Jeff in nY

My idea of what should be in a tiny farm journal keeps evolving as I go along. A few weeks back, I realized that, for me at least, there is no separation between the production/gardening and the marketing/selling (CSA, farmers’ market, farm stand). Maybe one could get satisfaction from veggie garden without tasting or eating the harvest, but that seems doubtful. In tiny farming, the people you sell your harvest to are to me extensions of that, they complete the veggie garden! I tried to get at that idea in the “CSA shares…” post.

On the more direct monetary end, the situation here is not conveniently clearcut, so I can’t provide a simple answer. I’ll probably get to that as time goes by. :) For sure, this isn’t a hobby farm, it’s gotta pull its own weight.

And then there’s the “square foot” model I often get in conversations about. If you look at a field in square foot units, include the growing bed area only, and come up with a number, you can plan for gross revenue in a veggie-friendly way. For example, take a round 40,000sq ft as an acre. If you could get, say, $2 per square foot, that’d be $80K a year per acre. Use your garden production imagination and some arithmetic and you can see that quite a bit is possible financially. For example, say you get a $4 bag of mesclun and a $1.50 bunch of radishes out of a sq ft each, that’s $2.75/sq ft and you’re already ahead of the $2 target. And so on… (I’m NOWHERE NEAR that, or of planning and record-keeping with that sort of…precision, but it’s at least a nice overall musing framework.) It makes economic sustainability seem…doable!

Hope that all makes some sense, I’m writing quickly on a heat break!!

Relying on the people instead of machines makes alot of sense. Alot of the farmers (mostly dairy) around me (upstate ny) all rely on gas powered machines that sit idle most of the season ( alot of deperiation on a 80k- 150k machine) I guess you have to sell alot of milk to cover those expenses. Not to mention when they have to fix the tractors and do maintenece like replace tires etc. When your fixing and worrying about equiment and paying a huge price for it ..it seems a bit disconnected from what a farm is about? So thanks for sharing with the world your experiences. One thing I’d be curious to read is any info you’d be willing to share about the monetary end of running a small farm. I’d complelty understand if you didn’t want to share, however that’s a part of a farm just like veggies..
GREAT BLOG TY!!!!
Jeff in nY

this busy season may be the wrong time, but a pet section would be nice.