This year we decided to try out making money from what we have and what we know. We thought we would look at factors such as cost, benefits, income, time spent, fun to bullshit ratio, and see what works best, what didn't work, and what we would improve upon and still keep trying. We took a big juicy bite out of life, and while it was a lot of work, I'm really glad I tried as much as I did because I have no "what if's" now. I can decide my direction because I experienced a taste of all these different ways to make a living.
One thing that didn't work out so well for me was blogging regularly. I updated the facebook group often enough, https://www.facebook.com/FantasyHillsFarm . I used this to share when we would be at market and what we would have, share pictures of what we were growing, and share local news and events, and during the holiday season I shared a lot of pictures of the pyrography I was doing. That was the extent of our marketing. I did have some success with selling bags of produce to friends through social networking, and this helped during the month of May when I missed quite a few markets due to travel plans. I actually made more money doing that then going to market. I also had more fun doing that. I also got quite a few custom orders on pyrography once people saw pictures. I would have to say social networking worked pretty well. I do not know if it actually helped people come to markets or go to other events. It was certainly easier than writing a blog. But of course the quality of sharing and discussing things is much lower. So I would like to change that and start blogging more regularly. My grammar isn't always going to be perfect, or possibly make some of my writer friends very sad for my plight of bad spelling and punctuation. But I need to not let grammar shyness get in the way of sharing experience any way I can. I promise to use spell check.
This year for income I :
Sold seedlings - in the spring and fall.
Sold vegetables at market- (mostly potatoes and pumpkins and cucumbers but also lots of variety too.)
Sold pyrography- art work, signs, custom items, and jewelry
Worked part time for Carrol Landscaping- 15 hours /week pulling weeds by hand
and picked up some odd jobs here and there.
The seedlings did much better than I expected even selling them a bit below market value. I also was able to give over 20 flats of vegetable starts to community gardens and non profits. I taught a few groups of kids about seedlings through Fair Share Urban Gardens. I met other herb and seedling growers and learned a lot. I also kept a lot of the seedlings that we grew which made more money later when we sold those vegetables or saved us money when we ate or preserved them. Very little went to waste. I had a few green zebra tomatoes without homes that ended growing into the ground right through the pot in defiance of us and we ate those through November!
Growing seedlings stressed me out a little bit because anything can happen and does. A bird pecks at a whole tray, or you can get mold, or its too hot and dry one day. With so many weeks till the seedling sale, it can be stressful. But later in the year when I would hear stories of people enjoying the food, enjoying the activity of gardening, and sharing all the abundance, I am honored and thankful to have a part in that process. I will definitely attempt to grow seedlings for sale again. I know a bit more about timing now and a bit more about growing for what we want, vs growing for what the market will bear and what folks are interested in. Green zebra tomatoes are just not popular enough yet, but we will still grow some for ourselves and introduce people to them, but next year we will introduce to people Spekeled Roma's! They are amazing and blight tollerant and heavy producers with a great flavor. I learned about them at a great CSA in Sewanee: Joseph's Garden http://sewanee.locallygrown.net/growers/show/48 , Joseph is a friend of ours that allowed me to come and work at his place and can tomatoes for a few days. We even made home made bbq sauce.
Doing part time work was essential, I was lucky enough to work for one of the best landscaping companies in our town and have the coolest boss. We had a good time, it was hard work, I lost some inches and slimmed down a bit while learning about ornamental landscaping. http://www.carroll-landscaping.com/ - Tom practices very ethical, on time, friendly service and the whole staff are well trained and knowledgeable about plants and landscaping. They care about plants and I can't recommend them enough.
As for selling produce from our garden at market, that was tough. We tried out one small market because we are a very small hobby farm. We made a few bucks, but I found myself very anxious about it and uncomfortable with pricing. You can not price organic food easily. People frankly are accustomed to lower food prices. Those lower food prices are brought to you on the backs of very low paid workers, and by utilizing industrialization. I don't use any petro-chemicals, its all by hand, and I don't use pesticides, which just translates to more labor in keeping things mulched, watered, pest free and more. I got early blight for the first time ever, and so what I did get out of my garden went into our pantry. It seemed much more valuable there. We were able to make pickles and sauces and salsa's and beans etc. But I do not think I will do a market garden again.
However I did enjoy selling bags of food to my friends. I would load up a big paper bag and for $10 or $20 you would get a mix of fresh food from our garden. Sometimes we would throw in jam or salsa or pickles. I would deliver, meet up, or people could pick up. My only advertising was on Facebook. People would talk about the food on their own page, and I had enough business to not have to work hard at advertising, and no market setup and take down. I could also customize it. If you don't like zucchini so much, but like lots of peppers, I could make that swap. I would like to expand this and really do a small CSA one day. And by small I mean to start out with 5 families and include an egg share.
Selling pyrography art was the most fun for the most profit. I definitely spent more hours on it for what I earn but I feel good when I do it, and am resigned to knowing I will never get paid for my time on any of this. That is ok, I would spend my time doing these things anyway. There was some start up costs, but that was made up early on, and I build the cost of the materials into the price of the items so while there is an upfront cost, its been going rather well. My favorite again was working with customers to create a special customized gift. I think this and seedlings will be my main focus for 2013. I plan to do more art fair's more online sales at diverse places, and sell some items to stores. I also plan to upgrade my work space and put together a bigger better marketing package focusing on art. I do more than pyrography and have interest in photography, mixed media, sculpture, ephemeral art, burning man art, and other mediums like glass etching, and metal work. I'm working on a plan that can encompass all these things and not lock me into one theme.
I get asked often, "how do you like Etsy?" or "How is Etsy working for you?" Frankly I don't get any sales from Etsy, but I do not try, I mostly use it for a space to show some of my work, that also has pay pal. As I was trying things out I didn't want to get too bogged down with creating a website. I will now create my own website with gallery, blog, and pay pal and such. I will continue to keep some of my creations on Etsy as it is cheap and most people ask for that when they ask where can they buy my things. I will also try a few other websites though in 2013. I'm open to suggestions. I recently saw Art Fire and there are a few others out there.
In a strange twist of events, I was notified of a "real job" in a town that Cameron and I have talked about moving to a lot. I have had one interview with them and have a follow up interview right after the new year. I am excited and nervous because it would require a move and lots of changes in our life and plans, but it is an excellent opprotunity. If it does not work out and I do not get the position, I have a fun year of seedlings and art and growing food to plan! So I'm excited about the options either way.
2012 Was also a time when we tried living with several people. Some of these relationships did not last through trials and co-habitation, but many lessons were learned along the way. We were very thankful for the help and community we experienced and we hope everyone who has lived with gained something from the experience to be thankful for. Living with others can be really rewarding, but also really challenging at times. Some folks match up well and others do not. Its ok, its still worth trying! We currently have a great student living with us who loves to cook, and loves our lively animals. We also added a new critter to the house, Bozho the bunny. We also released 4,000 ladybugs!
We are currently on vacation seeing all the east coast family (which is why I have time to blog finally!). I can put our travel stories up in a following blog. We saw Julia Child's Kitchen at the Smithsonian. We will also get to see the Everglades!
