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Market Gardening: A Start-up Guide |
| By Janet
Bachmann NCAT Agriculture Specialist © NCAT 2002 ATTRA Publication #IP195/201 |
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Abstract
Market gardening, which entails the intense production of high-value crops, gives farmers the potential to increase their income from a few acres. It is also of interest to people looking at agriculture as an alternative lifestyle. This publication provides an overview of issues you need to be aware of as you consider undertaking market gardening, and suggests helpful resources. Table of Contents
What is Market Gardening?Market gardening is the commercial production of vegetables, fruits, flowers, and other plants, on a scale larger than a home garden, yet small enough that many of the principles of gardening can be applied. The aim, as with all farm enterprises, is to run the operation as a business and to make a profit. Market gardening is often oriented toward local markets, although production for shipment to more distant markets is also possible. Choosing Markets
You need to develop a clearly focused marketing plan before any crops are planted. Having marketing in mind before planting helps to ensure—but will not guarantee—that most of what you plant will be sold, thus eliminating wasted time, space, produce, and money. Many market gardeners try to maximize their income by selling directly to consumers, thus bypassing wholesalers and other middlemen. Farmers' markets, roadside stands, pick-your-own, subscription marketing arrangements, and sales to restaurants are common marketing strategies. Tail-gate marketing is one of the simplest forms of direct marketing. It involves parking a vehicle loaded with produce on a road or street with the hope that people will stop and buy. This is commonly used for selling regional produce in season. Advantages of this method are that it takes very little investment and can be set up on short notice. Farmers' markets are an excellent place for a beginner. They do not demand that a vendor bring a consistent supply of high-quality produce every market day, although that is still the ideal. If you have less-than-perfect tomatoes, you may be able to sell them as canners at a reduced price. A farmers' market is a wonderful place to meet people and develop steady customers, which can also lead to additional marketing channels. Disadvantages include the need to spend time away from the farm and the possibility of having produce left over at the end of the market. On-farm marketing strategies include roadside or farm stands and pick-your-own. These often make a winning combination, as customers who come for the enjoyment of spending time in the field will often purchase more of the same crop, or different ones, already harvested. Innovative farmers have found that on-farm entertainment, such as animals to pet or pumpkins to carve, can be profitable additions to on-farm markets. For these marketing methods, a mower may be your most important piece of equipment since you will need to keep the farm landscape neat to attract customers. Subscription gardening is a strategy that has gained a lot of interest in the past decade, and it can take many different forms. One form, also known as Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), involves providing subscribers with a weekly basket of seasonal produce. The subscribers pay partially or in full for their share of the farmer's planned production at the beginning of the season. This both eliminates the problem of covering upfront production costs at the beginning of the year and guarantees a market. The challenge for the grower is to have a consistent and continuous supply of popular vegetables throughout the growing season. It is helpful to survey the customers/members about their preferences before planting. Restaurants that are interested in serving fresh, locally-grown produce can be a good market. One key to remember when working with chefs or restaurant owners is that they are very busy people. Ask the chefs what day and hour is the best time to call, and then be consistent about calling at that time every week to find out what they need. Delivery is another service chefs will require. Chefs who buy locally suggest that growers schedule a visit with seed catalogs in hand before ordering for the coming season; they appreciate the opportunity to tell you what they can use or would like to try. Grocery and natural food stores may be one of the most difficult markets to break into for small-scale growers. Some stores, however, find they have customers who are pleased to find locally produced foods. If you want to sell to retailers, remember that they need products to be consistently available and of the highest possible quality. Have a sample of your product with you when you visit the store, and have a price in mind. Schools and institutions are the targets of a number of "farm to school" programs across the country. Food service departments at schools across the country are joining forces with concerned parents, teachers, community activists, and farmers to provide students with healthy meals, while simultaneously supporting small farmers within their region. Healthy Farms, Healthy Kids describes in detail seven farm-to-school projects from around the country, providing you with plenty of information to start a project in your community.(1)The Internet can be used to transact busines or to distribute information about your farm and products—or both. How to Direct Market Farm Products on the Internet discusses the things to consider before using the Internet as a marketing tool, and provides examples of farmers' experiences, as well as links to more information.(2) Most market gardeners use several outlets. Diversity in marketing, as well as diversity in planting, is a cornerstone of stability. Production Techniques and Equipment
