well i dont really fall under the acre or less since i have my orchards now but i can tell you how i started... I started out just selling tomatoes then as i learned where to get other things I started buying from other growers...I then took what i made and bought other seed to plant the following year cutting back on what i was buying and kept that up until i was able to grow everything i was selling . Once I had all the garden produce growing that i wanted I started buying and planting fruit trees and vines to get more to sell..Now I don't buy any trees since i learned how easy it is to graft them myself ,now i just buy the rootstock and graft them for my orchard... I am still buying different vines and fruiting bushes to plant...
of course the best thing i did was switch to hydroponics for all my garden produce.

I started out tiny, 1/4 acre, and doubled each year until I got where I'm at. It is amazing how much, especially gardening by the inch, produce you can get off of a small plot.

that is a very good info. marla, what did you start growing and did you have good market sales. mark

This will be my first year at FMs. I would definitely fall in the tiny niche - at most 16,000 sq. feet. Thanks to several helpful posts last fall, I'm really looking at turning that into 24,000-28,000 sf. Still small, but...

The reason is intercropping, such as sowing lettuce in between tomato seedlings. By the time the latter is growing large enough to smother the lettuce, the lettuce will be harvested.

Succession planting: 1200 sugar snap peas get replaced with pole beans, then revert back to peas. Broccoli and spinach become cucumbers then back. Onions and Chard will be planted much closer together, leaving just enough room to walk and pull a little red wagon between rows. Row covers to extend my season - we usually have a killing frost followed by a week or more of much warmer days. Keeping those late toms and peppers alive for two more weeks of harvesting can mean a lot of bushels of produce.

Mike

Intercropping and Succession planting can really increase the amount of produce a small "Micro Farm" can produce. Just make sure to keep your soil healthy and you will be successful.

Also, I am a big fan for high tunnel use. They have revolutionized the way I grow and now allow me to grow year around. So instead of, one or two crops per space, I am going to be looking at 4, 5, or even 6 crops per space.

Despite there being 5-6 inches of snow on the ground, I am planting today. I was planning on planting 10-14 days ago, but I wasn't 100% ready. Today is the day. It does feel strange to walk through snow to plant crops, but I am liking the feeling!

Our first market opens in 72 days. I am hoping to take lettuce, spinach, beets, carrots, radishes, green onions, broccoli, bok choy napa cabbage, baby bok choy, Arugula, cauliflower, and more.

Jay

Jay,your planting and i am freezing. A toasty 0 zero-degrees this morning, even the hens were complaining. Mark

Well it was a -6.1 this morning, I am very cold too, but with the solar gain you get with a hoop house, my soil temp is sitting around 45 degrees. The stuff I am planting will be slow to germinate in the cool soil, but next week we will be looking at the 50-60's. The soil temp will jump 5-10 degrees I bet next week. Having those seeds there, they will take right off. I am covering everything with row cover too.

Early tomatoes are getting seeded this weekend also. I will probably also start some Habaneros, they take a long time to grow and germinate.

When I started out, my first year, I had total sales of $1700. I was excited. The first day that I hit $100, I danced in the streets, not a pretty sight for others to see.

What I did, not knowing if I would sell anything, was to plant 2x the amount of things that I wanted to can myself. Ended up that I had to buy produce for my own canning. The following year, I doubled production, and still had to buy my canning produce. This has went on almost every year, and now even buying produce, I'm only able to can the 'leftovers'. One year, I had sales of $40k, but that year was the last year before alot of small vendors came into my market. Now there are 70-80 vendors and only maybe 10 of us has sales above $20k each per season.

Marla

Marla its only going to get worse, especially in Mich.
very,very few jobs--unemployment everywhere. everybody with a Hoe is trying to make some $$$$ to help from losing the family home.
Farm markets across America are getting more & more vendors each year because small market gardening is getting so popular.
Once the economy gets better their will be many,many fewer vendors.

I know I'm having to re-think my selling strategies. That's one reason that I grow so many plants. Alot of the newer vendors can't or won't grow their own plants, and I'll sell them plants. At least with my plants, they are local and I'm not bringing in southern diseases into my local area. So many of the box stores get their plants from a place down south (AL I think) and their plants aren't used to our climate, plus southern states have different pests and fungi than northern states. Not only do we need to buy local food, but also local plants, and everything else we can. I'm planting more, because we have 3-4x as many community gardens in my area this last year than the year before.

After awhile, these new 'gardeners/marketers' will figure out either they like doing gardening/marketing or not. It's not like any of us is getting rich off of it. Or if you are, please tell how, cause I'm not. But I do love doing it, even if I don't make alot of money. I'll not starve.

