Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["E. E. Mitchamore Jr" <emitch@att.net>]

Good stuff!  Now will you or someone else write about the relative merits of different market types, such as restaurants, weekly Farmer's Markets, roadside or on-farm stands, CSAs, etc. ?

 

Speaking as a customer and potential grower, I don't find weekly markets adequate.  They are too restrictive for the customer and too hard on the grower.  We need a "daily" market - let's call him/her a "grocer" - that receives the produce from the grower "whenever" and sells to the consumer "whenever".  There are such markets in most cultures; why not ours?

 

Also, is there anything written about the "business" of growing food?  If the financial aspects are too onerous, they are neglected, leading to failure.  One of my purposes for growing and selling native trees has been to learn all the aspects of running a small horticultural business.  IT IS NOT SIMPLE!  There are MANY things to consider besides the growing, and they can get you down: Record keeping, planning, taxes, employees (!), etc.

 

E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
www.hillcountrynatives.biz

----- Original Message -----

From: TradingPostPaul

To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 11:47 PM

Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Market gardening

Time for more detailed reply now. My reply follows below.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net
-------------

The demand is there and growing with every report of recalls and
poisonings. The problem is not customers who won't buy. The problem is lack
of growers who can treat it as a business. And market growing is a business
simply because it offers produce in return for money.

When you treat it as a business  you don't blame the customer; you find
what works and put it into practice. Or find a different business or
location. Like any business there are infinite ways to get it wrong. As in
any business it helps to have some background and experience with it, like
growing your own at home - not industrial farming.

In a farmers market you first have to have enough variety of produce to
make it worth their time to show up and keep coming back. It needs to be
presented attractively and priced realistically. We're advised to show
prices and talk to people who stop and look - instead of sitting there like
a bump on a log. Tell them what you can do to prepare produce simply.  A
lot of people don't know how to boil water. Display produce in open boxes
or baskets set so they're tipped toward the customer. Smile. Market
location matters. How it's run can make or break a whole market. Too much
crapola that's not produce can run customers off. They didn't come to buy
trinkets. Signs can help remind customers that fresh and local is good.

In any business you have to make choices on what you're selling and what
your clientle will buy. Globe artichokes may not sell in Peoria. Growing
peaches to sell in Atlanta may not be the best bet.

The growing itself is not for the fainthearted. There's a learning curve.
You get your hands dirty. On the plus side, you can quit paying the fitness
center.  It helps your bottom line if you already have enough property to
devote some to growing, without paying for separate land to grow. Start
small and stay small. You can make good money on an acre or two, or go
broke farming a hundred. You need to grow for yourself first and learn what
you can produce where you are. Find free sources of green and brown organic
matter. If you don't have machinery, don't go in debt to get it and hope
the profits will pay it off. You don't need it. Learn soil building.
Develop healthy soil and you can basically forget pests. Learn season
extension techniques. Combine your own starts and succession planting with
no-till, permanent mulch beds and record how you can grow four times as
much in a given garden area. Show how you cut labor and other costs
drastically after the first season. Work smart, not hard. Figure the dollar
return on your choices of what to grow. The list below is a start.

 TOP 15 VEGETABLES IN ECONOMIC VALUE & intensive spacing guide
http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/envirohort/426-335/426-335.html#L3
http://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/mg/vegetable/intensive.html

Tomatoes, Beets, Green bunching onions, Carrots, Leaf lettuce, Cucumbers,
Turnip (greens + roots), Peppers, Summer squash, Broccoli, Edible podded
peas,
Head lettuce, Onion storage bulbs, Swiss chard, Beans (pole, bush)

-- Values based on pounds produced per square foot, retail value per pound
at harvest time, and length of time in the garden.