(photo by kevindooley)

You may remember Krystle from "Ruminations on farm business from an aspiring farmer." She is young farmer working in New Mexico and now pondering the next steps to take. You can check out her site at http://www.selfmadefarmer.com. The following are excerpts from her November 2007 newsletter; sign up for the mailing list by sending Krystle an email at: lettucehead@selfmadefarmer.com.
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"The best way to stay grounded, it seems, is to develop a vision based on some core values and principles that you believe in, and to return to this vision every time you feel discouraged. So I've spent the last month focusing on a foundation which will ultimately become the backbone of my business plan. My main guide was a publication titled "Building a Sustainable Business: A Guide to Developing a Business Plan for Farms and Rural Businesses" developed by the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture.

The first thing I did was identify values, or "standards, beliefs or qualities that you consider worth upholding or pursuing." In other words, they define what it means to me to be successful in farming. They're broken down into four categories: personal, economic, environmental, and community. What resulted was a list that pretty much defined why I've chosen farming as a lifelong vocation. In time, I plan on focusing on these values individually, through future newsletters or articles."

...

"During my first two years of farming in New York, I was fortunate enough to have a mentor who was a lifelong farmer and took me under his wing. I often think to this day that if it hadn't been for his influence, I might've wasted years in the wealthy hobby farming community, where having the rarest breed or the most unique tomatoes outweighs turning a profit. It's great when--of all the things wealthy people can do with their money--they choose to preserve farmland and endangered breeds or varieties; but from what I've seen, such operations tend to have unrealistic expectations that always fall on the staff, and the turnover is high, despite good pay.

Instead, I learned early on that there are profits to be made from farming, if one chooses to be creative and ambitious enough. I also realized that if I could make a living from farming in a way that's both ecologically and financially sustainable, I'd feel like an accomplished human being. Once that was settled, I knew what I needed to learn: how to run a farm as a business. And I knew I wasn't getting it in New York. But I'd added another value to my list: financial sustainability."

...
"In looking at the big picture, I acknowledge that the only way an alternative food system is ever going to become established is if every generation builds upon the work of the one before it. To reinvent the wheel unnecessarily is not only counter-productive, but it's also a waste of time. I've learned to value continuity and collaboration more than ever.

With these realizations in mind, I'm now more open to the possibility of striking up a partnership with an existing farmer and working out some way that I can invest in their farm, rather than build one from the ground up. Whether it'll actually pan out that way, who knows? If there's anything I've learned in New Mexico, it's to hang on to your values and just wait and see...!"

-Krystle

When I go to see my grandma I gain a lot of weight
With her dear hands she gives me plate after plate.
She cans the pickles, sweet & dill
She cans the songs of the whippoorwill
And the morning dew and the evening moon
'N' I really got to go see her pretty soon
'Cause these canned goods I buy at the store
Ain't got the summer in them anymore.

-Greg Brown, Canned Goods

There were hot August and September evenings in the kitchen over a hot stove top ‘preserving the harvest’ from the farmer’s market, CSA, and home garden. The gardens are now frozen and farmer’s markets are closed, so I am starting to look at the cupboard (in my case the cupboard is a collection of boxes pushed to a remote corner of the kitchen) with thoughts of how and when to pop open those time capsules - bundles of joy and summer.

 

The food in those jars is no longer simple sustenance. There is a story in each jar: the place the food was bought or grown, the family or friends who helped, and the weather on that day. It is a splinter of life intersecting with produce in a deeply personal way that food from the grocery store never can never match.

 

This home food preservation isn’t logical; it doesn’t fit into any mainstream economic theory. I spent seven hours one evening on seven quarts of canned tomato sauce. This was not hard labor throughout the process, but I was mindful of the canning throughout that long summer evening. At any reasonable rate of return on my labor, they were wasted hours that could have been spent creating value in other pursuits. What happened to that core tenant of capitalism: specialization?

 

This irrationality is one of the reasons that we are still canning at home and more people try it each year. It is seen as old-fashioned, anachronistic. It doesn’t make sense – it is something that you can’t discuss in mixed company or at the office unless you are willing to brave a long explanations and puzzled stares.

 

“Let me get this straight: you made your own pickles? Out of cucumbers?”

 

But as you know it is a testament to experimental cooking, the bounty of summer, and your own resourcefulness. It is anti-economic; not necessarily against modern society, but a way of running parallel. It is quiet, messy, and the opposite of fast food. 

 

Now theory ends – you’ve put in the time over your boiling-water canner and it is time to collect on debts and eat that home canned food. Here are some suggestions on how to eat it all; just don’t be shy. That food is for eatin’, not just for lookin’.

