Market Farming

[Ernest Kuntze <osmogaia2 AT earthlink.net>]

> Several people have asked me how I did $150K on 1 1/2 acres. I will try 
> to give some basics. This forum isn't really the best for in-depth 
> discussions because of size limitations. Anyone who has read my posts 
> in othere forums knows I can go on forever, I just love this stuff. 
> First, Allan Balliett emailed me and said he did $49K on 1 acre. Allan, 
> great job and you are on the right track with the right attitude. 
> Rather than being discouraged when seeing others who had better 
> numbers, you are encouraged because you see the potential for 
> improving. My guess is that aren't afraid to make mistakes because you 
> learn from them. These are two things that have helped me get to the 
> level I am now.
> 1) I constantly question what I am doing and make notes about how I 
> could do things better. I spent 15 years in telecommunications so I 
> tend to see things in processes and systems. I notice how a change in a 
> discrete process here affects other processes within the system. for 
> example, the process of planting has a huge impact on your production 
> system, especially in the areas of cultivation and harvest. I started 
> out just broadcasting seed because that worked well for me as a 
> gardener. Makes it easy to plant but very difficult to cultivate, which 
> inturn makes it difficult to harvest.
> 2) I have no education on horticulture or agriculture. My background is 
> in math/engineering/business management. When people ask me how I have 
> learned how to do what I do I respond "by killing a lot of stuff." It's 
> true. I have learned the most from my biggest failures. My successes 
> have taught me little. When I plant something and it dies or doesn't 
> produce an economically viable crop, I don't look for external forces 
> to blame it on. I look at: what did I do, what decisions did I make 
> that gave me this result. Then I ask "What if" (please don't sue me 
> Hewlett-Packard) I made changes in what I did, what if I had made 
> different decisions, what would be the result. Keep in mind that seed 
> is cheap so go ahead and put in the ground, experiment, make mistakes 
> and learn.
>   I wish there were space here to contrast several business models. The 
> keys lie more in the business model than in production. I see many 
> people who can produce huge crops but I can't call them farmers because 
> they don't get have the sales pipeline to move their product. and they 
> don't have a way to distribute what they do sell. Farming is a 
> business, and if attention isn't paid to the business side then you 
> have just put a huge limit over yourself.
> I am a big fan of the book "Gardening for Profit" by Peter Henderson. 
> It was written in 1865 and is more right on target than any other 
> market gardening book I have read. He starts out with the 11 
> requirements necessary for success as a market farmer. When I started I 
> met 10 out of the eleven-the one I didn't have was my biggest limiting 
> factor. You need adequate capital to fund your operation. I started 
> with literally $200 in seed money and a marketing plan. I just kept 
> turning that $200 over and over and fine tuning my plan. I started out 
> with 1/2 acre of garden space on the one acre lot I owned in Portland. 
> I rented another 1/2 acre from a friend for the next 13 years.
> There is another grower in my area who farms 7 acres every year and 
> averages gross sales of $100K/acre. His expenses per acre average 
> $30K/acre-with most of that being labor. He has a Phd in I believe 
> horticulture and spent several years working in that environment. He 
> already had the education, experience, and and intimate knowledge of 
> greenhouse growing. He started out  owning a farm in one of the most 
> productive agricultural areas in the world. I don't know his acreage, 
> but he keeps some in cover crop every year and only farms 7 acres. He 
> also started out with a full blown business plan and the fuding to 
> cover the first five years of operating expenses. He did everything 
> right and he is receiving the rewards of his good decisions he has made 
> in his life. He sells to the same niche I sell to: fine dining 
> restaurants. H also does a farmers' market, which I avoid.
> Look at the contrast between the two operations. I started my business 
> quickly on a shoestring because I was burnt out on my career in 
> telecommunications. I had to make decisions that would give me instant 
> short-term cashflow because I had a family to feed and bills to pay 
> with no cash reserves. He totally thought out what he was doing, 
> planned for it for years, and started out with a 5-year cash reserve. 
> This gave him the ability to think and act long-term which let him hit 
> the top levels of the business in maybe 1/3 the time as me.
> I know everyone is wanting to hear more about production instead of 
> business, but without the proper business structure the production 
> isn't important.
>    I grow a wide variety of crops. The back bone of my operation is 
> spring mix or mesclun. It covers all of my expenses and gives me a 
> profit. I am blessed to be in Zone 8 where cold snowy winters are the 
> exception. This winter, for example, has been dry and warmer and I am 
> still harvesting salad greens from almost 4 acres outside with no 
> protection. That could all go away next week, however, because on of 
> the 4 local TV stations is predicting an arctic blast for next week. In 
> the meantime I am harvesting everything I can. I have 15 restaurant 
> customers that I sell direct to, and they are mostly located in a very 
> tight area of downtown Portland. I sell 500lbs of mesclun/week at 
> $4.00/lb. This covers all of my business expenses including my salary. 
> In my position as President of Singing Pig Farm,Inc I receive a salary 
> of $1200 every two weeks. This covers all of my living expenses and 
> allows me to fund a Roth IRA. I live frugally and I am low maintenance.
> In additon to mesclun, which I grow year round, I grow carrots, beets , 
> fennel, basil, tomatoes, eggplant, zukes, melons, sweet corn, peas, 
> onion, garlic, green garlic, broccoili, cabbage, artichokes, cardoon, 
> rapini, turnips, romaine lettuce, shallots,just a wide range of crops. 
> Because the mesclun pays the bills I have the luxury of growing 
> experimental items every year. In my breakout year of 2002, I started 
> the year with 6 20X96' compost heated greenhouses in full production 
> with salad greens,escarole and baby turnips. In february, I was able to 
> harvest cardoon ( it doesn't freeze down out here and starts to put on 
> new growth in midjanuary when the days get over 9 hours long). I have 
> one customer who makes delicious pickles out of cardoon so i was able 
> to sell him 90 lbs/ week at #1.00/ pound for several weeks. Then in 
> March the softneck garlic I planted thickly for green garlic was ready. 
> For several weeks I sold 10-15 cases per week for $15/case.  I plant 
> sugar snaps an
>  d english peas once per month beginning in January through March. This 
> gives me a six week continuos  pea crop starting May 1 through mid 
> June. This particular year I sowed Peas in one of my greenhouse in 
> February and started the pea harvest in mid April. In january, I seeded 
> 4 varieties of broc and one cabbage between the rows of salad greens in 
> one of my greenhouses. In March I transplanted them out into the 
> field.  In May I was harvesting broc, cabbage, green garlic, sugar 
> snaps, english peas, artichokes, spring onions, turnips, rapini, and my 
> sales on mesclun at that time was 400lbs/week. In July I started 
> harvesting heirloom tomatoes-Off of 200 plants I sold 12,000 pounds of 
> tomatoes at $1.50/pound. The year just continued like that. It was a 
> situation where everything came together at one time-it was my time to 
> be blessed. I did all of the right things that I had done in the past, 
> and the weather fully cooperated. In January of that year I picked up a 
> $600/week account
>  . Praise God, I have three of them. Several of my competitors had gone 
> out of business beacause the couldn't weather the short term drop in 
> business after 9/11. I dialed in a proprietary organic fertilizer 
> program I had been developing for two years that lowered my costs and 
> doubled my yields. My investments in greenhouses and acreage-sized 
> rolls of row cover were paying off huge. My peas yielded almost 100#/1# 
> of seed planted. My tomatoes averaged 60#/plant. It was a bliss year 
> and I worked it for all I could because I recognized that this was the 
> year I had been visualizing and I wasn't going to let my 
> action/inaction or  little things like pain or fatigue limit me. It 
> allowed me to pay down debt that I had incurred building the business 
> infrastructure which had contributed to my having this incredible year. 
> It all ties together. Every action/inaction, every decision effects 
> your life in the future. Where we are today is the sum of all the 
> decisions we have made in the pas
>  t, That is why I don't envy those who are more successful or look down 
> on those less successful than me. I know that just one seemingly 
> unimportant decision in my past could have put me in either one of 
> those situations, I am just thankful to be where I am now.
>
>
> Steven Rogers


