Market Farming

["Dori Green" <dorigreen00 AT hotmail.com>]

What I want to do here is maybe a little bit different.  For several years I 
reported the farm as a business, with the help of an (expensive) CPA.  And I 
found out just how blooming difficult it is today to make a living as a 
farmer.

Now I'm developing the farm as a not-for-profit, to which I donate use of 
the land and my time until the members are ready to start paying me 
something for same.  The group will be doing the record keeping, reporting, 
etc. -- I'll just have to report income.

I can take deductions for my mortgage interest, taxes, and other standard 
stuff.  Memberships cover the expenses directly related to the operation of 
the community farm.

A simple Excel spreadsheet keeps all records easily sortable and we have a 
CPA who believes in what we're doing standing ready to help us file the 
paperwork for formal official 501(c)3 status (as a volunteer).

My father was a public accountant.  I have had so much enough of taxes in my 
lifetime that....well, you get the idea.

Yeah, I'm probably missing a lot of loopholes by doing this.  But all I need 
for the annual pain pilgrimage is a short form, W-2s, and mortgage 
statement.  For me, it's worth it.

If members join the garden co-op in time to order seeds from Fedco, that's 
where we order our seeds.  If they wait until May to join (as many still do, 
sigh) then we buy transplant flats from a local greenhouse company and we 
grow what they're offering.

Other than keeping the animals fed and the mortgage/utilities paid, I'm no 
longer sugar-mommying this or any other farm.  If people want access to it 
and its products they're just going to have to chip in to cover the 
operation.  If they don't, I can just enjoy it as a 20-acre residence.

Dori Green
Ash Grove Community Farm
Corning, NY
http://www.ic.org/agrove

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