Something completely different?
Jan. 25th, 2023 10:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenstormThere are some folks in the town west of here I mentioned, doing some homesteading/farming type things. They're a co-op (not sure what that means yet) and they are looking for someone to do the market gardening part (they do seeds, garlic, and animals). I've been in touch with them for a couple years now, and they know me well enough to offer that I could do seed crops there maybe. Let's be a little methodical, but this is off the top of my head.
Cons:
This is a "live onsite if you have a tiny house or rent the cabin on the house" sort of offer, which: not a real house.
Too far out of the bigger town to comfortably commute there, so couldn't do a job based there in addition.
Previously two people did this full time, so probably not a lot of time for off-farm income anyhow. This would be running a business, which I hate the idea of because I don't have parents who are going to die and leave me money to retire on, or who can swoop in and fix things if the business fails or until it succeeds.
Lower income life generally, so although it's near an airport probably no flying to visit friends etc much (not that I do that anyhow), home repairs all done my hand instead of hiring someone in, no store haircuts or dye jobs, etc.
Too far to drive to Van/friends in one day (15 hours active driving time, assuming all highways are in order and weather is good)
No safety net. If this doesn't work and I end up in debt from it, I'm significantly worse off than I am now and probably don't end up on land again.
Pros:
The land is set up and has been cultivated a long time.
1 acre garden is a lot but not stupid excessive.
High tunnel greenhouses!
Seed starting greenhouse!
Machinery on site, I think?
Currently serves a CSA and three farmer's markets, but could be taken in whatever direction.
Looks like food from the site is available: grain, veg, meat, dairy. I can feed myself entirely in that sort of situation and have before.
Warmer climate than here, both in the summer and in the winter.
Gardening full-time is good for me.
CSA means I could write a newsletter, which I enjoy. There's a farm blog for writing too.
Enough room to set up sheds or storage containers for hobbies if I can figure out how to insulate them.
Live near a community of farmers.
Ability to go away sometimes and have someone cover me, or someone else is already doing animals so winter is a little freer.
If I could buy and pay for a two-acre property right off the farm with a house, I could keep geese/dogs there, go in to the farm, have equity? Are there such properties? Could I afford one? Could I afford one while doing the farm thing? Probably not.
Needs:
Crop failure needs to be built in, so maybe 1/4 of things won't work in any given year.
Diverse between and within crops.
A significant proportion of what I make has to go to folks who need it, free or discounted (they already have a "feed someone else" option on their website, so this is probably manageable).
Somewhere to keep hobbies including the wheel, sewing stuff.
Ability to retire eventually, does this look like land equity with housing, enough money to go into a retirement plan...?
Ability to get sick.
Dogs and geese need space and dogs need to be safe from strangers.
Ability to take vacation sometimes (they want someone to cover for their vacations, so this is manageable).
Partners can visit, ok with genders and multiple partners and pagan stuff if I live onsite.
Questions:
Do they grow corn or other seed crops that need exclusion distances?
What were the financials like last year?
Does the cabin have fencing?
What are hookups like for an RV or tiny house?
What is the setup with land ownership, money, food, etc division?
Do they have off-farm jobs and if so, what and how?
Could I drop an actual mobile on the property is this works out long term? How would financial stuff work for that?
What is food storage like, cold rooms, root cellars, somewhere to store full jars of food over winter without freezing? That isn't happening in a tiny house.
What do I personally want to do? A storage crop CSA and a seed thing sounds pretty nice. Harvesting and washing baby greens doesn't sound as nice. Maybe microgreens. Maybe value added stuff? Dried or canned? Food safety? Charcuterie?
Do they still use WWOOFers? Discussion on free labour?
Is there irrigation? Philosophy of abundant inputs where bounty exists vs low-input vs yield? Mulch vs water etc?
How much fertility is available from the animals?
What machinery is available?
How much mentoring assistance is there on crop planning/historic quantities for year 1?
What are the clients looking for (would they be into experimental/unpredictable, or do they want standard veg with current client base?)
Philosophy of clean fields vs edible weeds vs perennial row and hedgerow cover etc?
What's the mission of the farm?
Competition/market saturation?
What if I did early spring/fall/winter greens, a storage CSA in fall, that's fairly high-value-low-work, I could then maybe manage am off-farm job?
Are there remote, part time jobs in the area? Or remote part time jobs elsewhere that I can do that make more than minimum wage?
Perennials/fruit/orchard potential?
How exactly does the risk fall out?
Cons:
This is a "live onsite if you have a tiny house or rent the cabin on the house" sort of offer, which: not a real house.
Too far out of the bigger town to comfortably commute there, so couldn't do a job based there in addition.
Previously two people did this full time, so probably not a lot of time for off-farm income anyhow. This would be running a business, which I hate the idea of because I don't have parents who are going to die and leave me money to retire on, or who can swoop in and fix things if the business fails or until it succeeds.
Lower income life generally, so although it's near an airport probably no flying to visit friends etc much (not that I do that anyhow), home repairs all done my hand instead of hiring someone in, no store haircuts or dye jobs, etc.
