Have you read John Jeavons' "How to grow more vegetables than you ever thought possible?" It describes how to raise vegetables intensively by using double dug raised beds. Everything is planted in a hexagonal grid pattern instead of rows. I have a 1/2 acre market garden in southern Minnesota wiith 66 hand-dug raised beds. Each is 100 sq ft. I sell at the local farmer's market one day a week and have a small CSA (about 20 members). I make about $10,000 a year from both, but that includes selling produce, plants raised in the hoop house, some baked goods, and pickles. The CSA is easier and makes more money, but the farmer's market is more fun. Another book that might be of help is "Backyard Market Gardening" by Andy Lee. It describes a lot about how to get started, but is not very helpful with succession cropping, which is absolutely essential for a high yield in market gardening. One last note to tell the kids is to make the first year the learning year. The biggest thing they will learn is what their customers want. It is different for every farmer's market. In my market I can't sell heirloom tomatoes even if I offer samples, but my first year I could have made $100 just selling kohlrabi. Who'd know? Now I sell out of radishes every week. I doubt any other market would be the same. By the 2nd month they will know exactly what to grow next year.

There is no such thing as too small! You can do it with less - BUT - you are limited in how much you can grow and therefore how much money you can make.

Another way to look at it. Look at how much space is available for you to display and sell your produce (everything involved in the selling of your goods: canopy supports/chairs/ice chests/customers/staff etc. everthing. Now we are probably not talking about a lot of space - which is actually a good thing. The more space you have to fill or keep up after the more time consuming this project becomes.

You not only have to grow this stuff, you have to prep it for transport, load it up, drive it there, unload it and display it in such a way so that the customers choose your goods over somebody elses. A human being can only pick up so much weight. A person can only put in so many hours of exhausting work - remember the customers want to see you perky, not tired. So, by working with a smaller garden you can reduce the amount of work involved in production and harvesting, your yeilds might be smaller but also more manageable considering that only two people are involved.

Success is affected by the market you are selling at. Do customers already come there for home grown produce? Is your product equal to or superior to the next guys? Are you selling something people want? You can make money selling regular stuff - but keep in mind that when tomatoes are ripe in your garden they are ripe in everyone else's garden. It can be hard to compete unless you are offering products that are slightly different or selling them in a slightly different way. (I sell plants not produce. I sell individual seedlings rather than a six pak of one type. Most of my customers want an assortment and are willing to pay more for slightly larger plants of less common varieties.)

Your biggest obstacle is going to be dealing with the initial experiences at the market. It doesn't always work the first time for everybody. Sometimes you have to go to the market for weeks upon weeks before you can build up a customer base. Othertimes you get overrun with customers because you are new to the scene and they talk you down in price - so in the end you didn't make much money for your hard work. It can be hard to stay motivated when things aren't happening the way you planned.

Keep in mind that smaller gardens are easier to keep productive and weed free. Most people bite off more than they can chew in the beginning. Starting small is a good thing.

I agree with everything said above and add, if your children are truly going to work it out fine. The experience will do them good. But if they fail then the investment will not be that much for them to waste, again a good leason learned. You might be interested in an article I wrote for trade publications. If so email me and I will email you a copy.
My 40+ years tells me if your kids will do it GREAT! we need more young people.
Tom Burris Sr
President Conneaut Farmers' Market celebrating 30 years

Thanks for all your responses. The kids have promoted themselves from Vice Presidents of Vegetables & Flowers respectively, to Presidents but I still get to be CEO. Unfortunately, they haven't made as much progress on getting their seed orders ready. My sons initial vegetable seed order was over $400 - much more than the Bank of Mom & Dad will loan. We're using Johnny's, Territorial and Pine Tree Gardens for seeds. Any place else we should be looking?
I'm off to the library to look for the books suggested and will email Mr. Burris seperately for his article. I keep telling them that the first year will be a learning year but I'm not sure they've heard yet - teens!! Good point about the amount of work involved. They very excited about it now but when they need to weed AGAIN on a hazy hot and humid August day ....
We've decide to try the market closest to us, about 15 minutes away. It's an indoor market that supplies tables & chairs. We can get a 10X10 space for $15 per week and don't have to be there every week. It runs for 12 weeks from mid-June to the first of September. I've shopped this market for years. It seems to offer mostly standard crops and just a few common garden flower bouquets on the sides of vegetable displays. We're hoping that higher quality, more diverse flower bouquets and more varieties of vegetables will sell. Or maybe no one sells them because they don't sell? Guess we'll live and learn.
Thanks again for all the advice.

Ok, a reality check is in order. $400 worth of seed for a small five tenths of an acre garden!! the first thing that comes to mind are the words "simma down". You are only going to need seeds for plants that will produce a crop during the months of the farmers market - your basic summer veggies, NOT cabbage, leeks or any cool season stuff. There is no need to plant every type of tomato there is (the customers won't notice the difference, and most of them will want big round red ones so go light on the fancy pear shaped yellow ones). If you grow them right you can pick a lot of fruit off of one plant especially cherry tomatoes.

I buy my seed from those same sources and from local garden centers and your basic big box home improvement stores. Keep a close eye on the seed count per packet - things ain't like they used to be, some packets only have 15 seeds in them. If you can find them locally you will save on shipping fees.

Each summer, a group of Raleigh heirloom tomato enthusiasts get together for a big tomato eating festival dubbed "Tomatopallooza". I think each year the "Cherokee Purples" win the taste test so if you can find seeds for it I would make sure to include it.