Make your Markets
You’re all set to start producing vegetables, turkeys, apples, or milk for sale. But exactly what you ultimately decide to grow — when it’s in season, how difficult it is to harvest or process, how perishable it is, and how challenging it is to transport — will greatly impact your ability to find a suitable outlet, and get you paid for your hard work.
What you grow, when you grow it, how much of it you grow, and how long it will stay fresh are the four major factors that will forever impact your ability to sell your products. The more you can broaden or limit these variables — for example, extending your offerings year-round, or finding ways to reduce the transportation of your most perishable products — the greater your chances will be of finding the right markets to fit your farm.
Identify
Of course, everything you grow will come with its unique advantages as well as challenges. On my friends Don and Delores Magnani’s farm, located an hour south of Washington, D.C., they grow fresh figs, a sticky fruit that’s too delicate to ship long distances. But because they take the extra time to carefully pick them the night before they’re to be sold, then truck them straight to the farmers market themselves,
