One thing I forget to say in this video was that I'd love to hear how your weeks differ based on your markets/farms! So please comment and let us know!
Jesse 8:37 do you hire for farmers market to go and sell your produce and take care of the planting so you have time off but still make some money in the market through employees? Hire me.
I love your Dad Jokes. 😂😂😂❤❤❤ When I am working in my small garden before and after my full-time job, I would laugh so loud my neighbors who were also gardening would give me the side eye. They probably think I have torrets.
Real Talk.. I feel the same way 😃 Sometimes I do my TH-cam videos in my Garden for my Channel and it's like the neighbors think I'm crazy and talking to myself.. It's hilarious 😆 Have a great day 🙏
We all really appreciate your work Jesse! I can't say enough about how great a resource the living soil handbook is, plus all of the podcasts & videos.
If you’re trying to make a living with no other income to sustain yourself, there is absolutely no benefit in trying to do everything without learning from any type of resource whatsoever. The real question is, do you have the time and luxury to conduct trial and error until you have a stable farm that can sustain you without external help, or are you capable of learning enough to start a successful, self sustaining farm while also keeping an open mind that allows you to continue learning new and better methods to run a more effective, renewable farm.
I think that the key things in you being a progressive farmer are. One you have a definite work schedule that you adhere to. Second you have a great work ethic. Our biggest downfall is going out to attempt one project and then jumping to another and maybe another. We DEFINITELY lack discipline there. Thank You for another great video and things to motivate us and being happier and more successful gardeners!
Sadly doing something as a job takes alot of the magic away , your no longer thinking wow look at all the food ove grown , your thinking oh man I only grew 100lbs of tomatoes and I needed 150lbs to make my goals for the month, this is terrible!
Some really good tips, thanks, Farmer Jesse ! For all the folks who know nothing about dairy farming ( NOT saying Jesse is one of them or insulting them by that, either), just btw milking cows has nothing to do with time of day, but the milking interval your animal is used to ( and more than once a day is necessary for most of them typically, until they're m/l going dry). Traditionally, this has been 12 hour interval/twice a day milking, so, what time you want to be up in AM or in bed by, or done w all chores by in evening or etc. , determines what time you choose although most also just go by what they grew up with or what has gradually happened for them, whether it's all that functional/great, or not. Some, like my family, simply had too much debt and too many crisis amid too low of mill prices in early 90s for ex., so took on "backwards" cows at sale barn etc./more work than we really could handle well, and were just always behind, always late, always working (I'm still recovering).
Another great one! Man done at 4pm that’s a new goal lol… we are 7 days a week seems we spend most are time still digging out grass 5 seasons later. If we can ever get that under control we might achieve a balance with life. Current sunrise to dark but throw in 2 young kids and a full time job for hubby
Always enjoy the content, small sustainable farming is tough... encouraging others to do what we do is important, Your videos are like talking with my fellow farmer friends!
Hi there Jessie! I've been watching your videos for almost a year now. I found your channel soon after l started thinking about becoming a farmer and doing research. You've been such an incredible ambassador for the no-till movement and I've become thoroughly obsessed with the importance of soil health. I'm convinced that it is that key not just to productive farming but also to repairing human and animal health (the book What Your Food Ate was an aha moment for me on this link). If you were farming in upstate New York instead of Kentucky my next move would be to try and come and work for you to learn all of your moves. The mention that you used to be a cook is what spurred me to write this comment, as I'm currently working as a cook here in New York and my love of food and cooking is one of the things that led me to farming. I'm 21 and my plan is to cook for several years and save money by living with my parents, then start to apprentice on farms and learn everything I can through hands on experience. For now I'll just keep reading books, watching your videos, and practicing hard work and efficiency in the kitchen. You are extremely awesome and a huge inspiration. Peace.
I'm surprised to here that about your Saturday market. Ours in Knoxville is awesome! It took me too long to join it and the stress is way less than restaurants and individuals. Everything sells very little to bring home
I don't think you mentioned what time you go to bed. Also, when I was a kid I really wanted to join the military as a soldier - then I watch a TV documentary about soldiering - I no longer wanted to do that. For a while now I've thought how wonderful it would be to have a homestead, and to grow as much of my own food as possible and possibly sell a surplus - I'm really not sure I have the motivation or drive to come anywhere near. So hats off to you and soldiers, because with out folks like you the rest of us would be done for.
