Market garden vs summer job

[Eli]

My daughter is wants to get a job and I suggested planting a market garden next spring. It has to be better than working for someone else and she would learn tons more. We have the land equipment and could do some with the horses. We also have a friend who runs a csa and will trade labor for help planing and marketing.
I expect her to keep detailed records so we can see where money is spent. We will come up with a business plan and budget before we start any thing.
Eli

[dominiquer60]

Good idea with the budget and planning, these are important steps to running a successful garden. I posted some comments on Facebook, but this post reminds of another important consideration. I have worked at 3 different market gardens and visited dozens of other before I started my own market garden this year. All the market gardeners that I know who started right out of school on there parents farm (or still in homeschool at age 15) market gardening all said the same thing, “they wished that they had spent some time on other farms before they started farming.”

One gentleman that I know finally got away from his very successful market garden and interned with Joel Salatin last summer. It was really good for him to go and see another successful farm and learn new things (he also met his future wife too). It could work out fine to start next year if this is just a phase for your daughter, but if she catches the bug and wants to do this for a living I would advise that she go check out other farms and go on every market garden tour available, attend workshops and conferences, apprentice on a farm that peaks her interest, etc. There are so many ways to grow good food and the way that is best for her and your farm is yet to be discovered.

Best Wishes to your daughter and you in your new endeavor, growing produce gives you more wealth than you can imagine and maybe even a little extra cash if you do it right 🙂

[Eli]

I don’t know if she plans to take this further than a summer job but if she does she will need to get out and learn the skills needed to take it to the next level. Be it tech school or apprenticeship. We have a friend who is in the second year of her csa we have been talking to and getting advice from and plan to visit a few farmers markets. But I agree people need to get out and see how the rest of the world does it. Thanks Eli

[Author]

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