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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] $90k per acre

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  • From: Pat Meadows <pat AT meadows.pair.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] $90k per acre
  • Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:21:24 -0400

On Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:45:13 -0700 (PDT), you wrote:

>http://extension.osu.edu/~news/story-print.php?id=4487
>
>I am not a real farmer yet (YET) but this sounds like a good idea to me.
>Polyculture instead of monoculture. In other words. Don't grow so many acres
>of just one product but mix it up. Grow multiple products per acre. High
>value crops. And grow them close to town so the customers don't have to
>travel so far to get to them.
>
>Any thoughts? I can't wait until 50 people tell me it can't be done. That
>will assure me that it CAN be done.
>

The Dervaes family (of PathtoFreedom fame) is earning about $25K/year on a
lot comprising 1/5 of an acre. Their actual growing area is somewhat less
than this, as their house and driveway take up some of the space. They also
pretty much feed themselves from their gardens.

They sell salad greens and edible flowers to high-priced restaurants. They
are right in urban Pasadena so they have year round gardening, in a
sophisticated urban environment with upscale restaurants - a perfect place
to do this.

www.urbanhomestead.org (they have a new Website name).

They are four healthy adults who work at it pretty much full-time.

I knew they made their living in this manner (I've been following the
website since 1999 when they first started it). But I didn't know how much
they made until last week when a video of the family and their urban farm
was in the NY Times Sunday Magazine. The narrator of the video said their
income was about $25K/year. The UrbanHomestead web page has a link to the
video.

Pat

-- Northern Pennsylvania
http://www.entire-of-itself.blogspot.com/
'Every one of us can do something to protect and care for our planet.
We should live in such a way that makes a future possible.'
- Thich Nhat Hanh




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