Apprenticing with an experienced market gardener is probably the best way to learn good production techniques. If that opportunity isn't available, you can learn much by attending workshops and conferences, visiting with other market growers, reading, watching videos, and experimenting. State fruit and vegetable grower organizations, sustainable agriculture and organic grower groups, and national organizations such as the North American Direct Marketing Association and the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers, host annual conferences and trade shows where a wealth of information is shared. The Cooperative Extension Service is an excellent source of bulletins on production basics for most crops and may be able to provide on-site consultation if you have production questions. See ATTRA's Publications List for current publications on soil fertility management; insect pest, weed, and disease management; season extension techniques; the organic production of specific crops; and postharvest handling. Books are often the core of our search for information. The three listed below are all highly recommended by those who have used them. Which one will be most useful to you on a day-to-day basis may depend on your scale of production. How to Grow More Vegetables (3) by John Jeavons details biointensive gardening techniques that can provide more food "than you ever thought possible on less land than you can imagine." The system emphasizes the use of hand tools, raised bed production, intensive spacing, companion planting, and organic fertility management. The planning charts are aimed at helping families provide for their own food needs, but can be adapted for use by market gardeners as well. Eliot Coleman's The New Organic Grower (4) is written for market gardeners with about five acres of land in vegetable crop production. Coleman describes techniques using walking tractors, wheel hoes, multi-row dibble sticks, and soil block transplants. Sections on planning, crop rotations, green manures, soil fertility, direct seeding and transplants are inspiring. Coleman includes season extension techniques in this book, and has authored additional books on this topic, including The Winter Harvest Manual.(5) Sustainable Vegetable Production from Start-Up to Market (6) was written by Dr. Vern Grubinger, vegetable and berry specialist for University of Vermont (UVM) Extension and director of the UVM Center for Sustainable Agriculture. The book is aimed at aspiring and beginning farmers, and introduces the full range of processes for moderate-scale vegetable production, using ecological practices that minimize the need for synthetic inputs and maximize conservation of resources. It provides practical information on such essential matters as selecting a farm site; planning and record keeping; marketing options; and systems for starting, planting, protecting, and harvesting crops. The book's final chapter profiles the experiences of 19 individual vegetable growers, focusing on individual crops, and provides each grower's budget for these crops. Table 2, Equipment Needs, is adapted from a chart distributed to participants at an Advanced Organic Vegetable Production Workshop sponsored by the Michael Fields Institute. It provides an estimate of equipment needs for market gardens of various sizes. Please keep in mind that these are estimates. Your own needs will differ. You may be able to adapt machinery that you already have on hand, or you may be able to buy it used. If you are just starting out with a small amount of land, it may be more economical to purchase transplants than to build a greenhouse and grow your own. It may make sense to have primary tillage done by someone with a large tractor rather than to make that large purchase yourself. Depending on your choice of crops, irrigation is a must for consistent and high-quality production, even on a scale of less than an acre. Successful vegetable production requires the equivalent of an inch or more of rain per week during the growing season. That is equal to almost 30,000 gallons or more per acre. In most areas of the country, there is not enough rainfall during the growing season. Supplemental water for crops can come from a river, pond, or well. The greatest danger associated with the use of ponds and other small surface sources is in overestimating the amount of water available. Estimates should be conservative and recognize that the period of maximum need will probably coincide with the period of lowest water levels. Another concern is how fish and other life forms will be affected by lowered water levels.