I work full time so my market gardening is small scale, half an acre split into 2. So quarter acre of flowers the part i make money on and veggies the other half that i just do a free co worker csa I have had to break everything into the 5 hour chunk in the morning and have each day of the week be a certain type of goal. Tuesday is flower harvest deadheading etc wednesday is mindless stuff weeding picking rocks unlike the rest of the week when i pick rocks thursday is planting seed starting picking rocks friday is veggie harvest wash and pack saturday is catch up on whatever project or goal didn't get accomplished
Completely isolated from the video but watching you use that machine for lettuce has me wondering if a T post from end to end and cable wire set up attached to the main bar above the catcher of your machine could make it hang free so you would not have to balance the weight at such an awkward angle. Sounds like a lot but depending on your free time it could be useful.
Good grief! No way can I wake up that early!! 😂 I run a farm with horses, dogs cats and a garden.. I get out of bed about 7am.. I would rather stay up late and sleep in a bit. 🤷🏼♀️💚
Hi! Do you like your electric mower? What do you use it for vs. your BCS fail mower? Do you have any other mowers? If you had about an acre around your farm to mow and you were buying a mower today, what would you pick?
Jesse, what do u do with all leftover produce u took to mrkt? Seems could be alot of waste leftover if doesnt sell. How much does weather (rain) affect market?
Good questions! The more you do a particular market the more you learn how much you can sell of what based on the time of year. There will always be some waste, but we have a gleaner group here who makes use of extras and we could sometimes sell them to chefs at a discount. Bad weather was devastating to our Saturday market but not as much to our Sunday (another reason we preferred Sundays). On Sundays, we would do about 3/4 of the usual business on a rainy day usually. Give or take. If it was threatening rain on a Saturday we would sometimes not even bother going.
Does anyone know how much land Jesse actually has in production? We have 1/4 th of an acre and are just starting out as a side gig. On the fence if we should expand and if thay is doable with two ppl. 😊 Advice anyone?
I just have a backyard garden that is a lot of work. I also get up at 3:45 to do my morning routine and is my time for writing my book. I get outside around 6:30 and do what I had on my list, but seem to do so much more. I have a hard stop at around 2 (with cooking inserted in there) so I can write again and then go to rest and watch No Till Growers or read before sleep. My morning and evening are non-negotiable times for me. Thank you. I love your videos, jokes and personality. 😊
"Don't stay up super late on a Friday and then try and run a market on a Saturday" - our only farmers market is on Saturday, 10am till noon, and we're managing it this year. So up at 5:30am to pick and wash everything, load up and head to the market for 8:30 to get the gate open, etc. A Friday night with too much beer makes Saturday not fun. Not fun at all.
Actual comment. We do a Thursday afternoon market that's 2.5 hrs long and a Saturday morning market that's 5 hrs. Prices are higher on Thursdays, but Saturday is a much bigger crowd and we typically sell at least 4x as much by dollars.
Monday: currently a construction day for expansion. Normally rest day. Tuesday, trellis work, transplanting, weeding, greens harvest. Microgreen harvest for stores and planting Wednesday - general work day for starts, transplants wash/pack. Bulk or MG harvest for chefs. Thursday : wash day and delivery day. Some light harvest. Friday main harvest for markets and washing/packing. Saturday. Markets. Sunday hydroponic work and MG planting. Additional start day.
I sell at the markets on Saturday and Sunday. In the springtime, I spend all day fridays harvesting for the weekend. the rest of the week is a few hours/day to plant and weed. By mid summer, I am harvesting every other day and spend fridays mostly packaging for the weekend and harvesting fresh herbs. (side note, by end of July my fight with the weeds is over and they usually win - just not enough time to keep fighting)
Good question! Gonna be different for every farm and budget. For us we wanted to average around $1,500 per market over the season. Some markets were better than others depending on what we brought.
@@notillgrowers thank you for reply Jesse. Can u move Salanova at market in head form? Sure would be nice not to have to process, clean, package, for sake of time, labor involved.
