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  • From: Marty Kraft <martyk AT allspecies.org>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Economics of starting a market garden enterprise
  • Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 15:34:01 -0600

In a video of a few years ago Elliot Coleman said he was making $6 per hour when he averaged it out.

Marty
On Dec 20, 2005, at 12:17 PM, David Inglis wrote:

 <x-tad-bigger>Andy King wrote:</x-tad-bigger>

For the past two years I have tried to make a go at it, and have modeled my business on Eliot Coleman’s book the NEW ORGANIC GROWER. While I have been moderately successful at copying his game plan the numbers never seemed to work out. For the past three months I have been reading profiles of successful growers and asking my self, what is it that I am doing wrong.  

<x-tad-bigger> </x-tad-bigger>

<x-tad-bigger>Sunflower King’s Farm</x-tad-bigger>

<x-tad-bigger>Trumbauersville, PA</x-tad-bigger>

<x-tad-bigger> </x-tad-bigger>

<x-tad-bigger>Hi Andy,</x-tad-bigger>

<x-tad-bigger>You might also inventory what you have been doing right rather than wrong, and do a great deal more of it. You should note that even Eliot Coleman doesn’t follow the Eliot Coleman model, at least that version. That should set off alarm bells.</x-tad-bigger>

<x-tad-bigger> </x-tad-bigger>

<x-tad-bigger>The most commonly found obstacles facing new growers:</x-tad-bigger>
1. <x-tad-bigger>Lack of experience. This is something only time and paying attention will heal though you already seem to be aware that the process can be greatly accelerated.</x-tad-bigger>
2. <x-tad-bigger>Undercapitalization. Having insufficient funds to invest in a system efficient enough to  grow and sell food on a large enough scale to be able to support yourself</x-tad-bigger>
3. <x-tad-bigger>Overcapitalization. Having the ability to  buy ‘all the toys’ when you have no idea of your own what will work and thus sink yourself with fixed costs</x-tad-bigger>
4. <x-tad-bigger>not growing on class 1 land [see 2]. Just because one can rehabilitate abused land that does not mean this is the prudent thing to do. Renovating land is an expensive proposition and also requires far greater skills and entails greater risks than buying A1 land and taking care of it. I advise people I have trained to put the bulk of their money into getting good land [no buildings] and a basic set of equipment. The healthy cash flow from good land will pay for the future expansion and filling out of the basic equipment package rapidly whereas the meager cash flow from poor land will all have to be plowed back into improving the land itself.</x-tad-bigger>
5. <x-tad-bigger>growing crops that are not pre sold</x-tad-bigger>
6. <x-tad-bigger>situating the operation without regard to markets. Burger King don’t plonk a franchise in the middle of nowhere and complain that the ‘fast food model’ [substitute: New Organic Grower or whatever system you use] just doesn’t work and neither should we.</x-tad-bigger>
7. <x-tad-bigger>growing extensively. Grow only on the land that you can completely irrigate, weed and keep fertile. This land is 5x as productive and only twice as expensive as the undeveloped stuff.</x-tad-bigger>

<x-tad-bigger> </x-tad-bigger>

<x-tad-bigger>There is more of course but those are the main ones I see.</x-tad-bigger>

<x-tad-bigger>But the question is. Why don’t I heed my own advice?</x-tad-bigger>

<x-tad-bigger>Good luck.</x-tad-bigger>

<x-tad-bigger>David Inglis</x-tad-bigger>

<x-tad-bigger>Mahaiwe Harvst C.S.A.</x-tad-bigger>

<x-tad-bigger> </x-tad-bigger>

<x-tad-bigger> </x-tad-bigger>
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