Tomatoes or Strawberries

How about spinach or lettuce in the colder months? I have clients (Willamette Valley) who raise fancy lettuces for restaurants in greenhouses and are doing very well. Fresh greens not from South America in the winter is wonderful.
Kit

I've seen signs posted on two restaurants here in VA- one is limiting tomatoes to on request only, the other said they are not available due to weather related crop damage. Tomatoes would be my bet...

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Twila
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" M. Oliver

Wind Tunnel - Also known as Hoop House.

It was listed as a Wind Tunnel from the company I bought it from. It is 15 ft. wide, about 8 ft. high, and 100 ft. long. It is not a green house. It is only to be used as a extensioner to the growing season of whatever product you want to grow under it. Or to protect those sensative blooms from frost.

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r.h. in oklahoma

Raised a country boy, and will die a country boy.

If you're going to do tomatoes you oughta toss in some peppers and onions. Maybe a couple of garlic that way you have a whole salsa garden going. Make a theme outta it then "u pick" it. Should be fun. "U pick Salsa"

Just a thought.

Ok gotcha. Thanks for explaining.

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A kind word, gesture or deed can mean more to someone than you may ever know. It may even change their life.

if you can I would look for small buckets (cat ladys can provide you with a ton of those square ones the kitty litter comes in, I would replace the cheap plastic handle with a heavy gauge steel one like on a standard bucket) plant your maters in the buckets but grow them upside down (like the as seen on tv deal) if you look around you can make/build a drip irrigation system for them cheap. run ya some heat tape in the ground/beds and make rows for your berrys, I would do the terrace thing like a step pyramid or again use the buckets for planters but not only plant top side but stager holes up and down the sides like those terracotta ones you see. if you do it the buckets I would just insulate them from the ground with a bed of straw and not worry bout the heat tape.

but you can also make more plants off either too, there would be money in doing that plus maintain your production plants, of course once the season is right you can move the operation out side and then the tunnel would be perfect for propagation the plastic maintaining the higer humidity you would need for cuttings. and if you start producing plants from cuttings you can pick you best producers and perpetuate them. strawberrys I know they produce by seed and runner so you need to look into that a little but I know maters any growing tip can become a plant under the ideal conditions. propogation by cuttings also give you a jump start on the new plants.

thinking little more on it, produce has a short shelve life if you can nail down how long that is you can always preserve them some way for use latter in the season. I know laws are pretty strict on selling to the genaeral public on prepared stuff but if you had enough family and friends you could turn them into prepared stuff like salsa,canned tomatoes,strawberry jam,strawberrypie (though strawberry rubbarb is much better) and so on and make use of something that other wise would of gone to waste and maximize your profit. of cousres you could do that first hand too. again though watch the laws and food safty.

I will also add that I read an article on a guy in california that made 100,000 off two arces of tomatoes, he intensivly farmed it all organic and got a bunch of the yuppies and high scale resturants on his customer list.