Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[l kelly <elkel@hotmail.com>]

Hello,  thank you everyone for the informational nature of this list serve. 
I guess I'm one of the 50 million US farmer's waiting to happen.
I'm currently a small-scale market vendor in Fayetteville, AR, selling only surplus when it is convenient. 
I am searching for 2-5 acres of land in order to eventually build a small homestead there. I definitely want to build community, and see my talent as being able to produce food.  at 41, I am self-taught. I've gardened since childhood, and I avidly read Wendell Berry, Eliot Coleman and the like.
 
On the topic of requirements to become a farmer:
the health insurance may not be required, as myself, and most of my fellow market vendors are cash-poor (and life-rich), making us medicaid eligible.  In addition, many of us are open to "natural" medicinal techniques which are not always covered by typical insurance companies.
 
However, the idea of debt and farming does seem problematic to me for that very reason of low-cash-flow.  Personally, I'm going to mightily attempt to not go into debt when buying land.  Thankfully, I've a paid-off mortgage rather than a lease....
 
On a topic of management of farmer's market:
I'm wondering if anyone has a resource for managing farmer's markets.  I know there are many different models, and sometimes government monies can be involved, but I'm interested in self-sufficient markets with their own management budget.  In Fayetteville, Arkansas, we usually have four markets a week during the 8 month season.
http://www.fayettevillefarmersmarket.org/ 
Our largest market, on Saturday morning usually has 50-60 vendors.  We currently hire a full-time manager, but are having difficulty getting everything done.  I'm wondering if we need to consider expanding the management budget to help the situation.  Has a rule of thumb about percentage of market gross revenue for management ever emerged as far as anyone knows?
 
Thanks
Laura Kelly
 
 
 

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