In addition to a source of water, you need a pump, a way to get water to the field, and a way to distribute it. Drip or trickle irrigation is becoming the method of choice for many fruit, vegetable, and flower growers. Drip has several advantages when compared to traditional methods, such as furrow and sprinkler irrigation.(7) A good drip system that is properly operated provides uniform water application and reduces the amount of water needed to grow a crop. For some crops, the amount of water used is reduced by at least one-third. Also, since the water is applied only to the soil, not to leaves, the incidence of plant disease is reduced when compared with sprinkler irrigation. Properly filtering water is very important for drip systems, as dirty water can plug the holes in the drip tape. A sand media filter is the preferred type when the water source is a pond or river. Grubinger's book provides an overview of overhead sprinkle and drip or trickle irrigation systems and your local Cooperative Extension Service can supply detailed bulletins and possibly an irrigation specialist who will work with you to design a system to meet your needs. Planning and Record KeepingRecord keeping may well be one of the most difficult tasks for market gardeners. But good records are critical if you want to know which crops are profitable and which are not. Records are needed to fine-tune planting plans, cultivation and pest management schedules, and harvest schedules. They help to answer questions about labor, equipment, and capital needs, and to develop business plans. Field maps are basic to most record-keeping systems. Richard DeWilde of Harmony Valley Farm in Wisconsin organizes his crop records beginning with greenhouse notes. His 1999 greenhouse onion record (Table 1) provides an example. Varieties are listed in the order that they will be transplanted to the field. Note that information recorded includes planting date, type of flats used, pre-plant preparation, planting method, whether seed is pelletized or not, variety, seed sources, type of onion, percent germination, number of flats to be planted times cells per flat, and seeds per cell. Other forms are used to plan and record outdoor plantings, harvesting, packing, and sales. Dan Kaplan of Brookfield Farm in Massachusetts uses computer spreadsheets on MS Excel for crop planning and record keeping. The disks with the spreadsheet templates can be obtained by sending a donation of $25 to Brookfield Farm. Contact: Dan Kaplan, Brookfield Farm, 24 Hulst Rd., Amherst, MA 01002, 413-253-7991, bfcsa@aol.com, www.brookfieldfarm.org. Marcie Rosenzweig of Full Circle Farm in California developed a computer-based record keeping system known as Market Farm Forms: Spreadsheet Templates for Planning and Organizing Information on Diversified Farms. It is designed to help organize and calculate the mix of vegetables and related crops raised by market gardeners, truck farmers, and CSAs. Included are a 95-page book and a diskette containing Excel spreadsheet templates available in PC or Macintosh formats. Among the records that can be kept and/or calculated with this system are: seeds and purchased plants needed, farm-grown transplants, soil amendments and fertilizers, cropping and succession timelines, weekly task lists, crop yield and income projections, actual harvest and income data, produce availability sheets, invoices and pick sheets, Community Supported Agriculture share and yield sheets, budget worksheets, row calculations and input sheets, CSA share bed calculations and input sheets, certified organic producer certificate sheets, fax sheets, labels, order forms, point of sales labels, recipes, and flyers. It is available from: Marcie Rosenzweig, Full Circle Organic Farm, 3377 Early Times Lane, Auburn, CA 95603-7900; 530-885-9201, fullcircle@jps.net ($45 plus $5 shipping and handling). Business Plan
Starting any business demands an investment of time and money. When we invest in our own business, be it market gardening or something else, we do not want failure. However, some numbers suggest that three out of five businesses fail in the first year. Why? According to directors of the Illinois Small Business Development Center Network, the primary reason for failure is lack of a business plan. Developing your business plan helps you define your business, create a road map for operating the business, set the goals you will aim for, judge your progress and make adjustments, and satisfy outsiders' requests for a written explanation. The basics of a business plan include:
An excellent guide to preparing a business plan for agricultural producers is available from Farm Business Management Information Network for British Columbia. A couple working through a plan for direct farm marketing is used as an example. Most rural libraries now have web access if you do not. The US Small Business Administration (SBA), in partnership with state Small Business Development Centers, can also help you develop a business plan. In addition, the SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) Association is a resource partner with the SBA. SCORE is dedicated to aiding in the formation, growth, and success of small businesses nationwide. You can reach them through their Web site and find experts with agriculture backgrounds. They can consult with you via email regarding your business. The consulting services are free. Another resource is the NxLeveL business-planning curriculum prepared by the University of Nebraska specifically to help small producers write