mulberry_lane

Figgerin'

2007-08-13T16:53:30Z

For anyone who hasn't been following my other blog, I'm trying to replace my current job with a part-time one, one that pays enough to cover my current child support obligation, taxes, and a couple hundred a month beyond that. This will free me up to watch Noah while Mayda works (she earns more per hour than I do, and has been having a rough time keeping up with her work while watching him), but it will also free me up to do some serious gardening in the spring. I want to set up at at least one farmers market, and I'm considering having a CSA. I'm trying to learn more about that. Specifically, how much should people get per week? From what I've seen of a couple other CSA's in central Ohio, subscribers pay an average of about $20 a week, but they pay it up front at the beginning of the season. I'm not sure how much or what all they get for that, though.

I was looking at Steve Solomon's estimates for land usage. He says he gardens about 2000 square feet, and that that provides him and one other adult with about half their calories all year. I don't figure my customers will be planning on their subscription providing enough food for them to put up enough to feed them all winter, so let's plan on feeding them for half the year, and say 1000 square feet. That's for half their calories, though. Solomon describes himself as a "vegetabletarian," which is to say, he's not committed to being a vegetarian, but when he sits down to eat and eats his vegetables first, he's usually satisfied enough that he doesn't bother eating anything else. While I expect a number of CSA subscribers are vegetarians or come close to it, I doubt they expect to get half their calories from their subscription. I found a blog today, Columbus Foodie, written by a Columbus gal who's really into eating local (that is, eating locally produced food) and who belongs to a CSA. Despite getting her once-a-week bag from the CSA, she still buys even more stuff at farmers markets. So let's cut the figure in half again and provide a couple with a quarter of their calories for half the year (maybe more than that, actually, as I plan to grow potatoes and sweet potatoes). So now I've cut 2000 square feet in half...two times. 500 square feet. A dictionary search tells me an acre is 43,560 square feet. Solomon estimates that if you figure in paths and surrounds, his 2000 acres of growing space probably adds up to about 2700, the standard British "allotment." So:

2000 / 2700 = x / 43,560
x = 32,266 and two thirds

That's my actual growing space on one acre. So 32,266 could feed 64 and a half--let's say 64--subscribers if I'm figuring on each one getting enough food for two adults. If each one's paying $20 a week, that's $1280 a week, or $5120 a month. (Knock me over with a feather.) If I could do that for six months--say June-November or May-October (yes, it's a stretch)--that'd be $30,720 for the year. A more reasonable estimate would be a five-month growing period, so $25,600. Damn, that's more than I'm making now, working for the "premium" rate that comes with having to be available to work any shift, any day, on call 24/7. I'm also guessing that on most days outside of planting and harvest, I'm not going to be putting in a full eight hours a day, or at least not a hard eight hours. Maybe eight if you count driving around and time spent in front of the computer ordering seeds and balancing books and stuff.

Granted, I don't expect to have 64 CSA subscribers my first year, and I have no expectations at all as to what I might make in a day at a farmers market, but there's the potential with one acre. The reason I'm figuring this, aside from it just being a good idea to do in putting together a business plan, is that I'm trying to see what kind of budget I may have to work with. See, the idea behind Frijolito Farm right now--and I'm thinking we chose a good name, though Frijolito Farms, in the plural, might actually be more appropriate--is to use currently unused urban greenspace to produce food. We don't own enough sunny ground ourselves, and my one attempt at growing veggies on a city Land Redevelopment garden plot resulted in everything getting stolen. So I'm thinking I should contact homeowners and businesses like factories, warehouses, churches--anywhere that has big chunks of land that serve no purpose but to be mowed--and try to sell them on letting me use their land. Upon reflection, though, I suspect it'll take a bit more incentive than just "you'll save money not mowing and feel good about yourself and have eco-bragging rights" in order to get people to let me tear out their expensive lawns and till them into hills and rows that, admittedly, are pretty freakin' ugly when they don't have vegetables growing in them. I could sow a cover crop, even grass, at the end of the season, but still, it may be a tough sell. So I'm thinking I'm gonna have to offer actual financial compensation for use of the land, and I'm not sure how much to offer.

If duriyah's numbers are an accurate representation, pasture not far outside the city goes for about $25-$30 an acre per month. I thought that sounded prohibitive until I actually thought about how much food one can grow on a whole acre, hence the figures above. Most of the lots I'm thinking of are probably a quarter-acre or less, so if I'm paying somebody six or seven dollars a month, I imagine it's pretty likely that some of them may just tell me to forget about it, or they'll accept payment in eggs or veggies. Hell, I'd likely give each of 'em a chicken just as a gift.

