Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[paul@oneseedling.com]

We were able to clear over $30,000 a year during the 3 years we dirt farmed a 
little less than an acre in central Texas. We were able to clear about 
$38,000 a year when we switched to aquaponics in an area about 100X100. It 
was way easier with the aquaponics as everything was waist high, no tilling, 
very little weeding. 
We sold to two local restaurants but made out best money at a farmers market 
10 miles away. 
It can be done but takes some planning and knowing what the market wants, 
then producing only those products. Paul the Skeptic

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 29, 2010, at 10:29 PM, "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net> wrote:

> 
> This little bit from Goodchild caught my eye:
> 
> "We did not expect money making to be the principal issue in country 
> living, but such was the case. Although we ran a one-acre market garden as 
> efficiently as possible, a profit always seemed to elude us. .. My 
> suggestions that people rediscover their rural origins didn't get very far. 
> The young disliked country living and were rather ashamed of it. The 
> middle-aged took the attitude, not that "anything worth doing is worth 
> doing well," but that it is worth doing only with heavy machinery."
> 
> Goodchild is a smart guy and educated and motivated, and ran up against the 
> same problem I was talking about - the difficulty of making a living (or 
> any profit at all) producing food for local selling. And the younger 
> generations don't want anything to do with it. In my view this is a huge 
> issue, the issue of the near future that rivals all others. 
> 
> We had a terrific day at our biggest market today, likely better than 
> almost any other sellers there. But it's still not enough to justify the 
> months of work going into it. We'll keep exploring the options, the 
> marketing and the cost cutting. But two different problems that aren't 
> going away: where we are the growing depends on grid irrigation, and the 
> local selling depends on fossil fuel transportation. 
> 
> paul tradingpost@lobo.net
> 
> 
> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
> 
> On 8/29/2010 at 8:23 PM Tradingpost wrote:
> 
>> An Experiment in Country Living 
>> by Peter Goodchild   01 August 2010
>> http://www.culturechange.org/cms/content/view/668/1/
>> 
> 
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