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barb5_gw

For Flyleft

15 years ago

I saw your questions on the "Lazy, crazy summer days" thread, but haven't had the time to answer. It is raining now, so I have a bit of slow time on my hands.

Frankly any serious farmer would probably laugh at me. We didn't buy a farm, we built one on the land we have. Land that has woods, banks of shale, and a swamp on it. Because of this, I don't have a nice big square field, I have patches of gardens all around, where ever it is possible to grow something on.We have 5 acres,but unfortunately built a house on the prime growing spot but just wasn't thinking that someday we would want to grow stuff commercially. At the time, both DH and I had careers and were commuting into the city.

Then I got deep burn out from my job and kept dreaming about a small farm. I had already had a big garden so had some idea of what I needed to do. I bought Eliot Coleman's "The New Organic Grower," read it cover to cover and have modeled my market garden on that.

My gardens are evolving from veggies that have to be seeded and transplanted all summer, to more perennials. So no beets, peas, scallion, etc this year (still do early spring greens tho), to strawberries, rhubarb, daffs, peonies, blueberries, garlic, onions, tomatoes (only need to be seeded and planted once), as I am getting older and creekier. Also trying a variety of melons this year for the first time.

I love being my own boss and being able to have the business serve my needs instead of the other way around.

I have a hoophouse for early spring greens, and later for tomatoes. I also have a small greenhouse for seedlings and I keep the amaryllis in there in the summer. Irrigation is all drip. And this year a walk in cooler and a flower station that I designed and built myself.

And most of all, I have a DH who is an engine head, who repairs and maintains the machinery (a large and small tiller, weed wacker, edger, mowers) and who also manages most of the marketing, as I am just not very good at that.

I couldn't fully support myself on this business, but it has become an important addition to our income. And now that the infrastructure and perennials are in, the labor is getting lighter. Side benefits are a diet of the freshest most delicious organically grown veggies and berries you can find, and a house full of fresh flowers most of the year.

So that's it in a nut shell. Hope I answered most of your questions. I enjoy it, and my customers are just the best. When I get tired or discouraged, they keep me going.

Comments (5)

  • 15 years ago

    Barb, sounds like you found your niche ... doing what you love and getting paid for it. Do we get to see pictures of the new home market space?

  • 15 years ago

    Wrong side of forum, I thought I was posting over on conversations!

    Hopefully it will get switched over.

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  • 15 years ago

    moving up for FL

  • 15 years ago

    Thanks, natal! barb, I kept checking on the conversations side but figured you hadn't seen my request.

    Everything you wrote is fascinating, barb -- I really appreciate your taking the time to share it. I'm going to order that book, even though we don't even have 1/2 acre. I'd like to put what we have to as much use as possible. Given that we are surrounded by doug firs. But anyway...there's *some* space in and amongst them...

    Do you do a CSA-type arrangement with your customers? Or are you still building toward that?

    And hey, re switching from high-maintenance to lower maintenance -- have you looked into asparagus? I consider it every year and come up with some excuse like "I need to focus on *now*", and now probably 5 years have gone by and I haven't put it in to let it take root and really get started. That seems to me like one of the big single planting-big-payoff perennial vegs, and probably a pretty high profit-margin one to boot.

    COOL also that you built so many structures by yourself. The cost savings on that is enough to bring profitability massively closer!

    Thanks again for the info and the book rec. Your generosity is very much appreciated. I will look forward to your updates if you feel like sharing them, or any pics you would want to share as well.

  • 15 years ago

    Natal, are you referring to last summer's thread about turning the garage into a retail space?

    If so, well, the space is a mess, but I did get the doors trimmed with molding, and the walls and ceiling painted. Walls are a light green from Glidden Pro named ironically "Farm Life", ceiling is "Starry Night" and doors, including the back of the garage door is Periwinkle.

    There is still more work to be done on it, but it doesn't have a prayer of happening until late fall.

    Flyleft, look into what is being called Urban Gardening. People take small front and backyards and farm them. I've seen some pics that are inspiring. Some even have businesses and get homeowners to let them farm their yards for a share in the produce.

    I think you will be amazed at how much food can be produced on a small plot.

    And re: asparagus. Before I met DH, I lived in an old house on a patch of land that had once been an asparagus farm. 18 inches of the best and darkest loamy topsoil. No rocks. Then I met DH and moved to glacial rock city. You can't dig an inch without bumping into rocks or shale. I do have two rows of asparagus, but it was backbreaking to put them in. In Eliot Coleman;s book, he talks about just digging a hole and putting the crown in. Too bad I didn't read about that until I had dug 2 trenches. And of course, wasn't smart enough to think of it myself.:(

    Peonies and Lupines:

    Spring in the hoophouse, lettuces, radishes, spinache, arugula. Those are wobblers we use to water the spring stuff. When we switch to tomatoes, we use drip to minimize soil splashing up and the plants getting fungal diseas.

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