Money Making Crops??

[MVNewf]

This is the first year I ventured out into the selling veggies world.....what sells extremely well here is tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, and bush / pole beans........I am only growing these from my back yard, but have produced a ton of veggies for 2 farm stands that I sell my veggies to......very VERY lucrative side job...I am thrilled with how the 1st year has turned out for me....... I still have a ton of melons and watermelon to ripen for the farm stands to sell also.....what I did learn from this season is that my area of customers are not overly big on greens like kale, collards, spinach, etc........so next year I will only grow enough for my own personal use and save the space in my gardens for more of what sells really well......I say "go~for~it" find out what your area of people love to buy at the farmers markets and start growing.........I rather sell directly to the 2 farm stands where I live, they are paying me a great price for my veggies, and I really am not into sitting under a umbrella for hours on end at a farmers market......both farm stands will gladly buy all my veggies next year to......it's a DONE DEAL

[waco_game]

NVNew, that sounds nice. I aspire to get to the point you are, having a buyer/seller who I have such a business relationship with. Your entry was inspiring. I may have to do a little more thinking about exactly what crops I will choose. But I'm ah thinking lol

[LAC]

Originally Posted by rvalens2

Money Making Crops?? - waco-game

I recommend you grow vegetables and fruits that people want, but are hard to grow and/or find in your area.

For example, here in Idaho, it's virtually impossible to find a really good sweet-to-the-rind watermelon. They just don't exist here. The last time I bought a really good one was when an enterprising Texas trucker brought in a semi-truck load to our city. He was selling them for $20.00 apiece! He sold out in two days.

I started growing watermelons because I just couldn't find a really sweet one in the stores. Here, they tend to taste like cucumbers; that's why I grow my own.



However, growing watermelons here in Idaho (6a region) is difficult. Our growing season is usually only 90 - 100 days in length. After several years of failure, I finally managed to figure out how to do it. I now sell every watermelon I can possibly grow.

In 2010, I grew over 600 watermelons in my 90 x 90 garden and sold them all out in four days. Some of my customers were buying them 8 to 10 at a time. Did I make a lot of money? . . . Well not really - I was selling them for the bargain price of $3.00 for an 18 to 20 pound watermelon. The stores were selling them for 50 cents a pound! So, I could have charged $10.00 for my 20 pounders; however, it was more important for me to generate a list of customers who would come back year after year.

In 2010, I didn't get rich, but I did manage to generate enough money to pay for new landscape cloth and for the 50 yards of compost I purchased.

In 2011, I raised the price to $4.00 each and again sold out. This year I'm going to charge $5.00 each. I now have a steady client list of about 50 people who, year in and out, want my watermelons. When my watermelons are ready, I expect I will again sell out in 3 or 4 days.

Generating money won't happen overnight, but if you're serious about it, you can do it. Just heed my advice and grow something that people in your area want, but find hard to get. In Texas, watermelons are plentiful and cheap; so, I wouldn't recommend growing them as a cash crop.

By the way, though people come for my watermelons, they also often end up buying loads of cantaloupes, onions and corn. The watermelons bring them to me, but more often than not they also end up buying my other vegetables too.

Want to learn how I grow sweet to the rind watermelons and cantaloupes in Cool Climate Idaho? Visit my website at:

http://greatideas.icestorm.com/watermelon/


Rick

Those are the most beautiful melons!...........I wish I lived closer!

[Little Minnie]

I suggest getting a few books on the subject from the library. There is one on making money in the backyard and we are talking thousands. And there is one on making a small farm profitable. I enjoyed them. It is difficult to say what will be profitable for someone because if it doesn't sell well it doesn't make a profit. However there are some black and white figures on some crops that show basic profitability. Perennials are the most profitable and I consider garlic as sort of one being you make your own seed. Also shallots. The lists take into account the amount of time a crop grows and how much you have to fuss with it and how much time is taken in harvest and how well it stores. Green beans are my least profitable crop for market but they do improve the soil and are a good base for a CSA share. I think onions and garlic are my most profitable crops and both can be pulled for another crop in the same space. Successive crops are super important in a market garden.
Mainly though, you just don't know what will sell well and have to experiment a little.

[rvalens2]

Those are the most beautiful melons!...........I wish I lived closer! - LAC

Well, if you like what they looked like on the outside . . . just check out what they looked like on the inside.



Yes, they were very sweet and delicious all the way to the rind.

Rick

http://greatideas.icestorm.com/watermelon/

[HudsonValleyGrown]

I was wondering bout brussel sprouts as a cash crop. Beets and radish's take 55 days or so to finnish.

[MVNewf]

Originally Posted by HudsonValleyGrown

I was wondering bout brussel sprouts as a cash crop. Beets and radish's take 55 days or so to finnish.

Brussels Spouts take a looooooooong time to mature...you would be tying up a lot of garden space and time to grow them........at least twice as long as beets and radishes

[Hairy Moose Knuckles]

Well, I'll throw my hat in the ring and suggest Garlic. Have you seen the price they get for seed garlic? I think these companies are ripping people off, cause garlic is so easy to grow, a two year old can do it. However, you can't blame the companies because they sell out every year. Crazy? Yes, but that's the way it is.

[LAC]

Today I took a huge basket of mixed veggies to my art class to give away.....tomatoes (yellow and red), peppers, eggplant and yellow summer squash.
I found that everyone took the tomatoes........some took peppers....a few took the squash.......but only a few took the eggplant. I don't know if this is indicative of what the farmers market sells.........but if I were growing to sell.......I'd take this into account.

[MVNewf]

I know that here on this island, the farm stands and farmers markets can not keep island grown tomatoes in stock...they sell out as fast as they come in the door....when you have 120,000 people on a tiny island, and 110,000 of them are summer residents or tourists, they ALL want island grown tomatoes....I have been selling my tomatoes all summer to the farm stands for $3.50 a pound...and some of my tomatoes weigh OVER a 1 1/2 pounds ......LOL....the farm stands are selling them for $7.99+ a pound.....there has to be 12-15 of us that are suppling the 2 farm stands on a daily basis with tomatoes, and at the end of everyday, there is not one tomato left in the farm stand.......I have 12 new tomato plants I started a month ago, I just potted them up into 1 gallon size pots, that will hold them for another month, then I will repot them into 8 gallon pots and into the hoop house they go...should be having vine ripe tomatoes in late October/ November......with a little luck I will still be selling fresh tomatoes all the way into December