Since I have livestock including dairy goats my schedule is 7 days a week with a couple mornings at a part time job. In the winter I have one Sat market so Friday is harvest day. That market is about 20 min from my house. In the summer a closer market is open on Sat. So in the summer I am delivering orders to customers of the first market (it's too hot for that market to be open in summer). And then I'm at the second market on Sat. Sundays are usually clean up and planting days. Mondays tend to be project days like fixing fence, mucking pens, turning compost ect. Tue and Thur are PT job days. I might need to do some harvesting Thur evening for my Friday deliveries. Then Fri mornings are harvest, delivery days. I live in a super rural area but we are a ranching and mining area, no real farms. I'm currently only working maybe 1000 sq ft of garden. I'm still trying to figure out what is actually going to sell and both of my markets are very different. The further market has a lot of foodies and they will buy cut herbs & flowers and try unusual things regularly. The closer market cut herbs & flowers are mostly to fill up space on the table and feed the chickens when I get home. Both places gobble up tomatoes like crazy so I'm trying to figure out how without heat and no real greenhouse I can get tomatoes earlier in the season next year. I'm not making huge profit but every year gets better as I build soil that can actually hold onto water. Oh a typical stay home day; up at 4, coffee and computer time. Outside at daylight (or with a headlamp in winter), feed and water animals, work on harvesting or whatever needs doing. I don't yet have piped water to a lot of the garden spaces so moving hoses and sprinklers around a lot. In summer too hot by 9am so indoors for housework, make some goat milk lotion & soap. Possibly take a nap ;-) Cooler weather I continue working outside on various projects. Afternoon chores start around 230 / 3 with feeding, watering, gather eggs, milk goats, more watering, especially in spring when I have loads of transplants for myself and for sale. There is just me and it's hard to get everything done in a day, especially while trying to also build infrastructure and work on other major projects.
I'm with you on the amount of time infrastructure and OTHER major projects take. Also being alone, I resent the time needed on the phone and computer with doctors, insurancees, banking, auto repair, and grocery shopping. I try to take Sundays for me, which means necessary chores, naps, and only the tasks I'm excited about!
Use a 5 gallon bucket, PLASTIC won’t break unless you kick it, easy to carry whenever you need to speak French , helps in carrying extra hand tools and is waterproof unless you’ve kicked it.
I'm starting a market garden this year in England, after 5 seasons on various farms in the UK and Canada. Do you have any golden rules for a grower going it alone from scratch? I'll have 0.5 acres and a tunnel on organic pasture to start with.
Half an acre is still a lot of land, but since you have the experience it can be manageable. I would still probably suggest only starting with .3 acres because although you can almost certainly manage .5 acres alone, it's hard to do all the other stuff (marketing, selling, invoicing, washing, packing) that much produce alone and survive. I like the 3rd of an acre to one person ratio.
Thanks for the video! For the most part my weeks are doing my regular day job, stopping by my farm a few afternoons a week, and one or both weekend days doing more work... luckily I'm a teacher, and now have two months of only farmer time! But the fall is gonna be bananas (or peppers, cause I grow peppers, and not bananas, but that's not the term for things being crazy...)
I always thought keeping a schedule was so I didn’t spend the whole day out in the garden. What you said about having a schedule makes more sense since you will push yourself to be more effective instead of “what else can I do..” Having a “to-do” list or some kind of daily plan definitely helps a lot. I agree about the Power Nap, self care is always a must! Great job and thanks for all your videos!
Nice breakdown of your typical day/week. I have a small home garden but I find the market business details very interesting. Also, how full is your new swear jar that you bought on the 11th? 😅😅
Fascinating stuff, thanks for sharing those cool tools, schedule details, and comedy. So much good stuff packed in here. I think I'll stay in my lane and stick to backyard gardening, but I do try to incorporate some of your pro tips and tricks in my own growing habits.
At a good market in mid to late Spring, I've done more than $2000 in 4 hours on Saturdays. Depends on the Market location and customer base. I have fellow farmer friends with more efficient production that can do $3000. They're charging more, too.
Hey Jesse! It was awesome being able to meet you last night at Holly Hill Inn. Excited for an eventual farm tour announcement. And best of luck to your friends marriage and life together 😁
One thing I forget to say in this video was that I'd love to hear how your weeks differ based on your markets/farms! So please comment and let us know!
More hours :)
Jesse 8:37 do you hire for farmers market to go and sell your produce and take care of the planting so you have time off but still make some money in the market through employees? Hire me.
I have a feeling Hannah is cheating on you
@@szzk7937 What a ridiculous and dumb thing to say.
@@szzk7937 why be bitter, like a bad pepper variety?
