Market Gardeners / Hobby Farmers (Profile your spread)

[mooman]

Those of you who do more than vegetable gardens for the family or a few chickens for eggs. Profile your place. I'm in the process of turning a modest 3.3 acre parcel into a business that will allow me to forgo summer jobs (I'm a teacher) and would like to know who to go to for advice and ideas. You don't have to be making a full time living off of it or anything, just north of "breaking even" counts. You can include as much or as little info as you want.

Things to Include (you can even cut and paste)

Location:
Size of parcel:
Description of terrain:
Enterprise (what do you grow keep?):
Notes / Description / Narative:

[mooman]

I'll go first

Location: Upstate South Carolina
Size of parcel: 3.3 acres
Description of terrain: Hillside sloping down to small floodplain and creek.
Enterprise (what do you grow keep?): Market Garden, Laying Hens, Appletrees( just planted)

As stated I just moved in (dreamed of moving to the country for years). I'm a 30yr old teacher. I currently have about 5,000sqft planted with veggies (about half is tomates and sweet peppers). I have room to plant another 5,000-7,000 if it turns out i can handle it. I've planted half a dozen apple trees with plans to plant another dozen + strawberries and rasberries next year. I am currently brooding 14 assorted layeers to add to the 4 I started with. My biggest obstacle is keeping up with the garden and restoring the parcel condition caused by the obvious neglect it has experienced for the last few years (weeds, erosion, barn falling apart) and doing it all on a shoestring budget.

[chickenista]

Will you accept works in progress and dreams?

Location: Foothills of NC
Size: 3.5 acres
Description: Half wooded, divided between open canopy and dense undergrowth.
Half field and gardens
Enterprise: Chickens for egg sales and chick/layer sales.

Now enter the potential:

We have only been here a year and the place was in horrible condition when we bought it. We are working towards produce sales next year and an expanded poultry operation.
There is a 1,200 sg ft store on the property that we would like to open for produce, meat etc.. with products from other farmers in the area such as soap and honey.
This fall we plan on putting in the orchard and utilizing some of the open canopy forest for berries and such.
The potential in this area is fanastic and we are striving to really produce an income from this well appointed plot.

[armyman]

Location: SouthWest Indiana
Size: 40 acres
Description: 3/4's wooded, rest pasture and hay field.
Enterprise: chickens for egg sales, show chickens, boer goats for show,dairy goats for home consumption and soap making. Also small beef herd for show and breeding.

[jlxian]

We are still in the dreaming mode as well.

DH is a newly retired teacher who now sees that a market garden would be a good fit for our place. I couldn't convince him of it for years, but he read about it in a book and ..... what can I say. Now he sees. Its on tap for next summer. Probably lots of tomatoes, corn, peppers, that sort of thing. Couldn't tell you how big the garden area would be since it is still a plan/dream.

Anyway, we have 40 acres, mostly hayfields and scrubby woods. We are in Southwest Missouri, flatish, with a new crop of rocks each year. We also have a very high water table which keeps the ground pretty wet through the spring delaying a lot of our early gardening.

We currently DO have bees which we plan to use as a money making venture selling honey. My first thought when I read your post was to suggest bees for your place. They require little maintenance (at least ours don't) and wouldn't tie your time up during the school year. So far we have used all of our own honey (with some given as gifts to worthy recipients). But I can see the potential there for selling several quarts/pints in a years time.

Another dream is the production of ethanol using sorghum or other hi cellulose plant material.

And I'm considering raising vegetable seedlings for sale in the spring months. Greenhouse is bought, not erected.

I think if I could go back to when we first moved here 18 years ago, I would put a lot of it in pecans and walnuts (lots of "nut plantations" around here) for nut production and eventual logging of select trees. Or I would consider a cut your own Christmas tree farm.

[mooman]

Great suggestions. I actually just visited a local farm that had honey bees. The guy had six hives for one tulip poplar (said it's the second best kind of honey) I thought: I have FOUR HUGE TULIP POPLARS!!! That's in the works for sure. I might also try the nut trees as a lot of my land is too steeply sloped for much else.

