After being away from my rural property over ten years I returned last year with a new family and ready to raise produce and utilized donkey power once the majority of the dirt work is complete. At this time, we are still working on figuring out just what type of produce to raise, where to market our produce, and how to produce vegetables organically and successfully. First of all, we are a small operation of only 2 ½ acres, secondly, have sandy loam soil we must add organic compose and other fertilizers for it to produce bountiful enough crops for commercial purposes, and finally, I need to install at least two seas terns so we can irrigate during the yearly dry season. Until we are able to produce consistent crops to produce a profit annually, we want to produce some kind of product to sell at the local market so we have a year round both. It sounds like a lot of work, and that is because it is. I currently work as a job coach for individuals with impediments’ in locating, retaining, and retaining employment, which means I spend a lot of time working. Currently, we stay busy when I am not working at my day job doing all the mundane “must be done” little things that on a startup farming operation. We still have a long way to go, but I want to build a profitable farming operation so I can teach my daughter the skills my grandparents and aunt taught me as a kid. Our focus must be on the successful collection and storage of rainy season’s excess of rainwater runoff and ground water so that we can utilize the water resource in the dry season of the year. Utilization of drip irrigation systems will conserve water and save time but costs will require installing a good system in stages over several seasons. Our progressive adding to our drip irrigation system will ultimately result in creative approaches resulting in systems that are more efficient over time.
© 2013 Created by Jeff Caldwell.
