Early Crops, Early Revenue

While my main sales outlet at DeepSeeded Farm is my CSA program, I have planted a number of early crops for Farmers Markets as well.  These crops bring in revenue early in the season, and they also help me market my CSA shares.  This year, through a combination of coldframe space and fall-prepped, early spring planted outdoor beds, I am now harvesting butter lettuce, spinach, salad turnips, carrots, potatoes, baby bok choi, and (soon) zucchini and sunflowers.  I’ll also have an early harvest (late May) of coldframe onions, outdoor peas, and outdoor carrots that will allow for a more robust start to my CSA season.

The colframe crops are easy to grow, but the space is expensive.  The early outdoor beds are less expensive in terms of materials, but take a good bit of extra work.  So, is it worth it?   I don’t have good numbers for cost of production,  so I can’t really evaluate the profitability, but I can sell almost everything I produce this early, and for a higher price.  Here’s a breakdown of revenues per 100’ bed:

Coldframe:

Butter Lettuce -350 heads @ $2.25 average = $790

Bunching Spinach -170 bunches @ $2.50 average = $425

Salad Turnips -220 bunches @ $2.60 average = $570

Carrot Bunches -250 bunches @ 2.25 average = $560

New Potatoes -400 lbs @ $2.00 average = $800

Sunflowers (med-large) - 300 @ $1.50 = $450

Zucchini - 530 lbs (over 8 weeks) @ $1.80 average = $955 (but in this time frame I could instead have a whole 2nd crop of radishes or cilantro or arugula)

Outdoor (2 weeks later than coldframe):

Butter Lettuce -350 heads @ $2.00  = $700

Bunching Spinach - 150 bunches @ $2.50 average = $375

Baby Bok Choi bunches - 260 bunches @ $2.50 = $650

As you can see, some crops are more lucrative than others.  But.. the diversity makes sales easier.  If my entire coldframe was in lettuce, I would likely have to find wholesale outlets that would not give me as high of a price.  As soil fertility and my production techniques improve I may see higher yields and higher revenues, but for right now, it’s just great to have some money coming in.  Here’s some pics:

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