and develop business plans unique to their operations. To find out if NxLeveL's program, "Tilling the Soil of Opportunity," is offered in your state, check their Web site. Additional resources for help with business planning are the Cooperative Extension Service and the USDA/NRCS. County offices should be listed in your local phone book. LaborThe size of your operation and the enterprises you choose will determine the amount of labor needed. Two of the three growers profiled in this publication have decided that they do not want to hire outside help and have planned their production and marketing accordingly. Many market gardeners, however, will find that they need help. Managing labor so that the crew will be happy and productive is covered by Richard DeWilde of Harmony Valley Farm in an Advanced Organic Vegetable Production workshop offered by the Michael Fields Institute. DeWilde's operation is one of the three described in the profiles. Mr. DeWilde emphasizes that it is important to be clear about expectations and operating procedures. He does this by meeting regularly with his employees and by putting things in writing. An employee manual lays out farm standards and expectations. For example, it tells people what is to be done with trash. It includes a Friday night checklist to ensure that supplies and equipment are properly stored at the end of the week. Employees do not work on Saturday or Sunday. Mr. DeWilde said he is in the process of developing an operating manual for the farm. On Monday morning Mr. DeWilde meets with his crew in the packing shed. He makes the day and week manageable by writing down all that needs to be accomplished on two dry-erase boards. On one is the "week-at-a-glance." On the other are posted tasks for Monday with assignments of who will do each task. Past records show how long it should take to do each task—such as harvest 1,000 bunches of kale. This information is critical for determining assignments. Separate task sheets list supplies needed for each task. For example, if floating row covers are to be laid, the task sheet will include shovels, markers, and marking pens. Harmony Valley Farm commits to providing full-time jobs. A list of rainy day tasks and extra chores is on hand to ensure that employees always have something useful to do. The average rate of pay for labor in 2000 was $8.60 per hour. Mr. DeWilde emphasizes that it is important for employers to be knowledgeable about government regulations. Field sanitation, drinking water, worker protection, and safety regulations are among those that an employer must know about. A resource for learning about government regulations is Neil D. Hamilton's The Legal Guide for Direct Farm Marketing (See Further Resources). The book includes a chapter on labor and employment. Food SafetyChanging lifestyles and growing consumer interest in fresh, nutritious food has brought an increase in produce consumption. There has also been an increase in the number of food-borne illness outbreaks associated with fresh fruits and vegetables. An occurrence can cause irreparable damage to a business, both from the legal point of view, as well as from the negative impact on its reputation.(8) Currently, there are no mandatory rules for the safe growing and packing of fruits and vegetables, except for those regulating water and pesticide residues under the surveillance of EPA. In October 1998, however, the EPA published the Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables, comprising a set of Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs). Although they are optional, many growers are incorporating these practices into their operations. The Cooperative Extension Service in a number of states provides bulletins outlining safe growing and packing practices. Kansas State University has published Food*A*Syst, a handbook to help address food safety and environmental concerns. You can find chapter 3, Growing Vegetables, Fruits, and Produce, at their Web site. Organic Market GardeningMany market gardeners choose to grow their crops organically. For some this is a philosophical decision—they believe it the socially and environmentally responsible thing to do. Market economics can also be a motivation. Organically grown produce typically commands higher prices in the marketplace. Growers who sell through CSAs or use other forms of "relationship" marketing, sometimes find that their customers expect and demand organic produce. There is a long history that equates organic farming with fresh, "whole" foods. The production and marketing of organic foods is now subject to federal regulation. Organic production is defined in legal terms and use of the term "organic" is controlled. Commercial producers are required to be certified if they wish to market their products as organic. Farmers need to work through an accredited certifying body to become certified organic. ATTRA currently provides a list of certifiers, but the National Organic Program is expected to publish an updated list of accredited certifiers on its Web site. A certifier will provide the grower with all the information necessary to work through the certification process. While there are many details, a grower considering certification should know the following:
Not all small and part-time organic producers need to undergo the costs and rigors of certification. Anyone marketing less than $5,000 in organic products annually is exempt. Such producers must, however, still conform to all federal guidelines regarding organic production and marketing.
