure they are ready for you. You will always receive a welcoming message confirming your stay and giving you specific directions on where to park, how to check in and what else to consider.
Grab a Discount: If you're ready to try this style of camping for yourself, you can get 15% off your first year here. Just make sure to manually apply the promo code HHFRIENDS15 at checkout!
Comments