Wed, 9 December 2015
TUF037 - 17,500lbs of Vegetables Produced on One Third of An Acre - A Closer Look at What Was Produced on the Farm this Year - The Urban Farmer - Week 37
All in Curtis produced about 17,500lbs of product off of his farm this year. That's a lot of food coming from a small space. Remember Curtis is only farming off of 15,000 sq.ft. which is spread out over 5 plots. And this year he made the most of it producing over 17,000lbs of produce on those 5 plots. And we aren't talking corn and potatoes here. For the most part many of the crops which he produced really aren't that heavy, he simply produced a lot of product. 3000lbs of tomatoes, 2500 lbs of radishes, 2500 lbs of spring mix, 2000lbs of turnips. Big numbers for a small farm. Curtis has grown better throughout the years and grown a lot of crops in the past. At one time he grew over 90 differnet crops. Ultimatley that easn't affective for Curtis and he learned to focus on the crops that paid, dropping the ones that didnt'. Now in 2015 he produced about 23 differnet products off of the farm this year. But even with only 23 different crops, not all crops are created equal. Because his top 5 crops account for over 60% of his total sales. In this eposde we start to dig a bit into those different products and really disect the numbers looking at metrics like which crops made up the top five in terms of sales dollars. And what you will notice when we go through taht exercise is just what we have talked about all season, 20% of the crops produce the majortiy of the farms sales. Given that we'll look at how Curtis is using this data to start to plan for next year. In a nut shell it's grow what works and more of it if there's demand, and drop what isn't working so well. The numbers are telling and the numbers don't lie. Regarding of what you what, some crops just grow well on your farm and sell well in your market, so focus on those crops. You can't grow it all, so grow what counts. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/tuf37 |