This summer has been flying by, I can hardly believe its already August.  With my schedule these days I hardly have time to think, I guess its like my dad says….“you gotta make hay while the sun shines”.  Well I’ve had my head down and hands in the dirt making as much hay as possible.

Here is a breakdown of my weekly schedule the last month and this is what it will be through October when I end the CSA.  Monday is CSA day where I am harvesting from 6am - 2 getting the 20 shares ready for my members that come by the farm at 3pm (I have consistently been paying a guy to help with harvest on Mondays).  Tuesday is a field day where I tackle as much fieldwork as possible because Wednesday through Friday I am off chasing markets.  Wednesday morning is another big harvest where I try to cut and pick as much as possible for the 3 markets (also have been getting paid help this day).  Thursday morning I harvest more produce for market, depending on how much I sold on Wednesday, and take care of any pending fieldwork.  Friday morning is another market and then Friday afternoon I rest and or play.  Saturday and Sunday mornings I harvest early then set up an on farm honor system stand that runs from 10am-6pm both days.  The stand is great because I can get it set up then either take care of work that needs to be done, or, if I’m lucky, get a little more rest or playtime in. Monday it all starts over.

Part of the commitment to this blog was breaking down my financials each month so here we go:

Farm Expense: rent: $400, water: $150, labor: $400, gas: $200, miscellaneous: $400 (this varies a lot) = $1,550

Personal Living Expense: food, rent, utilities, phone, health insurance etc.. = $2,500

Income: CSA: $2000, Farmers Markets: $2000 (averaging 150-200 per market) Honor stand: 400 (average $50 each day) = $4,400

The last two months I’ve actually had my bank account increase a little which is a really good feeling….

Here are some shots the produce, my farmers market booth, and the last couple weeks of CSA shares….enjoy.

Here is a snapshot/estimate of my monthly expenses and income for May.  Many of the expense items I order in bulk at the beginning of the season so I divided by 12 to get a monthly average. Expenses: Rent: $200 Water: $35 (this number will increase as we get deeper into our summer weather pattern) Bathroom: $30 ( I split the cost of a port a potty with other tenants on the property) Electricity:  $50 (I share a shipping container cooled by an ac unit that runs off electricity.) Seeds/transplants:… Read the rest of this article »

Today was another Briar Patch Co-op delivery.  We’re still keeping up 3x/week with the deliveries.  And they’re still sizeable.  Here’s what we’re selling today: 36 heads each of: Red Leaf, Green Leaf, Bibb Lettuce 36 Bunches: Radishes 100lbs Butternut Squash 15 Lbs Shallots   On Monday we delivered 500lbs of mixed winter squash, the same amount of radishes, shallots and lettuce as today, and some Mustard Green Bunches. We’re coming into Kale, Broccoli, carrots and… Read the rest of this article »

Last year when deciding that I wanted to make it my mission to preserve the small historic farm that I am now working on, I talked my dear friend Rebecca Rivas into capturing some stories from the farm on film with me. We interviewed Caroline Mueller, the now-90 year old woman whose husband’s grandparents settled the farm in 1883. We dug up old newspaper articles heralding the health benefits of the organic produce that was unique to the Mueller Farm in the 1950’s (when the other farmers… Read the rest of this article »

This month has FLOWN by; we’ve been busy putting in some fall crops on the farm, enjoying the cooler weather at the farmers markets, and preparing for a jampacked few weeks of awesome food and farm related events in the St. Louis area! As we rev up for our 2nd Annual Pesto Festo, I wanted to share with you all one of the main purposes of the event, besides to throw a wildly fun party and raise some much-needed funds. Just as last year EarthDance honored lifelong organic farmer Caroline Mueller,… Read the rest of this article »

This caught my attention in the Organic Consumer Association’s weekly newsletter… I’d be very curious to get your opinions on whether you believe a good living can be made on an organic farm?————————————————————————— Contrary to popular belief, a good living can be made on an organic farm. What’s required is farming smarter,… Read the rest of this article »

Honey in the Heart Farm has been a labor of love from the beginning, which I was hoping would at least pay for itself by the end of the season.  I am working part time at Peaceful Valley in the store which gives me some income, but mostly I live a simple lifestyle that does not require a lot of money.  I am lucky enough to lease the acre of land I am cultivating for veggies (next season it will be $500.00 a year) and the water I use is free.  Those are major expenses that a lot of other farmers… Read the rest of this article »

In keeping with the theme of this week’s Freshman Farmer Blog postings, I want to share with you a picture of DeepSeeded Farm’s financials.  It’s a lot of information to portray in a short posting, so I’ve attached a spreadsheet to provide more detail (on next page).  In short, however, I’ll summarize costs and revenues below. Funding: $33,000 - Eddie’s Savings $25,000 - Economic Fuel Competition Prize Money $45,000 - 5-year infrastructure loan from California… Read the rest of this article »

[slideshow id=76] Yesterday Drew and I spent the day sheathing.  Good thing he is the guy with the plan.  I don’t need to know much about sheathing, but I’m very good at measuring a spot that needs a piece of wood, pondering about rotations, translations, and other geometric transformations, marking plywood, re-measuring, mentally cutting out the shape from plywood and matching it up to the hole, cutting the actual piece, and ending up with a really good hit rate for the thing actually… Read the rest of this article »