Grower ProfilesTo give you ideas and inspiration, several market gardeners from different parts of the U.S. agreed to share information about their operations. The Hitts are featured in the SAN publications Building Soils for Better Crops, 2nd ed. (9) and The New American Farmer.(10) DeWilde and Halley are also featured in The New American Farmer. It is interesting to note that although each operation is unique, all have a number of things in common. These include:
Alex and Betsy Hitt, NCAlex and Betsy Hitt began market gardening on their 26-acre farm near Chapel Hill, North Carolina almost 20 years ago. They grow vegetables and specialty cut flowers organically on five acres and have ¼ acre in highbush blueberries. The Hitts sell primarily to local farmers' markets, but have also sold to restaurants and stores. "Our original goals," Alex says, "were to make a living on this piece of ground while taking the best care of it that we could." For them, making a living doing work they enjoy, and finding a scale that allows them to do most of it themselves are key aspects of sustainability. Their crop mix and markets have changed over the years, as they continue to evaluate the success of each operation and its place within the whole system. When the horse stable down the road went out of business, it forced Alex and Betsy to re-evaluate their farm fertility program. Without this source of free manure, the Hitts, who have made the most out of every acre, created an elaborate rotation that includes both winter and summer cover crops to supply organic matter and nitrogen, prevent erosion, and crowd out weeds. "We designed a rotation so that cover crops play a clear role," Alex says. "Many times, where other growers might say, 'I need to grow a cash crop,' we'll grow a cover crop anyway." The Hitts stay profitable, however, thanks to a marketing plan that takes full advantage of their location near Chapel Hill, home to the University of North Carolina. Their more unusual produce such as leafy greens, leeks, and rapini find a home in restaurants, and—alongside their most profitable lettuce, tomato, pepper, and flower crops—sell well at area farmers' markets. A year in the Hitts' rotation may include a cool-season cash crop, a summer cover crop such as soybeans and sudangrass, followed by a fall cash crop, and then a winter cover. "We have made a conscious decision in our rotation design to always have cover crops," Alex Hitt says. "We have to—it's the primary source for all of our fertility. If we can, we'll have two covers on the same piece of ground in the same year." While other farmers grow beans, corn, or another profitable annual vegetable in the summer after a spring crop, the Hitts don't hesitate to take the land out of production. Instead, Alex Hitt says, their commitment to building organic matter in the soil yields important payoffs. The farm remains essentially free of soil-borne diseases, which they attribute to "so much competition and diversity" in the soil. And, despite farming on a five-percent slope, they see little or no erosion. Their 10-year rotation plan is shown in Table 3. Anne and Eric Nordell, PA (11, 12, 13)Neither Anne nor Eric grew up on a farm, but both worked on farms during and after college, before buying their own small farm near Trout Run, Pennsylvania. In this area with steep, rugged terrain and a relatively short growing season, they had three goals:
Of the 90 acres on the farm, 30 are wooded. Six are cultivated for the market garden. The remainder, excluding the homestead and house garden, is left in pasture. They use draft horses and low-cost implements for cultivation and tillage, and have the 6-acre plot divided into ½ acre strips of 20 yards by 120 yards, which they find to be a good size for working with horses and by hand. Because the farm is distant from major markets, the Nordells first chose crops that could be sold wholesale: flowers for drying, medicinal herbs for drying, and root vegetables. As they became known in the area, they were approached by restaurant buyers to supply cool-season and specialty items. By 1998, they were selling to ten fine restaurants in the area and at the Williamsport farmers' market. Income from wholesale markets is now only 10% of their total. For the Nordells, as for all market gardeners, weeds presented a major challenge. They adapted a field-crop rotation system of corn/oats/wheat/grass and legume sod, traditionally used in the Midwest and Pennsylvania, to include vegetables, cover crops, and a summer fallow. The ½-acre strips are managed so that 3 acres are in crops and 3 are in fallow or cover crops. Over the years, they have been able to reduce the fallow period to six weeks or less as their weed population has diminished. The Nordells offer a video of a slide presentation made at the 1996 P.A.S.A. Conference that explains their Controlled Rotational Cover Cropping in the Bio-Extensive Market Garden system. They also have collected copies of the articles they've written—about rotation, cultivation, growing onions, using pigs to turn compost, designing a barn for animals and for compost production, and more. The 52-minute video and the collected articles are available for $10 each, postage and handling included.