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Subject: Market Farming

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  • From: dave.kathy AT att.net
  • To: Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Cc:
  • Subject: [Market-farming] New Member Biography
  • Date: Fri, 06 Jun 2003 14:03:37 +0000

Hi, everybody!

My wife and I retired 2 years ago to 10 acres near Iowa City, IA. On one of
those acres we grow organic vegetables for local Farmer’s Markets,
specializing
in alliums (esp., hardneck garlic and leeks) and solaneae (esp., white
eggplants and hot peppers). We also try unusual vegetables (like Oriental
greens) that might appeal to foreign students at the University of Iowa. We
produce culinary herbs in 2 raised beds, each 3 ft wide and 120 ft long.
Cilantro and dill are particularly good sellers for us. And we sell a little
honey from my 3 beehives. We do not market flowers because that would mean
collecting Iowa taxes. Our Farmer’s Marketing is essentially a hobby for
us—we
are very small operators compared to most the other vendors there, typically
Czechoslovak or Amish/Mennonite farmers each with 20-30 acres devoted to
produce.

Besides the garden, we have over an acre in orchard, largely devoted to
English
hard cider apples, but not in production yet. Another acre is a buffer
waterway that drains my neighbor’s non-organic corn and bean fields, which I
am
seeding to native tallgrass prairie. The rest of our land is in building
lots
and meadow. I have re-seeded the meadow to alsike clover for my bees with a
nurse crop (this year only) of malt barley.

I subscribed after seeing this in Johnny’s newsletter, but I’m overwhelmed by
the volume of email here. Couldn’t we perhaps establish STANDARD thread
topics
in the subject line, e.g., “New Member
Biographies”, “Vegetables”, “Flowers”, “Marketing”, and so on? Then I can
just
delete whatever doesn’t apply. Sorry, folks, but I am NOT going to read the
~60 emails a day this seems to yield!

Dave (and Kathy) Campbell
Adelyn’s Garden (my mother’s garden was famous hereabouts for over 50 yrs)
2365 Highway 6 NW
Tiffin IA 52340




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