Could We Sell Our Produuce?

I suspect that if we could get organized enough, we could grow a whole lot of stuff here on our teeny piece of land. I’ve been monitoring the phenomenal produce volumes harvested by various urban farmers – and, wow. I’m humbled, impressed, and inspired all at the same time. But how best to keep track of everything? In the past I’ve used a regular old pen and paper garden journal, but recently I discovered this cool online site that is kind of like Facebook for gardeners.

If you're a member of My Folia, come find me [DarkCreek] and we can compare garden notes. If I actually get organized enough to collect, weigh measure, etc., we can have a bit of a contest...

Garlic  February 27

As for the selling side of things, I’ve been investigating how one goes about planting, harvesting, packaging, and selling at local farmer’s markets. In the course of my online meanderings, I came across this wonderful website: www.sare.org The Sustainable Agriculture and Research program works by giving out grants to my American cousins (read about some of their initiatives online). But even those of us north of the 49th can benefit by downloading (or requesting by mail) some of their publications. I sent away for a couple of booklets: Marketing Strategies for Farmers and Ranchers and Profitable Poultry: Raising Birds on Pasture. Both are professionally produced and full of good basic information. I particularly like the way they’ve included quotes and figures from actual farmers who are using the techniques and tips described in the booklets. Will I be raising thousands of broiler chickens any time soon? Probably not. But internet sales of Kashmir fiber? Or, even better, value-added products like Kashmiri Baby Booties? You never know…