 

1. Alone
   Hoard the hard-earned food for just yourself. Tell your friends and family that they should have accepted the invitation to your canning party if they wanted to get in on the end product.
2. “Meet the foodies”
   Invite neighbors and coworkers over to an “informal” winter dinner. As they walk in the door hand each guest a menu which lists each dish along with the date the food was preserved, from what farm the produce was purchased, and to really elicit the desired effect attach all recipes so your guests know exactly how long you slaved over the stove for each dish.
3. With closed eyes
   Eat peach butter straight from the jar with a spoon with closed eyes. Imagine the steps from bud growth in the spring to that moment. Be surprised to see snow falling outside when you open your eyes.
4. Reverently
   Leave each jar on the counter for a few days before a planned usage. Delight in how the winter sun glints on your little piece of summer, then cook and eat the meal with a touch of sadness.
5. Gift-it
   Preserved food is a perfect antidote to the January Blues, so give the gift of summer this Christmas.
6. In your sleep
   Who here can say they haven’t ever woken up with an empty jar of bread and butter pickles laying on the bed next to them?
7. With friends
   A friend of mine loves the pickled okra I have made the last few years, so I always save a few bottles for his enjoyment.
8. Feverishly
   If you find applesauce running down your shirt or drinking the pickle juice at the end of the container, you may be suffering from eating style #8.
9. Over-planned
   In August, plan out your meals for the whole winter down to the last jar of tomato sauce. Pick a weeknight as the night of preservation and choose a recipe from the list for each week December to March.

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Small Farm Central bridges the gap between technology and agriculture by providing web services to direct marketing small farms across the country. We help farms reach their marketing potential with inexpensive, professional websites that any farmer can use. Come get a free demo today.

Let's get together and talk about the possibilties.
Below is the November Small Farm Central newsletter. If you are seeing this for the second time through the blog, I apologize!

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As we approach the end of 2007, I see farms and farm-related organizations getting excited about the possible applications web technology. It really is a perfect fit: the Internet connects geographically separated organizations and people at a negligible cost. Many small, direct-marketing farms are rural, but market to the urban customer. As our lives, especially urban lives, move further online it is important to find creative solutions to connect farms to eaters.

Perhaps the largest obstacle to this goal is the cost, expertise, and will required to develop complex web systems that solve these problems. I believe that Small Farm Central is one small part of this puzzle. Providing a professional web-presence and e-commerce at low-cost is important because most farmers do not have the time to learn the technology and just want it to work.

There are also many other parts necessary to solve these problems -- listing services like LocalHarvest, coops that use technology to augment their business (such as Penn's Corner in the future or as Lancaster Farm Fresh is doing now), and systems that have not been imagined yet. A few weeks ago, I was talking to a regional sustainable agriculture organization that wants to deeply connect farmers and customers in the region through a comprehensive website. He has some great ideas and I am excited to see that project take shape.

Given creativity, will, and technical skill we can create tools as a community that will keep environmentally sustainable farms economically sound.

Stay in touch!

Otherwise, things are rolling along here at Small Farm Central. I will be at the Acres U.S.A. conference tradeshow in Louisville, KY in December. Come say hi if you will be there! A great way to see the possibilities of the service we provide is to have a phone demo. I can walk through the features of the system with you; it is quite different than most people are used to interacting with a website so it is a worthwhile experience to see a demo.

Articles from a month of blogging at Small Farm Central:

Use web teaser cards to create loyal customers and farm website readers
More patience and "growing" your small farm marketing
Canning is ideology in a jar
Farm ecommerce brings direct, local sales to farm websites
Ruminations on farm business from an aspiring farmer
Connecting with farm customers through website and blog comments

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-Simon Huntley
Lead Developer, Small Farm Central
http://www.smallfarmcentral.com

Support Phone Number: 412-567-3864

Do you encourage your customers to preserve? (via flickr)

There is a wonderful article in the Toronto Star about canning and preserving in the modern age. The writer argues that canning is not a dying art for "those who want to know the source of their food, control its sugar and salt content, avoid pesticides, and take advantage of farmers' markets."

I am not exactly sure how farmers can take advantage of canning as a marketing tool, but it is good to encourage customers to preserve the summer's bounty. I think there is a fine line here, because those who do not have the time or energy to preserve should not feel discouraged or like they are not doing enough. Canning is something that I like to do personally (I just put up some applesauce a few nights ago), but I know it borders on the absurd to spend seven hours making seven quarts of tomato sauce which can be bought for so cheap. I think it is important for me and a fun activity, but I would not wish it on anyone who does not have the desire to do it.

I like the idea of canning workshops on the farm. It is intimidating to can for the first time and I would have appreciated some in-person accumulated knowledge the first time I tried it. I am not sure how this can work legally due to food preparation laws, but it is something to explore and an important concept to pass on to customers who are interested. Without respect to food preparation laws, your farm could provide the produce, the jars, and the knowledge and send everyone home with labeled jars. Maybe the labels have your logo on them and a recipe for the customer to finish the job at home?

is there anything you do at your farm to promote preservation? I'd love to hear about it via email or in comments.

Some other great quotes from the article:

"...Pratt is a home canner – surprisingly, it's not a dying art – and, like many, she has given a lot of thought to the enterprise. It is more than simply putting up food from the harvest, or the back garden. Preserving is an ideology, a political act, a hands-on vote in support of local farmers and their produce. It is a way of withholding, even in small measures, from the vast corporatization of our food. And in its subtle and serene way, it is a link to the past."

