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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] An Experiment in Country Living by Peter Goodchild

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: paul@oneseedling.com
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] An Experiment in Country Living by Peter Goodchild
  • Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:27:10 -0500

That was profit not gross. However, you are right, if you count every hour
spent then hourly wage was fairly low. On the other hand I wasn't some
mindless minion in a factory somewhere either.

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 30, 2010, at 11:08 AM, "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net> wrote:

>
> You know that raises more questions about the dirt farming ;-). I'm curious
> what costs may not be deducted to figure what profit was left - land,
> water, tiller, transportation & vehicles, structures, containers, seed &
> bulbs etc.? And more to the point, how many people put in time and energy
> during the year, and figuring from the gross sales minus expenses and
> capital investment, how much was the labor worth per hour? I don't mind
> saying mine is too low when it's all figured in, even with severe cost
> cutting.
>
> paul tradingpost@lobo.net
>
>
> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
>
> On 8/30/2010 at 7:12 AM paul@oneseedling.com wrote:
>
>> 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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>
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