> So your long season allows multiple cropping which is one reason for the
> higher/acre yields, and you are close to a relatively large upscale
> restaurant market.
>
> I have the opportunity to work with some small upscale restaurants in 
> Lake
> Placid NY. They are very seasonal though - busy during the summer, dead 
> in
> October, November, and April. I am beginning to get enough production
> experience to feel I can be reliable and consistent enough to work with
> some, but have questions.
>
> How do restaurant prices compare to farmers' market or farmstand prices?
> How do you set the prices? I know we should figure cost of production 
> and
> go from there, but how does one find out what they are willing to pay 
> for
> top quality?
>
> These restaurants are more expensive than I can afford to frequent 
> (OK, I
> should consider eating there an investment). How else does one discover
> what qualities they are looking for? One is willing to pay me $12/lb for
> basil, but at that price I suspect it had better be top notch basil, not
> old stems that have been clipped and regrown several times. I was 
> raised to
> harvest for maximum yield (survival), not for tiny gourmet quality, 
> and I
> am having trouble figuring out what the gourmet crowd wants.
>
> Do you grow specific things for specific restaurants? Are you willing to
> share good gourmet seed sources? I have done a Google search and found a
> few "gourmet" catalogs, but can't really see they are much different 
> from
> Johnny's/Territorial.
>
> About what quantities make it worthwhile to work with a restaurant. 
> Yours
> are clumped together, and you mentioned $600/week accounts. How small 
> were
> your accounts when you started? How often do they want deliveries?
>
> Any more specifics that can help those of us who are considering
> restaurants as one of our markets?
>
> Please and thank you.
>
> Beth Spaugh
> Rehoboth Homestead
> 66 Jabez Allen Road
> Peru NY 12972