New Farm - Build In Public #1
Concept and Initial Thought Process.
Okay, so this is going to be the first essay in a series where I will build my new farm. But, I am going to do this fully transparently, so that the model is replicable by others around the country. I so honestly believe that there is such a need for more local food production, that I consider it a personal mission to help however I can make this possible. As a result, I am going to use this space to document the build of my farm from Day 1, so that you (or anyone) can follow along with these steps and do the same thing where you are.
All of this came from an idea I had a few years back when I realized that many of the farmers that I knew were AMAZING at growing their crops… But, they were still barely making their monthly/annual expenses… After looking carefully at the situations, I realized that many of them just were not making great decisions for their farm as a BUSINESS. So I have had this concept rattling around for a few years of how to build a farm model that is effective and simple for crop production, AND is also extremely simple and efficient to market and sell the harvest. And this last year, I had the epiphany — and I have to give credit where it is due, this is actually not my own personal concept. There is another local farmer (Mike of Dallas Half-Acre Farms) who has been doing this model, and doing it well. But, I have an idea of how to take this idea and develop it into a model that anyone can construct and operate.
So, let’s dive into the concept behind this. This is really going to be a somewhat “new” style of farm — it will be a cross between a traditional CSA and a market farm. (I really need to come up with a NAME for this model… If you have a suggestion, please leave it below!) The concept is that the farm will produce a limited number of products. Harvests will be done weekly, packaged into share boxes, and distributed to customers.
The primary difference between this and a CSA model is that with a CSA model, the season is paid upfront. Maybe in multiple payments, but generally it's paid up in front for the length of the season, whether that's six weeks, eight weeks, 12 weeks, or whatever. With this new model, it is simply a weekly purchase. There would be an option for setting up a recurring payment, but it would just be you buy a box for the week.
You come by and pick it up at the farm on a given day at a set time, or you go to a specific place at a set time and pick it up there. Overall, the goal is to make it much simpler for the farmer by only harvesting what is sold.
So for this iteration of Green Phoenix Farms, the concept is to start off with the 30’x96’ greenhouse purchased from a local farmer. I will install this on my land in Mansfield, TX, probably as a gutter-connected 42’ long and 48’ long greenhouse. This will fit best on my property, and I won’t have to cut down any trees. Also, this way I can do an evaporative cooling wall along the 60’ width, and be able to keep it nice and cool even through the heat of the summer. But, either way, it will effectively be a 3000 sqft greenhouse. For crop production, I would start off with the equivalent of one deep-water trough that is 4’x96’. That size DWC trough would need 48 floating rafts. I was going to use beaver plastics rafts, but after hearing that they've gone up to $24 each, I will probably buy some 1.5” thick foam from the hardware store. And cut that into 2’x4’ sections. So 48 rafts will be custom-made and should last a few years.
The concept right now is to grow five crops: Two lettuces (one red, one green), and three others. Right now I'm looking at arugula, a mizuna (red), and an Italian dandelion. So, the initial weekly box sales box will be two lettuces, one bunch of arugula, one bunch of mizuna, and one bunch of dandelions from the 48 rafts if I do if I manage to keep a five-week growth cycle, then five rafts of red lettuce, five rafts of green lettuce, five rafts each of the other three crops. The remaining three rafts will just be overflow and miscellaneous
To determine initial interest, I have already posted in the Rendon local Facebook group and have had an interest of 48-49, nearly 50 people. From the first DWC trough, I should easily be able to harvest 20-25 boxes weekly. While the goal will be to sell this salad box for $15 initially, the plan will be to move up to a $20 price point (probably in the Spring). Revenue projections at $15 per box selling 20 boxes per week, that's $300 per week. At 25 boxes a week at $20, that would be $500. So, somewhere between $300 and $500 a week of revenue is possible with the one trough.
As the winter goes on that money will be banked, and it will be used to fund the construction of a second DWC-trough, as well as Dutch Bucket production systems that would allow for the growth of fruiting crops like tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, peppers. Once constructed the second trough will be a replicate of the first allowing sales hopefully in the range of 40 - 50 boxes per week. At that point, the addition of the fruiting crops will raise the price of the Weekly Box to $30-35. Revenue projections for ~50 boxes @ $30 each would be $1500 per week. This would translate to roughly $75,000 annually from a 3000 sqft greenhouse
Now this is, of course, just a rough description of the concept. I will be adding a great deal of clarity and such in future updates. But, I wanted to start posting the steps that I am taking to develop this, so I can have a clear record of exactly what I did to build this, as I was doing the building. Too often I try to look back after the build, and I forget where I struggled, or specific steps/thoughts that I had. So yeah, there is a lot more to come, but for now - if you want any more information about anything that I wrote - please leave me a comment below.