(12) Richard DeWilde and Linda Halley, WIRichard DeWilde has been farming for most of his life. He moved to Harmony Valley Farm in 1984, after his farm in Minnesota was paved over by urban sprawl. Linda joined him there in 1990. They grow vegetables, fruits, and herbs on 70 acres, and pasture, hay, and a few Angus steers on 220 acres. They sell produce wholesale, at the Dane County Farmers' Market in Madison, Wisconsin and through a 500-member CSA. DeWilde handles this scale of operation by hiring labor, becoming highly mechanized, and through careful management. DeWilde notes that his wholesale markets have been the most profitable, and CSA the least. The time needed for management makes the difference. The wholesale market is the least diverse; the moneymaking crops are turnips and daikon radishes. A CSA market demands a tremendous diversity of crops. Table 4, Harvest Calendar and Estimated Annual Amounts, from a flyer sent to past and potential CSA members, indicates the complexity of management needed for this market. Soil building is done with cover crops, compost, and additional micronutrients as needed. Favored cover crops are sweet clover, vetch, rye, oats, and peas. Seeds for these are available locally and are reasonably priced. The residue is chopped into the top 1 or 2 inches of soil with a rotovator. DeWilde and Halley have experimented with many ingredients for making compost and have been pleased with dairy manure and cornstalks, which are readily available and have a good carbon: nitrogen ratio. The compost is made in windrows, turned with an old wildcat turner pulled by an International tractor equipped with a hydrostatic drive so that it can move slowly. Finished compost is spread on fields at a rate of 10 to 15 tons per acre. One strategy for insect pest management on Harmony Valley Farm is to provide permanent habitat for natural predators and parasites. Refuge strips in the fields are made up of plants that attract and harbor beneficial insects and birds. A number of these plants can also be cut and sold as flowers or woody ornamentals. Richard says his goal is "to develop an organic farming curriculum, complete with slides. My time and focus could be put into a Harmony Valley Farm Operating Manual. It would deal with communication, employee training, and record keeping. Who knows? Maybe I would retire and do training seminars . . . " Linda adds, "We really do have clear family goals; to continue to learn new ways to do things on the farm and communicate those things." References1) Anon. 2001. Healthy Farms, Healthy Kids. CFS Coalition. 64 p. 2) Klotz, Jennifer-Claire. 2000. How to Direct Market Farm Products on the Internet. USDA/AMS. 44 p. http://agmarketing.extension.psu.edu/Retail/PDFs/HowDirectMktOnIntrnet.pdf (PDF / 6M) 4) Coleman, Eliot. 1995. The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener, 2nd ed. Chelsea Green Publishing Company. 340 p. 5) Coleman, Eliot. 1998. The Winter Harvest Manual. 63 p.
6) Grubinger, Vernon. 1999. Sustainable Vegetable Production from Start-Up to Market. NRAES-104. 270 p. The cost is $42 plus $5.50 for shipping and handling. Order from: 7) Inman, John W. 2001. Drip irrigation: A Success in the Salinas Valley. American Vegetable Grower. December. p. 36 8) Cuellar, Sandra. 2001. Assuring produce safety: A key industry marketing strategy. Small Fruit News of Central New York. Cornell Cooperative Extension of Oswego County. November. p. 3–5. 9) Magdoff, Fred and Harold van Es. 2000. Building Soils for Better Crops, 2nd ed. Available for $19.95 plus $3.95 shipping and handling from: 10) Anon. 2001. The New American Farmer. p. 14–16, 97–99.
11) English, Jean. 2001. Rotating out of weeds. Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener. March–May. p. 18–19. 12) Nordell, Anne and Eric. 1998. Horse-powered market garden. Rural Heritage. Autumn. p. 37–39. 13) Anne and Eric Nordell Further ResourcesBooksGibson, Eric. 2001. The New Farmer's Market: Farm-Fresh Ideas for Producers, Managers and Communities. 272 p. $24.95
Hamilton, Neil D. 1999. The Legal Guide to Direct Farm Marketing. Drake University. 235 p.
Green, Diane. 1999. Selling Produce to Restaurants: A Marketing Guide for Small Growers. 50 p.
PeriodicalsGrowing for Market
Small Farm News (newsletter)
Newenhouse, Astrid et al. 1998–2001. Work Efficiency Tip Sheets. University of Wisconsin.
The Packer
American Vegetable Grower
The Seasonal Marketer
Agenicies and AssociationsNorth American Direct Marketing Association Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers USDA Agricultural Marketing Service Farmer Direct Marketing Web site VideoFarmers and Their Diversified Horticultural Marketing Strategies, NRAES-139. Profiles vegetable, fruit, and other horticultural growers in Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont who have pursued a variety of rewarding approaches adapted to their unique products and conditions. Available for $15 plus $3.75 shipping from:
By Janet Bachmann
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Salad mix transplants.
Diane Schumacher harvesting okra. 
CSA subscription bags, including a "bouquet subscription."