In Making Your Small Farm Profitable (Storey Publishing, 1999), Ron Macher shares proven methods for farming smarter and explores today’s new crops, new livestock, and new markets that translate into new ways to make money. He explains how to capitalize on lucrative niche markets that others overlook, plan for optimal farm efficiency, compare costs against profit for […]

The street where I live is probably familiar to most people: rows of well-kept houses, manicured lawns, and pretty trees. While this may be an attractive picture to some, the only thing these yards produce is work for the homeowner, without much return. From my front yard, my house appears to be, more or less, […]

Distributing Your CSA Crops Shared From MOTHER EARTH NEWS  Written By: Sarah Milstein Distribution Site and Managers If you’re delivering shares off-farm, you’ll need a reliable site. Members in the delivery community should be able to help find a site and sometimes will offer a garage, porch, or yard. If that is not feasible, churches and […]

What You Need to Start a CSA Group Shared From MOTHER EARTH NEWS  Written By: Sarah Milstein Growing Experience First of all, you must be an accomplished grower. CSA is not for beginners! It requires experience growing 40 or more crops in a succession that will yield seven or more different items on the same day […]

Excerpted from The Farm to Market Handbook by Janet Hurst. Putting the Plan to Work Review your marketing plan with your team. It is important to have everyone on board and moving in the same direction. After the plan is written, there will be a document to go to, to assist in decision-making processes. Although […]