| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| prairiemaid |
Posted - May 27 2005 : 12:38:40 PM
Does anyone grow a market garden?
This is my biggest goal this year. I am so excited about doing this. My garden has been planted and I am planning for my first Farmers Market at the beginning of July. I am joining a new Farmers Market starting up which I think is a good thing, I don't have doubts that it will do well. I am selling vegetables and homemade bread. The bread was an after-thought. I was originally signing up just for the vegetables but hubby talked me into selling my bread. I think it will be my biggest money maker as I should make $2.00 per loaf sold. I am using a recipe that I have made for years and am very comfortable with.
Last year I started a market garden where I sold directly from the farm but with the poor weather and growing conditions, it did less than ideal. That's ok, though, I consider it a learning year. I am hoping to do more sales from the farm as well as the Farmers Market this year.
I am very excited and am sure that the time is right for me to do this!!!! I have gardened on my little farm for 20 yrs now, raised a family (well still am) and am ready to start making some of my other dreams come true! I'll keep you posted how it goes. 
Call me old fashioned. |
| 10 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| prairiemaid |
Posted - Jun 15 2005 : 06:44:18 AM
That's awesome, Deb! Good luck! I look forward to comparing notes with you!
Call me old fashioned. |
| Thistlewoodmanor |
Posted - Jun 14 2005 : 12:34:53 PM
I'm excited to have found this thread! This will be our first year at the local Farmer's Market, as we bought our acreage last October. We were a little slow at getting the garden in because of the wet weather (always on weekends and evenings when my husband had time to till up a new garden, of course). Since we don't have any produce yet, I decided to start out with baked goods and crafts. Right now I'm selling wheat and sourdough breads, banana bread, Giant bran and corn muffins, rhubarb pies, and oatmeal raisen and chocolate chip cookies. I am also making catnip toys from the catnip that grows wild around the farm, and embroidered tote bags and doll quilts. I can't wait to have produce too! |
| prairiemaid |
Posted - May 28 2005 : 07:10:22 AM
Robin, nice to meet you! Thank you for replying. I read your article on succeeding at market gardening, I found a link to it at gardenweb.com I've been researching everything I can find online about market gardening. Thanks for the book recommendations as well.
My youngest just turned 12 and I know he will be my biggest help.
Things are a little different here in Canada as far as regulations etc. and growing season. I can sell bread without having a licensed kitchen, but I have to have a label listing ingredients. I can't sell my eggs unless they are gov't inspected (which they are not) but I have enough customers buying from the farm not to worry about selling them at market. I am trying to do some succession planting but my season is so short that the cooler crops, I can't succession plant because it gets too hot too fast. I am looking at this year as a learning year for sure! I've planted a few different varieties where I would normally stick with stand-bys for my own use. We'll see what grows well and what people are interested in. Do you think it is better to have lots of a few things or less but more variety? I'd like to expand on different fruit but again with the short growing season, my options are limited. I want to expand my raspberry patch and I've already planted more rhubarb. I know a little about consumers in that I have to sell what they want to buy, I can't make them buy what I am selling.
Margret
Call me old fashioned. |
| ThymeForEweFarm |
Posted - May 28 2005 : 03:05:26 AM
I'm a market farmer. It's a tough way to make a living here right now. It's rained for a month. Part of the new garden is under water. The roof blew off the greenhouse during the night Tuesday. We were replacing it dawn Wednesday. It will get better.
I love what I do. I also have a family. My husband works full time off the farm and helps here when he can. Our youngest daughter is 11 and a huge help. She likes money and isn't afraid to work hard to get it. We have two acres of organic garden. I put up what we need for a year before I sell to the public.
We bought a hoop house two days ago. It's going up this weekend and I'll be planting in it by Monday. It's small, only 14 x 40, but it should make a big difference in the length of time I have to grow. I'm hoping to still be harvesting hardy greens in December.
I have the winter off to catch my breath and start planning the coming year. I start seeds in April in the greenhouse, start transplanting out into the garden in May and finish in June. When peas are pulled up the fall broccoli is planted. I do a lot of succession planting. I sell at two farmers markets (one is new this year), participate in Senior FarmShare for local senior citizens, and WIC FMNP. FMNP is Famers Market Nutrition Program. Both programs make fresh, locally grown food available to low income people in my community.