When we get closer to spring, I was thinking of writing a press release, reading the Food section of the Columbus Dispatch to check out the local writing talent, and send the press release to one of them. Maybe they'd be interested in doing a story. If so, that'd almost certainly bring out at least a few more customers and interested landowners. Actually, it'd probably be better to do that about halfway through the season so there are actual experiences to relate and plants or a market stand to take pictures of. That still leaves me with how to promote this to get some initial customers and land.

As for the land, I expect I'm just going to keep scouting around and try cold contacting owners, maybe coming up with some kind of form letter explaining who we are, what we want, and what they get out of it. I was thinking maybe I'd offer them a percentage off a share, but seeing how many shares I can get out of an acre, maybe it'd be worth it to just give 'em one if they were supplying enough land. Of course, I'm not sure how much appeal that would have to the businesses. One of the lots I'm currently lusting after is a bit of fallow grassland that's owned by Limited Brands. It's 5.5 miles from here, and right next to Alum Creek. I wouldn't even have to haul water. I could just pump it up from the creek. Might even be worth rigging up some discreetly placed solar panels (is it possible to discreetly place a solar panel?) to run the pump and keep the plot irrigated. I figure there's about 20,000 square feet, or a little less than half an acre there. Somehow, though, I doubt a single CSA share, even a whole one, is going to mean much to Limited Brands. :)

Wow. I just looked across the road from there on the sat map. That's a lot of grass. It belongs to the city, I believe. All you can see from Morse Rd. is the place where they park the garbage trucks (see the yellow trucks on Google?), well hidden by trees planted there, no doubt, for that purpose. But back behind them. Ye gods. I'm guessing that's a water treatment facility, but just look at all that land between the two. And there's a dam in the creek there. Damn. I could drop a little homemade micro-hydro plant, something like this, down in the water to run a water pump. I suspect, though, that there's a reason the Columbus Land Redevelopment Office isn't trying to get people to garden there. Maybe it's time I went crickin' and made a proper exploration of Alum Creek. A canoe would help, but I'm not gonna buy one expressly for the purpose of scoping out potential farmland. I'm sure it's illegal to pump water from there anyway. That's more of a west-of-the-Mississippi issue, but it still sounds like something they'd make a law about around here (like anyone would notice, especially if I camouflaged the hose).

Wait a minute...that's not Alum Creek. That's Big Walnut Creek. Eh, a cursory perusal suggests they're more concerned about what's going into it than what I might pump out. Hmm...

Anyway, that's where things stand for now. If I could round up enough CSA subscribers, I could actually buy some equipment up front. Ideally, I'd like to have a garden tractor with a 3-point hitch and PTO with a five-foot tiller on the back. But it might be possible to do this with a pull-behind tiller or disc set, something like the ones on this page, and a garden tractor or ATV to pull it with. Hell, looking at it, I wonder how hard it would be to make something like that. Maybe from an old, broken disc set made for a full-size tractor. I'd probably need a welder, but I've needed one for other stuff anyway, and it's a lot cheaper than buying one of these things new. Then again, who said it had to be new? I'm sure I could find a used one. For that matter, so long as I had a truck and trailer to haul it, I could probably borrow or rent one from somebody. Eh, I dunno. We'll see. I have to find the land and the money before I worry about acquiring equipment.

That's the thing: I feel like I've got all these "potentials" balanced. Once it's all going, it'll be a beautiful juggling act, but I'm not sure how to get that first ball in the air while I've got my hands so full balancing all the balls at once. Do I send out letters and make deals and write up contracts for land use when I'm not sure I'll have money to invest in equipment to do this efficiently? If I have to do it all by hand, I'm unlikely to do as much. I know that from my experiences at Burt Street. Do I work hard at earning money to buy equipment, not knowing if I'm going to get access to any land within a reasonable distance? Do I start soliciting customers this far in advance? Can I afford to put it off 'til much later? How much later? Can I really just sit on my hands 'til February or so, and then just BANG! get the customers and the land and the equipment all at once? I'm thinking not. Generally, in this kind of situation, I've a tendency to do nothing, or at least to procrastinate until the opportunity passes me by, which I guess is about the same thing. I don't want to do that this time, but I'm not quite sure what to do. I reckon I could start by trying to contact someone at Limited Brands. Probably better off sending a letter on a business letterhead with a logo on the envelope rather than just calling up and randomly trying to get the right person to talk with me. "Hi, I'd like to put in a vegetable garden on that little bit of land you have there at the corner of Stygler and Morse. I'll give ya fifteen bucks a month for it. By letting me grow food there that I'll grow by natural methods and sell locally, you'll be able to associate your company with ecological practices and small business and not seem like such an eeeevuhl mega-corporation. Oh, really? The last person I spoke with said you'd be the one to talk to. Yes, I'll wait while you transfer me." :oP I communicate much better in writing.

