Wow... don't you work full time (or at least part time?) Yes, I work full-time; three 12 hour shifts/week
And does your hubby stop working off the ranch in the warm season? No
I'm assuming a LARGE part of that "5 acre garden" is sweet corn or other field type crops, and that you've got plenty of machinery to make the job somewhat easier. But I've done my 2 acre garden plus my 1/8 acre "kitchen garden", mostly alone in the early years when the kids were small, and I KNOW how much work you're talking about.
About 2/3 of the 5 acres is corn... mostly field corn, but probably 1/6 of it sweet. For the last couple years, we've harvested by hand the field corn when it is dry to use for pig/chicken feed
Plus, there's the time element with picking, cleaning, trimming, packing, hauling to the farmers' market, cleaning up, hauling the extras back home....
BTDT, and have decided that we'll put signs out at nearby crossroads, and sell what we can (admittedly, we're in the middle of Amish Country, and tourists are everywhere from Spring to Fall... we just need to make them aware that we have the stuff)
But evenso... I've found people want BARGAINS... and that means less than it's worth- truly- for all the work involved. My exceptions, to my great frustration, have almost universally been "decorative", or what I consider "luxury" (ok, utter wastes of money) items. A sunflower, with a circle cut out of the middle of it, and a few Strawflowers (or wheat ears) and a couple tiny ears of Strawberry popcorn sell for $10 all day... even though the whole purpose is for the birds to eat the stuff!
Pumpkins easily sell for $5 each. A local "Pumpkinville" is selling large pumpkins (NOT giants... just 25-30#ers) for $25 each. I find that obscene, as well!
One of the biggest issues I see is that you've already grown more than you can use. (I'm in the same boat... I'm paring down my garden size bigtime this year, and will be concentrating instead on setting up an "Amazon Homemade" account to try and sell some of my handquilted table runners, wall hangings, etc) I know you've got livestock... but will you be able to emotionally handle throwing "hundreds of dollars" worth of produce to the cattle, if it doesn't sell and you simply can't get to canning it. And if you DO stay up nights to get it canned... who's going to eat it?
Obviously, we're at different life stages... while I still prep for all 12 of us in the family (we're the only ones with a sustainable property, and all the grown kids admit it), we're "empty nesters" and aren't working quite as hard as we used to. Hubby has this envy-inducing self-regulating appetite... If he's working hard, he can stil consume (and burn off) 5,000 calories in a day. But since he's been laid up again with his fractured spine, he simply eats less than half what he normally does. Makes meal planning a bear!
I think, for me, it boils down to whether you're SURE you can sell most everything you grow AT A PRICE THAT JUSTIFIES the time and effort! Around here (and again, we're depressed rural area, and many people grow their own. I sell a lot of stuff through my kids, who live in a much better off area, and who work with people who have a lot of disposable income) that's really difficult. Our Amish neighbors will pay $10 for a bushel of cull potatoes, rather than paying me $18 for cleaned #1's... even though I know they end up tossing a LOT of the parts away, due to damage, rot, etc.
My biggest issue in advertising (or setting up a Facebook page, as well as selling on Amazon, etc) is it's the absolute OPPOSITE of being "gray"!! And given what is going on, and what we're all sure is coming, I"m not sure how much I want to be known as "that nice farm with all the beef and chicken and vegetables". Know what I mean? There is another person locally that sells on FB. He will take orders, then meets in a public place to deliver them. Granted, some folks may not show up, but his deal is if you aren't there by the time he leaves (and he posts a time frame, say 4-6 pm), your 'spoken for' produce is sold to someone else. He makes the rounds to local towns, but doesn't really seem to have a set schedule. His produce he buys in Denver and brings it out here. Mine would be locally grown - not sure if that will make a difference or not. The classes I've done are NOT cheap. 2 years ago, I charged $800. I provided everything but the jars, and guaranteed that students would go home with 100 jars of produce by the end of the summer. That high of a price kind of keeps out the riff-raff, but it is difficult for some. However, the people that I got were already of like-minds. One couple we bartered with, and are still great friends with.
Given hubby's health issues and our ongoing non-income situation (we'd planned on milking cows for another 5 years, and were slowly increasing the beef herd to mee that goal. Problem is, it didn't work that way, and selling 3-4 steers a year doesn't cover much! I sell a few things through various local Amish shops, but there is a ton of competition (although little of the quality work I do... many/most Amish women do quilt, but few are serious about it, and the work shows it. It's generally workmanlike and sturdy, but not what many people expect/think)
Sorry for the thread drift. I've been doing similar brainstorming sessions lately, and I guess it sort of came out!
Don't totally wear yourself out. That much garden is a LOT of time and work, and if you get behind for any reason, it becomes a huge frustration. That was our big issue last year... it rained so heavily all during June that i never could get the TroyBilt into the corn and vine patch, and they were overwhelmed. We still got a good crop of pumpkins'/squash (although all my melons drowned), and a semi-decent crop of sweet corn and Indian corn. But it was a mess. I'm planning on "smaller and MUCH better cared for" this summer, and probably will use a green manure/cover crop on whatever ground I don't want to plant.
Thanks, ST. I really appreciate the input. Our local big growers have pretty much gone out of business. The onion plant that used to have the culls for free is shut down, and the sorta-local pumpkin patch is up for sale. There is one farmer's market that is all artsy craftsy with little produce, and a very small one with limited produce. There are no local farm stands. I'm thinking if I can set up my schedule to have periods where I have 3 days off in a row (one to harvest and set up, one to deliver, and one to can up what doesn't sell), it might work. I don't know. Last year, I had a smaller garden and it worked pretty well. I just can't get all the variety I want in that small of space - and I would like to make some money with it.