"It brings back "the feeling of belonging to the family group, the sense of history and confidence in the future as we carried out these tasks year after year, the pride we took in our work, and especially the camaraderie."

(via Treehugger)

If you enjoyed this article you may also enjoy:
Nine practical solutions for the consumption of home canned food

I'd love to hear from you; leave comments below.

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Small Farm Central bridges the gap between technology and agriculture by providing web services to direct marketing small farms across the country. We help farms reach their marketing potential with inexpensive, professional websites that any farmer can use. Come get a free demo today.

What will the next generation of farmers look like?Where will your organic, micro, local, sustainable, raw, wild lettuce come from in 20 years? By definition of the small farm movement, we want farmers who cultivate small acreage, can talk engagingly about the food they produce and how to prepare it, and guarantee their economic success so they can afford to bring those vegetables to you throughout the years.

Let me brainstorm a few of the skills that it takes to bring the meat, vegetables, honey, etc to market:

• mechanical genius to keep stringing along that mid 20th century tractor and the innumerable pieces of equipment that makes a farm run
  
• micro-meterologist to consume multiple weather reports and parse them to form a prediction for each micro-climate on the farm
• production botanist (or animal husbandry expert) to be able to draw in the advice of experts on disease and production and apply them to specific problems on the farm
• breeder: continually hone seedstock or breeding pool for maximum effectiveness
• human resources development: get the right amount of able hands on the farm at the exact time to make harvest happen
• human resources management: ensure that those hands to keep hoeing in the same direction to make harvest happen
• marketing: hone your message to maximize sales to any or all of the following groups: the general public, restaurants, wholesalers, fellow farmers
  
• public relations: tell the farm story every day to all stakeholders and make sure employees can tell the story as well
• business manager: record sales, pay taxes, manage equipment purchases, pay wages, etc
  

(And what else? Leave more skills in comments.)

How many people or families have the ability to assimilate all these absolutely necessary skills and then bring a saleable product to market each year and then, the final key, make enough money to justify another year of farming. If you know Salatin's admirable sustainable grazing program, you know that it can take a lifetime to learn the system on top of all of the skills listed above.

Many smart, able people exist that can to perform the mental acrobatics and are committed to a lifetime of learning, but small are the number that are insane enough to start farming. Besides plentiful sunshine, exercise, and a feeling of accomplishment not matched in any other field, what does a farmer earn at the end of the year. $30,000? $50,000?

It takes a lot of care, knowledge, and passion to bring another apple into the world. Balanced with quality of life issues, that level of compensation might be commensurate to the skills required if not for the extremely high entry costs and risks. Reasonably fertile land within a half-day drive of a metropolitan area (to sell the produce) in addition to equipment must cost at least $500,000 if not double or triple that figure in some areas. So to summarize the journey to starting a farm: spend around a million dollars up front; master 10-15 high level skills; work long, physical hours for the rest of your life; try to avoid a "natural" crop failure:  freeze, flood, or drought; and hope that you have enough left at the end of the day to pay back the loan and muster a middle-class income. Or... take those skills and join the traditional workforce and earn six-figures without any upfront costs.

I hope I don't sound too pessimistic because I love agriculture: the growing, the marketing, and the work. It's just that this disconnect worries me as a younger person who has enough experience in growing to want to do it on my own. But as I think I have ably demonstrated above: it is an completely insane thing to do. Sure there are alternatives: innovative land access with trust, SPIN farming, or Farming the Concrete Jungle. Also, the market is growing for authentic food and small farms that can find a niche in the marketplace can be successful. I know it is possible, but how does a new farmer justify the risk?

Maybe there are simple brute economic forces acting on the market: people want adjective-laden food (micro, local, sustainable, et al) instead of chemical-laden food, but it takes extra care and smaller scale to bring these products to the marketplace. Small farms are well suited to the task of producing high-quality food, but the costs are higher. Will Americans pay the extra price that sustainable, small-scale production requires? If not, can farmers find a way to bring down the price to point that the general public can pay? Or failing the first two options, will farmers be forced to scale up to survive? I have a strong feeling that we will either need to learn to work together as a movement and make small farming more economically feasible -- a mix of government incentives, land-use agreements as linked above, equipment sharing, sensible market incentives for sustainable operations, and more -- or go back to a system that resembles what we had before this movement started, albeit with less chemicals.

I know that plenty of young people are making the choice to farm on a small scale. But can they farm at the right scale with enough commitment and business skills to be on the land in 20 years? My contribution to this question and problem, at this point in my life, is to cross one skill set off that long list above: web designer/developer. Like this project, Small Farm Central, attempts, we need to find ways to work together as a community of small farmers and harness our collective power and knowledge to strengthen the group. This will not be an easy task for such a geographically disparate group that is inherently independent, but as I said in my last post, for survival we need to find a way to work together without compromising the individuality of each farm. I believe that I am doing my small part and I'm sure each of us are to an extent, but will it be enough?

I'd love to hear your comments on this topic. How you have dealt with it in your life and farming career? Are there any opportunities we should take as a community?

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