tantric from athens, GA - family farm -> sustainable & profitable

hello, y'all, i'm tantric (yes, people call me that). i live near athens, GA (north georgia, usa, zone 8a). recently i went from being a phd candidate in ecology/epidemiology to a convicted felon. after prison i found myself once again living at my family farm. my father is 81 and i will inherit the farm when he passes, may he live to be 100! at first i was obsessed about moving away and getting my life back, but now i've realized that this farm is really my best bet for a decent future. we have about 5acres of arable land, fenced, with a house in the middle. my father is, a friend once put it, the salt of the earth - what you do to fertile ground when you want it to die and never produce again. no disrespect, it's just that he and i have different ideas of how farming should work. despite being comfortable, he is also stingy to the point of dysfunction - last week i asked him to get me a bag of potting soil and he refused, because dirt is free.

as is, the farm mostly produces tomatoes, watermelons and blueberries. last year, after weeks of arguing, i won the right to plant some heirloom tomatoes, which did rather well. my father's opinion on the subject, 'only old people buy garden tomatoes, they only want Early Girls and they want to buy them by the roadside'. this i spent a few weeks selling watermelons and tomatoes at a homemade roadside stand, hand lettered signs, no shelter and get this - he made me sell them for $1/lb because 'people won't buy them unless they cost less than walmart'. nevertheless, i sold my Surrender Indian Curries for $2/lb and sold out everyday. watermelons are $3/each, btw. right - impossible to make money that way.

this year i have Rutgers tomatoes bought at the garden store. i had some from seeds, but he didn't see them in the garden and plowed most of them under (i just didn't tell him). i have a small row of cantaloupes, half HeartofGold, half muskmelon heirlooms and a few basil plants out in the garden along with a 5'x5' patch of slowbolt cilantro that's been in the ground a week. i have many orange tendersweet watermelon seedling ready to go to the garden, where i've pretreated the soil, more basil varieties, a few colored bell peppers and purple tomatillo seedlings. for the flowers, i have a sunflower bed with four o'clocks, a few poppies in a large pot and i'm running an experiment to learn how to best sprout lavender seeds. i brought in a blueberry bush to a pot (it lived, but it was a near thing) and i'm airlayering another blueberry along with an ancient lilac and the neighbor's japanese maple, all of which will be bonsai. oh, and a 3 layer worm farm in 5 gallon buckets, just a proof-of-concept model because my dad is utterly convinced that i can make a good living selling fish bait.

i'll continue down in Garden Design with my plans and a pic of the farm. nice to meet y'all

 

Hi Tantric and welcome. Keep on keeping on! sounds like life has been a bit topsy turvy. I hope things get to a stable level and stay there for you. Tell your dad people want good garden fresh food and are willing to pay more than walmart prices... ... I needed something to do to make some money to put away for a project and my dear husband said lets do this farmers market they are starting (in the next little town) and I was aghast at his thought." WHAT? are you planning on taking? the market starts in two weeks, don't you know how much food it takes to supply a market?" I had many doubts about starting it but I knew I could grow for it, I just wasn't planning on it that way or that soon. I have been growing for 4 markets and a roadside stand for about 5 years now. It is an enormous amount of work but if we didn't have a house payment or things got really bad economically I think we could swing being farmers full time. The next thing you need is a greenhouse or a high tunnel to get your seeds started in if you are planning on doing this full time. Buying everything already started can be cost prohibitive and you are limited to only what someone else has started. People are willing to pay for food that tastes like something.... not those boring reddish globes at walmart.. trust me. and don't be afraid to give a person a tomato to try. giving away a tomato can get you many return visits from a faithful customer. We grow a pink tomato that people wait for in the Summer. Stopping to ask if they are ready yet? starting in early July. Give a good product and people will return. Your dad sounds very similar to someone I know. just be patient. and mark your rows where you have things planted... or put tomato cages on them as soon as you have them planted.

 

Hi Tantric
Welcome to Gardenstew from southern Ontario!

 

It sounds like you have some very good ideas. Hopefully your father will see how well you are doing.

 

Hi Tantric-I agree with carolyn. Plus you can make a great living selling worm castings as fertilizer. Like you said-it is a pretty easy process. Glad to hear that things are turning around for you. Gardening sooth's the soul and helps one to feel useful and needed. Glad you found the Stew.

 

Hi, welcome from a distant hot and humid land! Now travelling in Europe.