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  • From: Jay Sleichter <jaysleichter AT yahoo.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Business models: Market specialization
  • Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2011 07:44:09 -0700 (PDT)

Carla,

I am glad to hear you are pushing forward. I am not nearly as bad off as you. Only the last week near or above 100 and the next 7-10 days too.  I agree with growing a diverse crop base.  If I didn't we wouldn't have anything to sell either.  I see being diverse as a safety net.  If something fails, something else can take it's place.  A total farm failure usually doesn't happen, but with the right weather it sure could.

Hope we get some relief from this heat and stay cool.

Jay

Jay's Jellies, Produce and More
Clay Center, Kansas
www.jaysjellies.com
http://highfarming.blogspot.com/

--- On Mon, 7/18/11, cjmaness AT juno.com <cjmaness AT juno.com> wrote:

From: cjmaness AT juno.com <cjmaness AT juno.com>
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Business models: Market specialization
To: rob AT songberry.ca, market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Monday, July 18, 2011, 7:52 AM

I'll chime in here with how our farm works/doesn't work, and why.

We are located in central/north central Oklahoma, where we are having one of the worst droughts in a hundred years. Add in record breaking temperatures of 26 days now with temps over 100. Throw in the heat index and we are hitting 107-114 on a daily basis.

We attend one market a week. Saturday morning. We have the option of a Wednesday market and a Monday market. We tried that, and came to the conclusion that my time is better spent here on the farm. We are a 2 person operation, me full time, and my husband who helps when he gets home from work.

We are as diversified as we can get. We grow everything from asparagus to zucchini. If it will grow in Oklahoma we try and grow it. Not always successfully, but we try. We have 40 acres, 7 which we have used in the past, but as we get a little smarter we've cut that down to about 4 acres, while increasing yield and income.

It does take a lot of organization, succession planting, luck, and right now, WATER!

For various reasons, one being the weather, if we had specialized, we'd be broke. Tomatoes won't set in this heat. Watermelon and cantaloupes won't set, and are yielding about half of what they normally would. Peaches are the same. Sure, this is an extreme year, but we get these extremes all the time. By diversifying, we at least have something to take to market every week.

I envy the farmers who can specialize. I know it's still hard work, but it sounds so much easier!

Carla
Perkins, OK where we are praying for rain.

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