There are two excellent books I highly recommend. Backyard Market Gardener by Andrew Lee. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0962464805/104-1617695-5268724?v=glance He's a down to earth regular guy. Also, Eliot Coleman's The New Organic Grower is very helpful. http://fourseasonfarm.com/main/books/books_eliot2.html
I also sell bread and was surprised at how well a good loaf sells. My kitchen is licensed for home food processing (no meat, nothing with mayo, nothing that must be pressure canned). I make jams, jellies, bread, pickles and baked goods. The bread and baked goods are occasional things because I'm also a magazine editor and college student. I gave up the Super Woman career when I realized I really can't do everything if I want to do it well. And besides, my butt looks big in the tights Super Woman has to wear.
You have the right attitude about last year's learning year. Keep it for this year. And every coming year. You'll never stop learning. Just when you think you have it down pat customers want something else, you learn about a better way to grow, you decide not to grow X because it doesn't make enough profit and give Y and Z a couple of years in trialing to see how that goes. You'll find something you know customers will love if you can just get them to try it. I'm at the beginnig of my third year and working on getting succession planting down pat. This year I'll learn to grow in a hoop.
Thanks to bramble  for the link to Farm & Garden! There are a couple of articles there on market farming that should be very helpful. Lucy Goodman is the Market Farmer column writer. She grows around 10 acres. She's a no nonsense easy to read writer who shares years of experience. There's also an article of succeeding at farmers market that should be helpful. http://www.farm-garden.com/marketfarmer/ I need to be up front and tell you that I am the editor of Farm & Garden and that I wrote the farmers market article. I am admittedly biased.
What are you growing? I have broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, peas, beets/beet greens and spinach planted now. Once the weather clears I'll seed in more peas and beets. I need to transplant out the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, artichokes (new this year) and other warmer crops next weekend. We're supposed to have sun by Thursday!! Whooo hoooo! I also grow green, purple and yellow beans, carrots, potatoes, winter and summer squash, pickling and slicing cucumbers, two or three kinds of sweet corn, swiss chard, radishes, turnip, rhutabaga, onions, leeks, and a few other things.
My husband just planted cultivated raspberries and bought grape vines yesterday. We also have cherries and apples. I take eggs to market too.
When people ask me what I do for a living I tell them I play in the dirt. It gets their attention!
Robin
Thyme For Ewe Farm
www.thymeforewe.com |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - May 27 2005 : 8:02:48 PM
Those sound exactly like breads I would pick out if I were shopping!! I love to bake bread too.
I think a market garden would be one of my favorite dreams come true. I have thought about growing for a farmers market...not that there are any close by, but it would be a good thing to drive to once a week if I had to..that is a goal for another year, but a goal for sure. I loved looking at the site recomended! Good luck
Jenny in Utah
Bloom where you are planted! |
| prairiemaid |
Posted - May 27 2005 : 5:53:06 PM
Thanks for the encouragement!! It's funny you should post that site, bramble, I just happened across it today! I'll look into it further. Thanks!
Meadowlark, I am making 2 kinds of bread: whole wheat with flax and one called "Country Seed Bread" with sesame, flax and poppy seeds. I buy whole wheat organic flour from the mill.
Call me old fashioned. |
| bramble |
Posted - May 27 2005 : 5:13:46 PM
Margret! There is an excellent forum for you on www.farm-garden.com
that has alot of info for this very thing ! Log on and go to the discussion area and then scroll down to Commercial Farming/ Business & Marketing. There is alot of good info there but Market Farmer has a posting that lists many areas to consider and take in to account since she has been doing this very thing for some time now. She also posts at MJF and I'm sure is busy getting ready for her market days, you know how busy it is this time of year! Hope it helps, I am wishing you all the very best!
with a happy heart |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - May 27 2005 : 3:17:42 PM
Wow Margret!! That sounds great! Keep us posted on your progress! Wish you could ship some of that bread too! What kind of bread are you making? Best of luck to you in your new endeavor! I admire your spirit! Jenny from Kansas
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. |
| connio |
Posted - May 27 2005 : 2:59:02 PM
Good luck with your garden. As a "non-cook", I wish that you could ship your bread. I can smell it baking right now. Connie
cozycottage |
| Clare |
Posted - May 27 2005 : 12:56:32 PM
You GROW girl! 
****Gardener, Stitcher, Spiritual Explorer and Appreciator of all Things Natural****
"Begin to weave and God will give the thread." - German Proverb |
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