Love the jokes! 😁I personally milk my bees at noon.
... just squeeze them between rollers, no? : )))))
What kind of bees make milk? Boo-bees.
@@timbushell8640what do you usually plant?
That was a cracker haha milk the bees
Came to this channel wanting to learn about organic gardening came out wanting to be a better man and help my family even more thank you god bless
I love your Dad Jokes. 😂😂😂❤❤❤ When I am working in my small garden before and after my full-time job, I would laugh so loud my neighbors who were also gardening would give me the side eye. They probably think I have torrets.
Tourette's.
Real Talk.. I feel the same way 😃 Sometimes I do my TH-cam videos in my Garden for my Channel and it's like the neighbors think I'm crazy and talking to myself.. It's hilarious 😆 Have a great day 🙏
You're a good father, Jesse.
Well I am not a professional Bee keeper but the best hours to work is 11 to 3 bee are out working.. here In Puerto Rico
I am a beekeeper, and this is accurate.
We all really appreciate your work Jesse! I can't say enough about how great a resource the living soil handbook is, plus all of the podcasts & videos.
Naps for President. Milk the Bees. Sneezing. The Dad Joke is strong with this one.
The real question is... would you be able to make a living out of your farm without books, donations, youtube...?
If you’re trying to make a living with no other income to sustain yourself, there is absolutely no benefit in trying to do everything without learning from any type of resource whatsoever. The real question is, do you have the time and luxury to conduct trial and error until you have a stable farm that can sustain you without external help, or are you capable of learning enough to start a successful, self sustaining farm while also keeping an open mind that allows you to continue learning new and better methods to run a more effective, renewable farm.
I think that the key things in you being a progressive farmer are. One you have a definite work schedule that you adhere to. Second you have a great work ethic. Our biggest downfall is going out to attempt one project and then jumping to another and maybe another. We DEFINITELY lack discipline there. Thank You for another great video and things to motivate us and being happier and more successful gardeners!
You definitely get alot done in a day. It is hard work but such a good life!! Thx for the videos
Sadly doing something as a job takes alot of the magic away , your no longer thinking wow look at all the food ove grown , your thinking oh man I only grew 100lbs of tomatoes and I needed 150lbs to make my goals for the month, this is terrible!
Some really good tips, thanks, Farmer Jesse ! For all the folks who know nothing about dairy farming ( NOT saying Jesse is one of them or insulting them by that, either), just btw milking cows has nothing to do with time of day, but the milking interval your animal is used to ( and more than once a day is necessary for most of them typically, until they're m/l going dry). Traditionally, this has been 12 hour interval/twice a day milking, so, what time you want to be up in AM or in bed by, or done w all chores by in evening or etc. , determines what time you choose although most also just go by what they grew up with or what has gradually happened for them, whether it's all that functional/great, or not. Some, like my family, simply had too much debt and too many crisis amid too low of mill prices in early 90s for ex., so took on "backwards" cows at sale barn etc./more work than we really could handle well, and were just always behind, always late, always working (I'm still recovering).
Another great one! Man done at 4pm that’s a new goal lol… we are 7 days a week seems we spend most are time still digging out grass 5 seasons later. If we can ever get that under control we might achieve a balance with life. Current sunrise to dark but throw in 2 young kids and a full time job for hubby
You are trully awesome, thanks for sharing this and makind all other videos, they are super-valuable!
It is telling that Gary shows up on your day off. Beautiful work! Thanks for sharing!
Always enjoy the content, small sustainable farming is tough... encouraging others to do what we do is important,
Your videos are like talking with my fellow farmer friends!
"Naps for president." 😂
Hi there Jessie! I've been watching your videos for almost a year now. I found your channel soon after l started thinking about becoming a farmer and doing research. You've been such an incredible ambassador for the no-till movement and I've become thoroughly obsessed with the importance of soil health. I'm convinced that it is that key not just to productive farming but also to repairing human and animal health (the book What Your Food Ate was an aha moment for me on this link). If you were farming in upstate New York instead of Kentucky my next move would be to try and come and work for you to learn all of your moves. The mention that you used to be a cook is what spurred me to write this comment, as I'm currently working as a cook here in New York and my love of food and cooking is one of the things that led me to farming. I'm 21 and my plan is to cook for several years and save money by living with my parents, then start to apprentice on farms and learn everything I can through hands on experience. For now I'll just keep reading books, watching your videos, and practicing hard work and efficiency in the kitchen. You are extremely awesome and a huge inspiration. Peace.
