Market Farming

[Dean Mullis <demullis AT InfoAve.Net>]

Cheri,
I would suggest that 10 families would be the upper limit to start with in 
your position.
I tried subscription farming,  i.e., a CSA a for 2 years with 2 groups of 
people a few years
ago and we failed at it.  Each group was less than 10 families.  Part of our 
problem was our
members did not get the idea of a CSA, although we thought we explained it 
well, and we
basically ended up spending 1/2 a day once a week delivering vegetables.  
This may not be a
problem for you since your customers will already be "trained" to 
subscription farming.
Another mistake that we made was putting exotic vegetables ( which the evil 
Johnny's catalog
made us order through some kind of mind control in Feb., lol) that no one 
knew what to do with
it, and then we would hit flat spots and the boxes would contain 4 lbs of 
okra,  not enough
tomatoes, and too much squash and peppers.
I got a good friend who built up a very successful CSA with between 45 and 50 
members @
$525/member.  He is an excellent market gardener, always has a wide variety 
of stuff, and
plenty of help, both hired and members of his CSA.  2 years ago, he put it on 
hold and has not
re-started it because it was stressing him out so much.  He elected to sell 
at farmer's mkts
instead.
I am not trying to discourage you, just sharing my failures and my friend's 
successes with
this type of farming.
Whatever you decide to do, become a market gardener in some form or fashion.  
You will meet
all kinds of people and I think it is a great way to raise kids.

Dean Mullis
Laughing Owl Farm
Richfield, NC