North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Jim F <bonfire58_2000@yahoo.com>]

     The talk of small farms dying out is not necessarily true unless we speak of 'what type' of small farms are dying.  There are alot of thriving farms but they are different from what many think of as a "farm."

     The small family farms that are going extinct are those that produce milk or raise grain.  Those folks who are creative enough to enter alternative agriculture often do quite well and we do not need vast tracts of land to do it - by "vast", I mean anything over ten acres.  One of the most successful small farms that I am familiar with grosses up to $200,000 per year.......................on just ONE acre.  I'm speaking of the well known(?) Kona Kai farm near Oakland, California and all they raise is mesclun (specialty lettuces) and edible flowers.

     The Kona Kai has an advantage that we, in Minnesota, do not have.  They can produce crops the whole year around.  My wife and I do not have that advantage, however, we do manage to earn a decent living on 1.4 acres - we are a fruit and berry farm and we direct market our produce raising peaches, apples, plums, a good variety of berries and specialty mushrooms.  Besides fresh fruit, we also sell jams, jellies and syrups, including maple syrup.  For the maple operation, we own the processing plant and tap other people's trees and others tap their trees bringing us the sap to process.

     That's us.  I know of others who farm just a few acres raising vegetables to sell at farmers' markets plus a host of others who raise herbs, some do cullinary, others raising medicinal.  I could write a full paragraph about other small family farms that I know of and none of them, zero, raise grain or produce milk.  The family farm is alive and well here in America.

 

Jim Fruth

Pequot Lakes, MN 

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