Early risers unite!
realy like the set up there is alot I can leran from it thanks for sharing!
I really enjoyed this glimpse into your “daily” life. Loved it!!
Ok😃, that needs to be on a T-shirt. Naps for president.
Thank you so much for your efforts and you are an actual dad hero!
Loved it! What time do you go to bed if you're getting up at 3:30??? Hope you're getting enough sleep 🛌
I'm surprised to here that about your Saturday market. Ours in Knoxville is awesome! It took me too long to join it and the stress is way less than restaurants and individuals. Everything sells very little to bring home
I don't think you mentioned what time you go to bed.
Also, when I was a kid I really wanted to join the military as a soldier - then I watch a TV documentary about soldiering - I no longer wanted to do that.
For a while now I've thought how wonderful it would be to have a homestead, and to grow as much of my own food as possible and possibly sell a surplus - I'm really not sure I have the motivation or drive to come anywhere near. So hats off to you and soldiers, because with out folks like you the rest of us would be done for.
This is a great video I appreciate seeing the process
I work full time so my market gardening is small scale, half an acre split into 2. So quarter acre of flowers the part i make money on and veggies the other half that i just do a free co worker csa
I have had to break everything into the 5 hour chunk in the morning and have each day of the week be a certain type of goal.
Tuesday is flower harvest deadheading etc
wednesday is mindless stuff weeding picking rocks unlike the rest of the week when i pick rocks
thursday is planting seed starting picking rocks
friday is veggie harvest wash and pack
saturday is catch up on whatever project or goal didn't get accomplished
Thanks ❤❤❤
Completely isolated from the video but watching you use that machine for lettuce has me wondering if a T post from end to end and cable wire set up attached to the main bar above the catcher of your machine could make it hang free so you would not have to balance the weight at such an awkward angle. Sounds like a lot but depending on your free time it could be useful.
Hey Nerdy Gardening Friend...never "milk" LOL your bees before 10 am or after 4pm...unless you like a lot of wonderful bee venom therapy..
Thanks!
Wow thank YOU! 🙌
@@notillgrowers you’re not far from where I’m at in Southwest Ohio. I enjoy your book and channel.
Naps for president 😂😂
Good vid, picking corn.
Good grief! No way can I wake up that early!! 😂 I run a farm with horses, dogs cats and a garden.. I get out of bed about 7am.. I would rather stay up late and sleep in a bit. 🤷🏼♀️💚
you are appreciated!
Dont stay up late and show up at the market looking like farmer Jesse 😂❤😂
Hi! Do you like your electric mower? What do you use it for vs. your BCS fail mower? Do you have any other mowers? If you had about an acre around your farm to mow and you were buying a mower today, what would you pick?
Great info!
Hi Farmer Jessie🧑🌾
Jesse !! Good deal man ! way to keep it real with the kids !! i learned the hard way after 14 hours days for 3 years straight grinding !!
3am Jessie any chance you can post at that time to? Posting in the summer so late in the morning I'm already out and running!
Funny enough we used to! We scehdule for six now because that's when we get the most traction, but for a while there everything went up at 3:30am.
well... Good morning to ya! as you are prob reading this at 3:00 am lol
Bro, i have a question, plz help. Is raw mushroom and boiled mushroom safe for chicken, cows,sheeps and goats as a feed?
I want to know how you get lettuces to grow so well in this heat? Mine just BOLT, and I need lettuce!
Double like!
Jesse, what do u do with all leftover produce u took to mrkt? Seems could be alot of waste leftover if doesnt sell. How much does weather (rain) affect market?
Good questions! The more you do a particular market the more you learn how much you can sell of what based on the time of year. There will always be some waste, but we have a gleaner group here who makes use of extras and we could sometimes sell them to chefs at a discount. Bad weather was devastating to our Saturday market but not as much to our Sunday (another reason we preferred Sundays). On Sundays, we would do about 3/4 of the usual business on a rainy day usually. Give or take. If it was threatening rain on a Saturday we would sometimes not even bother going.
always wear gloves and other proper PPE when milking your bees
Does anyone know how much land Jesse actually has in production? We have 1/4 th of an acre and are just starting out as a side gig. On the fence if we should expand and if thay is doable with two ppl. 😊 Advice anyone?
