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[Bevanron <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:

> To put this into persepective, we never put ourselves in a position 
> to depend on marketing farmstead products to stay afloat.  It was a 
> sideline at best and we set up a sort of set of books in a 'free 
> food' program where we wanted to supply all our food but not expend 
> any cash at all doing so.  Selling things from the farm was only 
> intended to cover the expense of the greenhouses, a little 
> supplemental feed (when we had too many chickens), farrier costs, 
> seeds, fuel to haul manure and organic material from off farm, 
> fencing, etc ..... and to buy our bulk items we didn't grow like 
> cooking oil and wheat (although we are growing wheat this year).  We 
> weren't trying to pay a mortgage and not even the taxes and insurance
>  with it, so like Gandi said when an interviewer was amazed he could 
> weave the cloth for his own clothes, he said "Well, I only wear a 
> loincloth so for me it is not a very big accomplishment."

Having a relatively short term but expensive mortgage that includes the
land payment, paying for the mortgage and other bills out of homestead
income was never in our plans, either.  My only goal, like yours, was to
offset other costs.  I already detailed the rabbit stuff, but we try to
do the same with chickens, that is, to earn enough money off the eggs to
pay for feed, fencing, new orders, etc.  Sometimes we make it, sometimes
we don't depending on what enterprise is concerned, but always, I made
enough money to put a dent in the cost of an operation, if not pay for
it outright.  Selling eggs in 2004 paid not only for feed for 2005, but
also for seed for the garden for 2005.
I have always been a food monger.  I must have starved to death in a
previous life, so I am very much concerned about having food available,
either in the yard or in the pantry.  Our whole goal was to put better
quality food on the table with less expense.  Since my food budget when
we lived in the city was always larger than most peoples, providing that
same amount of food for less money allowed us to use the 'savings' to
pay off other debt or do other things.  Ron works 11 hour days in town
to pay the mortgage, utilities, and medical bills, etc.  Our long term
goal is for him to be able to retire in a few years when the property is
paid for.  With 'side' money from woodworking and other jobs, and with
careful management, we should be just fine financially, perhaps needing
only a part time job to cover those unexpected things that come up.

I really don't have any good advice for those like Lynn who are on their
own and can't work off the farm and on the farm at the same time.  In
our arrangement, Ron works in town all day, works in the woodshop in the
evenings, and I pretty much do everything else, taking care of the
house, property, animals, garden, etc.  This works for us.  Of course,
there are some projects we do together, like the new chicken coop we are
to build soon.


>

> It's a difficult concept to convey, and I know I'm not doing an 
> dequate job of it.  I can usually do nothing but wag my head at those
>  who can't understand the concept and think it's some sort of
> advocacy for "pure homesteading" so some such.
<snip>

> BUT the moment we stepped over the line to offer things for cash, the
>  effort began to rise expodentially.

I totally understand this train of thought.  It is my experience as well.

> Lynn has mentioned the problems of raising the price of eggs from 
> $1.25 a dozen to $1.50.  We sold eggs for several years at 
> $2.00/dozen.  One week we'd sell every egg we had and had people 
> highly annoyed that they didn't get any. The next week we'd have 20 
> dozen ready to sell and no one wanted them. Couldn't give them away. 
> Next week the chickens would begin the moult and the egg count would 
> drop, "Where's my damn eggs!!" is what we'd hear.

I can sympathize-I have the same issues.  I can't seem to keep my
rabbits on a breeding schedule that will supply me with meat and the
customers with frozen feeders.  Just when I think I have it down,
something happens-a false pregnancy or something, and suddenly I am off
the plan when the customers need the feed.  Consistency is just hard to
maintain on a small scale to medium scale.

> All the models for homestead produce marketing look so good on paper.
>  So I began to look around my area for more successful models to 
> follow, someone who was marketing on a regular basis and turning a 
> credible profit at it.  What I found was that all operations who 
> claimed to be doing that were being supported by some sort of grant, 
> they weren't making it on their own at all.  <snip>
>
> I too heard all the stories about "Happy Gizzard" farm or some such 
> that was held up as a model of success for organic specialty 
> marketing on a small farm basis.  But whenever I looked into those 
> closely enough, there was other money floating the operation so that 
> it really mattered little whether they sold anything or not.
<snip>I've never found an > actual, *honest* CSA that has made it on
it's own without grant supplements).

I've long suspected such, but never actually did any research on any
operation.  I too have heard a lot of 'success' stories, only to find
out later that they had grants.  I suppose that taking grant money is
okay for some people, but I just would never feel comfortable doing that
for a variety of reasons, first and foremost, I don't want to have to
answer to anyone, especially a government agency. I suppose I might feel
differently if I were alone and had kids to support-in that case, I
would do what I had to do to put food on the table and keep a roof over
their heads, but I've been lucky in that I haven't been in that
situation and therefore I have had the luxury of having a choice.


Bev
--
erthnsky AT bellsouth.net  BevanRon of EarthNSky Farm      NW Georgia USDA Zone 7
34.498N 85.076W