Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[paul@oneseedling.com]

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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