One thing I want to do is make sure I don't stretch myself too thin. This farm I visited was 12 acres and had chickens, turkeys, pigs, goats, berries, bees, apples, veggies, greenhouse,......... It looked pretty bad though. Like the guy was kind of a "jack of all trades master of none", and didn't have enough time for all the projects he'd taken on. I understand the whole permaculture idea (which was what this was an example of) I'm trying to figure out the best use of the limited space I have without getting into so many things that projects start to suffer.

[mistletoad]

Location: Southern Maryland
Size of parcel: 6 acres
Description of terrain: flat, was scrubby, now have about half cleared with 2 acres in production.
Enterprise (what do you grow keep?): we run a CSA and sell eggs
Notes / Description / Narative: we make our living from the CSA and did it all with no start-up loans etc. Each year we add a bit more to a) make our lives easier and b) increase our revenues. This year we bought a new delivery van and a new tractor (by new I mean new to us) - paid cash for both. It's hard work, very hard, but we love it. We have a small orchard planted and we have 2 dexter cows, but these are to provide for us, not for sale.

[MaineFarmMom]

Location: Maine
Size of parcel: 45 acres, three are used for garden, chicken, ducks, turkeys, pond
Description of terrain: natural springs, completely surrounded for forest, rocky soil, ledge in some places.
Enterprise (what do you grow keep?): Vegetables, cherries, apples, raspberries. Seedlings, duck and chicken eggs, poults.
Notes / Description / Narative: We are a four season farm in northeastern Maine. We use unheated greenhouses to extend the growing season and harvest to 12 months a year.

[canadiangirl]

Location: Nova Scotia
Size of Parcel : 6.5 acres
Description of terrain : Hillside, about 2 acres clear balance brush and wooded (abandoned apple orchard)
Enterprise : goats for milk soaps, expanding into herbs and cut flowers this year. Veg gardens, eggs etc for personal use only

[Meg Z]

Location: Coastal plains of NC
Size of parcel:
5.5 acres

Description of terrain:

Flat as a pancake. Cleared with scattered trees and somewhat of a hedgerow. No surface water.

Enterprise (what do you grow keep?):

We garden for us only. Also have fruit trees, berries, pecans and hazelnuts.

I keep chickens, a single trio of Bourbon Reds, a herd of French angora rabbits, and a small (very small..7 total adults) flock of sheep.

Notes / Description / Narrative:

We sell eggs, occasional chickens, turkey poults, rabbits, wool and wool products. The eggs pay for the chicken food plus. The turkey poults have supported the turkeys plus every year except this one. The rabbits support themselves plus. The sheep are just beginning to pay, but are off to a good start.

It doesn't support US though! Just supports our habit while feeding us well!

Meg

[jlxian]

Originally Posted by mooman

Great suggestions. I actually just visited a local farm that had honey bees. The guy had six hives for one tulip poplar (said it's the second best kind of honey) I thought: I have FOUR HUGE TULIP POPLARS!!! That's in the works for sure. I might also try the nut trees as a lot of my land is too steeply sloped for much else.

One thing I want to do is make sure I don't stretch myself too thin. This farm I visited was 12 acres and had chickens, turkeys, pigs, goats, berries, bees, apples, veggies, greenhouse,......... It looked pretty bad though. Like the guy was kind of a "jack of all trades master of none", and didn't have enough time for all the projects he'd taken on. I understand the whole permaculture idea (which was what this was an example of) I'm trying to figure out the best use of the limited space I have without getting into so many things that projects start to suffer.

I know what you mean about stretching too thin. There are a few places around here that resemble what you describe.

I think you have the right idea about discerning how best to maximize your opportunities in your limited space. That of course is what each of us has to do.

The great thing about bees is that they can "forage" far and wide but always come home so your limited acreage doesn't limit their scope. Try to find a local beekeeper who can give you some guidance and then give them a try. Kinda "try it you'll like it".....