The harvest is still small: snap peas, broccoli, mesclun, the last of the garlic scapes and spring spinach, beet greens, the first few, baby beets. With 50 CSA shares to fill this year (around double from last year), plus the farmers’ market, a couple of local outlets, and the farm stand, I’ve really upped the ante. Even with PEOPLE at work in the field, I’m concerned about quantity. Where bad germination and losses from pest damage here and there have been no real worry so far, now every little setback seems…dire. Probably, most of this is in my head, endless millions of small farmers have done it before and are doing it now. Still, staying tiny and diversified at my particular scale seems tougher than before. It’ll work out, and for now, any uncertainty keeps the adrenaline on a steady slow drip! :)
I’ve tried penciling out the numbers to do a small farm like yours but can’t ever seem to make it worthwhile–to buy the land and the equipment, etc. seems overwhelming…does this support you year-round? I can only figure it working if I have a second source of income…
Seeing you do this makes me want to forge ahead faster on our farming plans. That box of beets looks incredibly yummy!
Steve: When you put it like that, it does seem quite daunting. If you’re really wealthy, well, it’d be a hobby. If you have some investment money, it can be pretty hard to make a business case for small farming the way, for example, I’m trying it (you could plan a lucrative specialty operation, like selling salad greens to a high end urban market, but that’s more like a manufacturing business than “small farming” in the market garden, country living sense). And if you’re starting with no real capital, no land, then it looks really uphill. The X factor I guess is your desire/passion/obsession—when you really want to do something, you find ways to take starting steps, and new ideas, avenues, opportunities tend to kind of just…appear! You know, the wish real hard approach! :)
AnneMarie: The beets were pretty tasty!
The University of Wisconsin have studied the economic of small (and not-so-small) diversified organic vegetable growers, and published a report on the subject:
http://www.cias.wisc.edu/crops-and-livestock/report-helps-fresh-market-vegetable-growers-understand-and-share-finances/
Executive summary: if you really love growing, do not mind working very hard, and accept to live very frugally, you can earn a living doing it.