NAPS FOR PRESIDENT
I need a decent weather app. Any suggestions.
I use wunderground.com I know they have an app tho I've not used it. Maybe someone else has a good recommendation there!
ahh I have to milk the bees, on it brb with my results...
#naps ❤😊
I love ALL No-Till Growers videos!
Thanks!
Amazing, thank YOU!
😃🎉 Excellent
I subscribed to your channel 🙏
I just have a backyard garden that is a lot of work. I also get up at 3:45 to do my morning routine and is my time for writing my book. I get outside around 6:30 and do what I had on my list, but seem to do so much more. I have a hard stop at around 2 (with cooking inserted in there) so I can write again and then go to rest and watch No Till Growers or read before sleep. My morning and evening are non-negotiable times for me. Thank you. I love your videos, jokes and personality. 😊
"Don't stay up super late on a Friday and then try and run a market on a Saturday" - our only farmers market is on Saturday, 10am till noon, and we're managing it this year. So up at 5:30am to pick and wash everything, load up and head to the market for 8:30 to get the gate open, etc. A Friday night with too much beer makes Saturday not fun. Not fun at all.
Coffee & early breakfast is the only way a solo homesteader/farmer gets things done. A nap mid day is necessary too.
Since you are having a nap during the day, try ditching the coffee. You will feel better for it 😊
Actual comment. We do a Thursday afternoon market that's 2.5 hrs long and a Saturday morning market that's 5 hrs. Prices are higher on Thursdays, but Saturday is a much bigger crowd and we typically sell at least 4x as much by dollars.
That's great, my friend. (new subscriber)
Monday: currently a construction day for expansion. Normally rest day.
Tuesday, trellis work, transplanting, weeding, greens harvest. Microgreen harvest for stores and planting
Wednesday - general work day for starts, transplants wash/pack. Bulk or MG harvest for chefs.
Thursday : wash day and delivery day. Some light harvest.
Friday main harvest for markets and washing/packing.
Saturday. Markets.
Sunday hydroponic work and MG planting. Additional start day.
“I actually don’t know when y’all milk the bees” had me dying laughing
I sell at the markets on Saturday and Sunday. In the springtime, I spend all day fridays harvesting for the weekend. the rest of the week is a few hours/day to plant and weed. By mid summer, I am harvesting every other day and spend fridays mostly packaging for the weekend and harvesting fresh herbs. (side note, by end of July my fight with the weeds is over and they usually win - just not enough time to keep fighting)
Rubbing once nose helps for dad jokes.
This is the video I needed. Im trying to build a market garden in SW Missouri and Ive been wondering how the days and weeks are scheaduled.
Is "naps for president" a tee-shirt or hat? Maybe even a bumper sticker.
I love this. Nothing you do in your life is worth loosing time with your kids. 👍👍
Is mushrooms safe as a feed for chicken, cows, sheeps and goats?
Great video 🇳🇿❤️
your heart is a peach
3:30?????
😂😂😂
How much revenue you need/want to make in one day at market to be worth the effort for you?
Good question! Gonna be different for every farm and budget. For us we wanted to average around $1,500 per market over the season. Some markets were better than others depending on what we brought.
@@notillgrowers thank you for reply Jesse. Can u move Salanova at market in head form? Sure would be nice not to have to process, clean, package, for sake of time, labor involved.
Since I have livestock including dairy goats my schedule is 7 days a week with a couple mornings at a part time job. In the winter I have one Sat market so Friday is harvest day. That market is about 20 min from my house. In the summer a closer market is open on Sat. So in the summer I am delivering orders to customers of the first market (it's too hot for that market to be open in summer). And then I'm at the second market on Sat. Sundays are usually clean up and planting days. Mondays tend to be project days like fixing fence, mucking pens, turning compost ect. Tue and Thur are PT job days. I might need to do some harvesting Thur evening for my Friday deliveries. Then Fri mornings are harvest, delivery days. I live in a super rural area but we are a ranching and mining area, no real farms. I'm currently only working maybe 1000 sq ft of garden. I'm still trying to figure out what is actually going to sell and both of my markets are very different. The further market has a lot of foodies and they will buy cut herbs & flowers and try unusual things regularly. The closer market cut herbs & flowers are mostly to fill up space on the table and feed the chickens when I get home. Both places gobble up tomatoes like crazy so I'm trying to figure out how without heat and no real greenhouse I can get tomatoes earlier in the season next year. I'm not making huge profit but every year gets better as I build soil that can actually hold onto water. Oh a typical stay home day; up at 4, coffee and computer time. Outside at daylight (or with a headlamp in winter), feed and water animals, work on harvesting or whatever needs doing. I don't yet have piped water to a lot of the garden spaces so moving hoses and sprinklers around a lot. In summer too hot by 9am so indoors for housework, make some goat milk lotion & soap. Possibly take a nap ;-) Cooler weather I continue working outside on various projects. Afternoon chores start around 230 / 3 with feeding, watering, gather eggs, milk goats, more watering, especially in spring when I have loads of transplants for myself and for sale. There is just me and it's hard to get everything done in a day, especially while trying to also build infrastructure and work on other major projects.