Too far to drive to Van/friends in one day (15 hours active driving time, assuming all highways are in order and weather is good)
No safety net. If this doesn't work and I end up in debt from it, I'm significantly worse off than I am now and probably don't end up on land again.
Pros:
The land is set up and has been cultivated a long time.
1 acre garden is a lot but not stupid excessive.
High tunnel greenhouses!
Seed starting greenhouse!
Machinery on site, I think?
Currently serves a CSA and three farmer's markets, but could be taken in whatever direction.
Looks like food from the site is available: grain, veg, meat, dairy. I can feed myself entirely in that sort of situation and have before.
Warmer climate than here, both in the summer and in the winter.
Gardening full-time is good for me.
CSA means I could write a newsletter, which I enjoy. There's a farm blog for writing too.
Enough room to set up sheds or storage containers for hobbies if I can figure out how to insulate them.
Live near a community of farmers.
Ability to go away sometimes and have someone cover me, or someone else is already doing animals so winter is a little freer.
If I could buy and pay for a two-acre property right off the farm with a house, I could keep geese/dogs there, go in to the farm, have equity? Are there such properties? Could I afford one? Could I afford one while doing the farm thing? Probably not.
Needs:
Crop failure needs to be built in, so maybe 1/4 of things won't work in any given year.
Diverse between and within crops.
A significant proportion of what I make has to go to folks who need it, free or discounted (they already have a "feed someone else" option on their website, so this is probably manageable).
Somewhere to keep hobbies including the wheel, sewing stuff.
Ability to retire eventually, does this look like land equity with housing, enough money to go into a retirement plan...?
Ability to get sick.
Dogs and geese need space and dogs need to be safe from strangers.
Ability to take vacation sometimes (they want someone to cover for their vacations, so this is manageable).
Partners can visit, ok with genders and multiple partners and pagan stuff if I live onsite.
Questions:
Do they grow corn or other seed crops that need exclusion distances?
What were the financials like last year?
Does the cabin have fencing?
What are hookups like for an RV or tiny house?
What is the setup with land ownership, money, food, etc division?
Do they have off-farm jobs and if so, what and how?
Could I drop an actual mobile on the property is this works out long term? How would financial stuff work for that?
What is food storage like, cold rooms, root cellars, somewhere to store full jars of food over winter without freezing? That isn't happening in a tiny house.
What do I personally want to do? A storage crop CSA and a seed thing sounds pretty nice. Harvesting and washing baby greens doesn't sound as nice. Maybe microgreens. Maybe value added stuff? Dried or canned? Food safety? Charcuterie?
Do they still use WWOOFers? Discussion on free labour?
Is there irrigation? Philosophy of abundant inputs where bounty exists vs low-input vs yield? Mulch vs water etc?
How much fertility is available from the animals?
What machinery is available?
How much mentoring assistance is there on crop planning/historic quantities for year 1?
What are the clients looking for (would they be into experimental/unpredictable, or do they want standard veg with current client base?)
Philosophy of clean fields vs edible weeds vs perennial row and hedgerow cover etc?
What's the mission of the farm?
Competition/market saturation?
What if I did early spring/fall/winter greens, a storage CSA in fall, that's fairly high-value-low-work, I could then maybe manage am off-farm job?
Are there remote, part time jobs in the area? Or remote part time jobs elsewhere that I can do that make more than minimum wage?
Perennials/fruit/orchard potential?
How exactly does the risk fall out?
no subject
Date: 2023-01-28 06:33 am (UTC)That sounds like a compelling opportunity! I hope they're able to give you clear direct answers to your questions, and that they're receptive to feedback on their processes.
When you say "clean fields vs edible weeds," does "clean fields" refer to a conventional large-scale farm operation, where one large field is one single crop? And would "edible weeds" be something like a food forest, where the plants are chosen/encouraged to create a micro-ecosystem of several edible species, and long-term tended in a less hands-on manner?
no subject
Date: 2023-02-01 05:26 pm (UTC)What I'm curious is a little less sharply defined than that. Some people don't like any plants ripening seed in their fields and dropping potential other plants into the soil seedbank; they work for years and years to remove anything that might go to seed before it can do so and empty the soil seedbank, so to speak. Some people don't mind a couple edible weeds growing, but want them gone before they go to seed. Some might encourage certain kinds of other plants, cover crops or intercrops to shade the soil, fix nitrogen, or eat. Some people might welcome plants that want to show up and might study those for a couple years, and only remove some specific ones that may be more invasive. Some people welcome all plants to come and hope they're contributing to the soil in some way, and that they'll leave when the soil changes. Some people are ok with food cover plants but not weed cover plants (lettuce but not chickweed). Some like clean soil generally.
You can imagine that dandelions or lamb's quarters seed blowing into someone's clean farm could cause conflict.
no subject
Date: 2023-02-08 03:53 pm (UTC)Oh, that makes sense, yes! I can definitely see how lamb's quarters dropping seed in a carefully cleared plot could cause conflict. You've described much more of a spectrum than I was previously considering. Thank you for the insight!