hello.
i hope you can tell me the going rate for a box of organic veg and what i would expect it to contain. thank you very much.
euan
Flexibility
When I started telling people at my old work that I was quitting to be a smallholder/market gardener, people asked why I did not do both part time? Now as a surveyor, I was regularly taking mobile calls at 7am, after 8pm and at weekends. I used to manage a £200m property portfolio for various landlords, both instituational and private investors. I thought there was no way I could do it part time. It was more than a full time job when I was doing it full time!
This June had been one of the wettest, and on our heavy clay soil, it has been nothing short of disastrous. In fact, there has been a whole 6 weeks where the soil has been so wet that I dare not even walk on it, never mind do any work! I have 1000 potato plants dying in the waterlogged soil: there’s just no air at the roots and no warmth to stimulate growth. It’s the same with my brassicas, but I am holding out some hope for 900 onions - they like heavy soil and had a reasonable start before the bad weather. Mind, I think customers would be annoyed if every week I gave them a box of onions!
I had been doing the odd day’s Consultancy for my old boss just to keep my hand in, keep my CV going and to assist her as she has just started her own Practice. It’s just as well, because the June weather has killed any chance of doing veg boxes this year stone dead. I am now doing regular Consultancy which assists greatly from a financial perspective, but still allows us to keep pigs, hens and grow tons of veg, albeit inside the big tunnel only.
We will still have some veg for sale, but on a small scale. Local friends regularly buy what ever is ready and in abundance. The Crunchy Carrot buys surplus thats on a larger scale: Herb plants, lettuces, eggs, and soon cucumbers and tomatoes.
So the people who said about doing things part time were right. I kick myself for dismissing it at the start, but every business adviser we spoke to before we embarked on this venture reminded us to remain flexible and not to try and push the venture down the route of the business plan if things were not working out. How right they were!
Responses
By: Euan Tennant on September 24, 2007
at 6:30 pm
I have not been selling boxes this year due to the weather. Perhaps a guide might be http://www.abel-cole.co.uk/Home.aspx of course, one of the aims behind box schemes is to provide seasonal veg, unlike supermarket’s Global Summertime scam, so the box contents will vary depending on what veg is in season.
By: thurstongarden on September 25, 2007
at 8:46 pm
do you sell pumpkins for carving?
By: Katy on October 26, 2007
at 12:51 pm
We are getting ready to start our own market garden. Thanks for the site…I’m looking forward to more of your comments. Leslie - Saskatchewan, Canada
By: Leslie on November 27, 2007
at 4:38 pm
