Subject: Re: Starting an organic garden

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1997 09:34:05 -0500 (EST)

Hi,

Well, we all know that an organic garden is labor intensive, especially
during the initial years of improving soils, improving your experience etc.

We all know there are many , many books on the subject, but very few talk
about commercial size operations, specifics and details because they do vary
so much according to your climate local soils, local preferences, personal
preferences etc.

Since I'm not originally from the south I'm looking to get feedback on
southern tastes, and preferences, and varities of common and not so common
varieties that will hopefully grow well and sell well in my local area.

I need to gather advice on what plants I would be better off buying as plugs
to be transplanted( perhaps all if possible).

I'd like to know what are your favorite varieties of such fruits and
vegetables fadapted to zone 7.

Does any one know if there's a southern, South carolina organic farmers
organization.

Again any help, and advice would be most appreciated.Your comments based upon
your actual experiences will hopefully enable me to refine my plan, and
posssibly avoid mistakes by buying popular varities that don't work well, or
don't taste as well in my area.

I've gotten a good deal of help from extension, but their varietal selection
is a few years old , and is based upon a very different set of commercial
expectations.  Thanks again. frank

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From: joel b gruver <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1997 11:35:16 -0500 (EST)

Hello Frank and others interested in commercial production of
vegetables...

While the CSA model (community supported ag) with prepaid shares seems
very attractive (especially to the producer), I think that it is
absolutely the wrong model for a beginning grower...

My reasoning is this... the CSA model requires that the consumer invest
in the farm... i.e. speculate that the grower will succeed in providing
them with quantity and quality of vegetables equal to their investment...
this puts huge pressure on a beginning grower... an experienced grower
will have some crop failures most every year... planning from paper what
you will offer to consumers each week of the season is a great
excercise... however... it is only a real nuts and bolts excercise when
you can compare your actual yields and harvest dates with what you had
planned... all you need to do is talk to all the burned out CSA
managers... or talk to the frustrated CSA consumers...

My recommendation for the begging grower is as follows:
identify a few specific niche crops... mesclun is hot right now but the
market may be saturated and it is extremely perishable...

I recommend trying leeks, spaghetti squash, luffas, popcorn, dried herbs,
hotpeppers, garlic, jerusalem artichokes... 

Iddentify all the marketing options... farmers markets can be very time
consuming but you will get to rub shoulders with lots of other growers..

Try growing small volumes of all the other crops but do not commit
yourself to large volume production in your first several years... 

Aspire to a CSA... plan to be a CSA... visit CSAs... 

But start out by selling what you have grown rather than trying to grow
what you have already sold...

Joel