Marla

PS Indiana is getting better, but personally I think this economy thing will take awhile. Maybe some people will learn to live alittle cheaper. Probably not, tho.

here is an aerial pix of my place. my tiny garden is always at full production in the summer, but i could use about one more acre.

Is any of that blank areas available? You do have a small area.

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=40.327031,-87.097056&spn=0.004728,0.014892&t=h&z=16&lci=com.panoramio.all

Hopefully My farm has loaded.

I guess it didn't load. I'll try again.

wow, what a huge beautiful farm, Marla. that,s definitely not a tiny farm. mark

To me, and others in this area, it is a tiny farm, only 28 acres showing and 18 of it is woods. Originally it was 60, until sister and I sold 3 acres, and then she sold her 1/2 to 'outsiders' this last winter. Now it's just my son's family and hubby and I on the farm.

Parts of this farm has been in our farm since 1898, my great-great-grandfather purchased it for $700 for 20 acres.

Marla

I too am a small grower, with 35 permanent beds that are 4� wide and 48� long. That is 6,720 sq. ft. and I hope to double it next year. I raise mostly tomatoes and herbs with a few cukes. My future plans are to process what I and others grow into value added products. This year I will be getting my skill level up in that area. In a few years I am thinking of a portable wood fired oven to bake pizza with.

dirtdigging -I like the pizza idea with fresh garden produce homemade sauce- ya know anyone that makes fresh mozzarella and provolone . mark

no but would be nice, but i nver have milked a water buffalo!

dirtdigging- maybe this will help your pizza making.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Great-Mozzarella-Cheese/

mark. (By the way that is a lot of established beds. Do you sell at the farmers markets or from a home stand?)

Farmers market on and off. I sell to others who sell at the market as usually I have a regular job. It is a lot of beds but just over half of what I want in the end. I have a plot that is 44' x 128' that is just grass at the moment.

Thanks for the help with the pizza, one is always learning when it comes to bread. So far I have gotten pretty good of course I started making pizza back in 1985.

Hello, I have permanate beds too on just over 1/2 acre. I have done a lot of spacing combinations of bed width and path width and bed length. I like my beds 25 feet long with a 6' path at each end. I start with 3' wide beds and 2' pathways between the beds. If I decide to I can go to digging those beds to 4' in width and 1' paths. with one foot wide paths it is possible to have about 2/3 of the sq footage growing and 1/3 of the sq footage in paths. with good soil structure and double digging yields are very high.

Where I rent has a few acres of land left after selling most of the farm land. In 2008 I rented 5000 sq feet. In 2009 I doubled to 10000 and went to 1 market. In 2010 I went to about 12000 and had 6 CSAs and 1 market and no food for me. In 2011 I'll have 15000 and 1 market and 5 full CSAs and about 5 half CSAs. I have gotten better about seeing what crops sell and growing more of those- along with a few real quick crops for something to have in spring. I made no profit in 2008 or 2009 and just over $2000 in 2010. I work PT and my husband is the bread winner so as long as I make a little profit I feel I am not wasting time. I wonder if it wouldn't be more fulfilling to grow entirely for charity.
What is funny is behind the land is a large field owned by the biggest potato grower in the world, the Potato King, Ken Offet. Then you have me with a few hundred feet of taters.
Here is my scheme. Hope the link works.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1039264}}

minnie, when you say 5 CSAs, are you meaning CSAs or CSA shares? We tried to have a CSA one year and still do the farmers market. It was before CSAs got to be the thing in our area. Our members were very happy, but for 3 full members, it wasn't worth the effort to divide between the CSA shares and the market.

Your link worked, your area looks like it isn't squared up. If I'm seeing it right, you've made it work.

I'm also surrounded by 'conventional' farmers, corn and beans. Keeping the buffer required for the 'organic' practices cut alot of ground out of my area. I keep 100' away from the 'other' farmers and still can get some sprays within 50'.

Marla

I think the next thing in CSA's is a co-operative, small growers bring their produce to a central location, shares are put together and are sold. There is a resturant in charlotte, NC that is beginning to do this, they already buy most of the food they serve from growers, in fact the owner grows the pork. They have a large building with much of it empty, there will also be produce for sale that does not fit the csa, the excess if you will.

we have a co-op starting out in our town doing this, but I don't see much happening. This is their 2nd year, and what I'm seeing is that they are selling product and memberships at our farmers market, but not much else. Basically being a middle-man. But they could be doing other things that I don't see.

Marla