Anyone have any advice? Suggestions? Observations? Feedback of any kind?

Silage Making in the Tropics with Particular Emphasis on Smallholders

2007-06-08T15:09:08Z

http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/x8486e/x8486e00.htm#Contents

mulberry_lane @ 2007-06-08T10:51:00

2007-06-08T14:51:41Z

This is a good model for how I'd like a lot of this book to look: heavily and clearly illustrated, with simple instructions in plain, straightforward language that even people of a low educational level can understand. Actually, I think this site comes from an elementary school in England, so it's no surprise that it looks like you could cut it up and make a children's picture book out of it.

Don't click if you don't want to see lots and lots of images, but city folk particularly may be interested to see...

Silage making at Hall Farm...

Silage is like pickled grass, it is made during the summer and then kept to feed the animals in the winter. A lot of hard work is involved in making it....

The grass is cut using a large mower mounted on a tractor. Once cut, the grass falls into rows on the ground. It is left to dry for 6 to 18 hours, depending on the weather. The grass stems are still full length, up to 45cm long.

A second tractor uses a rake to push three rows of grass into one big row to make it easier for the forage harvester to pick it all up.

The forage harvester picks up the grass and chops it into short lengths before before blowing the cut grass up the spout and into the trailers. The driver of the forage harvester must concentrate on picking up all the grass and not wasting any. The driver of the tractor pulling the trailer has to steer in the right place and at the same speed as the forage harvester so that all lands inside the trailer, in windy weather this is very difficult!! Most of the time he will be looking over his shoulder to see what is happening in his trailer.

When the trailers are full they return to the farm. The grass is tipped into the yard to form a massive pile. To make this quicker the trailers have a special fastening system and can be opened and closed from the tractor cab. This means the drivers do not have to get out.

Then one of the workers picks up the grass with a big rake on the front of his machine.

He uses the big rake to carry the grass to where he wants it, so that he can shape the silage clamp.

To make sure the silage pickles into a nice feed for the cows, all the air has to be squashed out of the pile of grass by driving tractors over it. If there is any air left in the pile it will go mouldy instead of pickling. The cows do not like it when it is mouldy and it can even make them ill.

Once the air has been removed they are left with a smooth pile of grass. The drivers must be very careful as they could tip their tractors over if they build the slope too steep.

To make sure the air stays out, the pile is covered in plastic. Tyres are then placed on top of the plastic to stop it blowing away.

The finished silage clamp.

The fields where the grass was cut are left to grow again. More grass will be cut for the cows in July. The grass will be put on top of the this silage. This means the plastic and the tyres will have to be taken off - HARD WORK!!!

http://learningat.ke7.org.uk/ecoweb/new/silage_making_at_hall_farm.htm

This is what silos are for, by the way. Not everyone dumps a pile on the ground and covers it with plastic and "tyres." Silos, either the big towers we usually associate with the word, or horizontal ones (sort of like big swimming pools with or without a roof), allow more air to be excluded from the silage.

Just by chance, I happened to come upon this article on small holder ("homestead") silage making in Thailand. I didn't even know they grew corn in Thailand, let alone raised dairy cows. Anyway, they said the farmers there hadn't been making silage--cut forage crops chopped up and packed tightly to ferment for animal feed--because it was perceived as being too complicated. I share that perception, so I read on. It said they demonstrated a variety of techniques, and the second-most popular method was making it in plastic buckets. Wow. Is there any homestead chore that can not be resolved with plastic buckets? I seriously think they deserve their own chapter, if not their own book.

I've used plastic buckets for hauling water, hauling soil, gathering nuts, gleaning corn, and collecting rocks. I've mixed concrete and tile grout in them. I've used them as toolboxes, stools, and step ladders (I wouldn't advise others to try that last one, but if you do, keep your feet out toward the edges where it's stronger). They can be used as airtight, watertight, bug-free containers for storing feed, seeds, cement, or anything else you need to keep dry. I've tanned furs and deer hide in plastic buckets. I've used a plastic bucket to make a fermented bait out of apples and bannanas for catching raccoons...wait...no, that was a plastic container with a screw-on top, also an incredibly useful item. We buy big containers of pretzels in them and use the containers to store flour and sugar and such. But the buckets! I've grown plants in plastic buckets. I used buckets to make cubbies for 110 bodygrip traps. I tried using one as a nest box, but the girls preferred sitting on top of it. In a perfect world, they'd be fire proof and there'd be a way to seal up holes or cuts when you don't need them anymore and want to return the buckets to use as airtight/watertight vessels. A thousand years from now, some archaeologist is going to find a sunken barge on the bottom of a river loaded down with plastic buckets full of cargo.

mulberry_lane @ 2006-04-08T09:02:00

2006-04-08T13:03:34Z

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