Appreciate you sharing!
I'm with you on the amount of time infrastructure and OTHER major projects take. Also being alone, I resent the time needed on the phone and computer with doctors, insurancees, banking, auto repair, and grocery shopping. I try to take Sundays for me, which means necessary chores, naps, and only the tasks I'm excited about!
Did you manage to find a new swear jar? I use a swear barrel. It is cheaper than buying swear jars every week or so
😉
Use a 5 gallon bucket, PLASTIC won’t break unless you kick it, easy to carry whenever you need to speak French , helps in carrying extra hand tools and is waterproof unless you’ve kicked it.
Thank you Jesse! This was great. Super insightful.
I'm starting a market garden this year in England, after 5 seasons on various farms in the UK and Canada. Do you have any golden rules for a grower going it alone from scratch?
I'll have 0.5 acres and a tunnel on organic pasture to start with.
Half an acre is still a lot of land, but since you have the experience it can be manageable. I would still probably suggest only starting with .3 acres because although you can almost certainly manage .5 acres alone, it's hard to do all the other stuff (marketing, selling, invoicing, washing, packing) that much produce alone and survive. I like the 3rd of an acre to one person ratio.
@@notillgrowers Hugely grateful for your advice. Hope to be able to update you on progress and will be getting a copy of your book asap! Thank you.
Thanks for the video! For the most part my weeks are doing my regular day job, stopping by my farm a few afternoons a week, and one or both weekend days doing more work... luckily I'm a teacher, and now have two months of only farmer time! But the fall is gonna be bananas (or peppers, cause I grow peppers, and not bananas, but that's not the term for things being crazy...)
Love your videos, what about going to Church on Sunday morning ❤ He has Blessed Y'all so much!!!
I always thought keeping a schedule was so I didn’t spend the whole day out in the garden. What you said about having a schedule makes more sense since you will push yourself to be more effective instead of “what else can I do..” Having a “to-do” list or some kind of daily plan definitely helps a lot. I agree about the Power Nap, self care is always a must! Great job and thanks for all your videos!
How do you assess whether maintaining organic certification is worth the costs (e.g. fees, extra work)? Could you do a video on this topic? Thanks!
Nice breakdown of your typical day/week. I have a small home garden but I find the market business details very interesting. Also, how full is your new swear jar that you bought on the 11th? 😅😅
Fascinating stuff, thanks for sharing those cool tools, schedule details, and comedy. So much good stuff packed in here. I think I'll stay in my lane and stick to backyard gardening, but I do try to incorporate some of your pro tips and tricks in my own growing habits.
You ARE an essential worker!
Thanks
Thank YOU! 🙌
Thanks!
Amazing, thank YOU!
Thanks!
Thank YOU! 🙌
What time do you go to bed? Maybe i missed it, but i don't recall that being included.
Also, I can not stop a Dad joke when when is rising.
Could you give a ballpark estimate of what you make in a typical day at the market? What are your sales like?
At a good market in mid to late Spring, I've done more than $2000 in 4 hours on Saturdays. Depends on the Market location and customer base. I have fellow farmer friends with more efficient production that can do $3000. They're charging more, too.
Hey Jesse! It was awesome being able to meet you last night at Holly Hill Inn. Excited for an eventual farm tour announcement.
And best of luck to your friends marriage and life together 😁
Great to meet you all as well and thanks for the donation! 🙌
Thanks!
Amazing, thank YOU!
Thanks!
Amazing, thank YOU!
Where is there time spent with Jesus? He is most important
For you? Not for ever buddy.