Growing Vegetables for Sale?

[GPintheMitten]

I'm considering trying my hand at growing sweet corn and other vegetables for sale. I've never done this but I have gardened on and off for years.

Our property in mid-Michigan (Genesee County) is 3.5 acres with home and lawn and a little woods. I probably have about 2 acres +- that I could till. I have a Kubota B2620 (26hp) and am about to pull the trigger on a 48" rototiller.

Any suggestions to learn more about going big enough to sell. Do those of you who do this on this scale, sell your produce at a stand or do you sell wholesale to groceries etc?

What crops would you suggest other than sweet corn? We have a sandy loam without a lot of good topsoil.

All suggestions welcome to a wanna be small farmer. Thanks

 

[creekbend]

Hopefully reviewing this website will be helpful in starting your future endeavor? MDARD Cottage Food Redirect

 

[bp fick]

Wholesale selling is actually profitable, if you have a direct pipeline to a Whole Foods or similar and specialize in say, mixed lettuce or other things that are highly profitable, turn over quickly and are in constant demand at that Market.

Selling in front of your own home takes a year or two or three to establish a customer base, but remains the best way to market and most profitable. Farmers markets means packing, trucking and sometimes, very high stall rental.

As for sweet corn, it is NOT highly profitable. It's only an OK product for profit. The list of things much more profitable is very long, but I'd perhaps warn you that most profitable things are also highly labor intensive.

 

[sweettractors]

I'm considering trying my hand at growing sweet corn and other vegetables for sale. I've never done this but I have gardened on and off for years.

Our property in mid-Michigan (Genesee County) is 3.5 acres with home and lawn and a little woods. I probably have about 2 acres +- that I could till. I have a Kubota B2620 (26hp) and am about to pull the trigger on a 48" rototiller.

Any suggestions to learn more about going big enough to sell. Do those of you who do this on this scale, sell your produce at a stand or do you sell wholesale to groceries etc?

What crops would you suggest other than sweet corn? We have a sandy loam without a lot of good topsoil.

All suggestions welcome to a wanna be small farmer. Thanks

In 1983, I was clearing $3000 per acre on U-Pick strawberries and Hull Thornless Blackberries do well with drip irrigation. Ken Sweet

 

[Luremaker]

We've grown corn for many years now. Sell it at a road side stand and local farm market. Growing sweet corn is fairly easy. It is easy to plant (with a planter) and after planting is very little work until harvest time. I live in an area will lots of summer rain and have never had to irrigate. Corn needs to cultivated and side dressed one or twice before harvest.

Picking corn can be a lot of work but is rewarding. We have experienced lots of theft at the stand, from stolen money, corn, and even signs and decorations. Like BP said it took a few years to get regular customers. My kids have always had summer jobs so they pick early in the morning and the stand is left unintended all day.

I can say it has been a great learning experience for my kids. They have meet all kinds people, some very crabby but most pretty amazing.

 

[Luremaker]

In 1983, I was clearing $3000 per acre on U-Pick strawberries and Hull Thornless Blackberries do well with drip irrigation. Ken Sweet

Ken, are you still in the U-Pick business?

 

[sweettractors]

Ken, are you still in the U-Pick business?

No, the dat blame machinery business made all my fun things go away Only Kidding, I love what I am doing now!

 

[bp fick]

I grew a lot of sweet corn last year, for the first time in ages. It's a good drawing card to get the cars to stop at the stand. I made some money on it, but a whole lot more on carrots, broccoli, cucumbers, squash and especially, of all things, cabbage.

We've always been "full menu" truck farmers. We've always grown a couple dozen different things to make the stand, whether out front or at market, look appealing. You just don't know what folks like until they pick something off the stand and order more if they like it. We were never interested in being "uni-crop".

Plus, we eat all these different things ourselves, of course. Thus, the variety.

 

[schoolsout]

Kind of an aside here, but how big of a piece of land (max size, feasibly) would you use one of those $100 EarthWay planters for? I don't want to drop a big chunk on a 3ph planter I may or may not continue to use on about an acre or so (at this point in time)

 

[LazySusanFarms]

In Michigan, I would put in 2 acres of U-Pick blueberries.