A Market Gardening Plan for a One-Acre Mini Farm
I created this market gardening plan to demonstrate that it is possible for just about anyone (with the 'drive' to do it) to have a successful - i.e. profitable – farm business on a small piece of land. Making a Living on Your Small Farm
Just released - get my new free report: How to raise chickens, pigs on pasture, and an organic market garden - on JUST ONE ACRE!
Download my free One Acre Farm Plan
With that goal in mind, here's a synopsis of my market gardening plan to make forty thousand dollars from a one-acre mini-farm. I don't think this is the upper limit of sales possible by the way, but it does illustrate some possibilities for the small land holder.
The revenue breakdown is as follows:- Sell 30 CSA shares @ $950 = $28,500
- Sell 225 chickens for a total of $4,000
- Sell 4 pigs for a total of $2,500
- Market stand and bedding plant sales of $5,000
- Total sales $40,000
Laying out the one acre mini-farm
A key element of this market gardening plan is to integrate livestock animal production and garden production to produce a lot of food in a small area. This involves quite a bit of planning in both space and time. Here's a little background to make sense of it all.
If you have seen my books (“Bootstrap Market Gardening”, “How to Raise Meat Chickens”, “Pigs on Pasture”) or surfed my web site, you probably know that I raise my meat birds and my pigs using portable shelters and movable electromesh fencing.
The electromesh fencing comes with step-in posts included; each section is approximately 165' long. I move the pen to fresh ground regularly throughout the growing season. Frequency of movement depends on how many animals in the pen, and how large they are.
So given this set-up, we have to manage our production by rotating 'animal blocks' and 'plant blocks' through the available area. The livestock animals can be used to clean up beds after plants are harvested, or can prepare an area for planting.
One caveat, you should not plant food crops in the same place animals have been, in the same season. But pigs can immediately follow chickens onto a block and vice versa.
See also:
Learn how to Farm
How to Raise Chickens
How to Raise Pigs
How to Raise Meat Chickens
Community Supported Agriculture
Raised Bed Garden Plan
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