A proposal out line

As a start:
Business Plan:

2009
Feb to March
    With volunteer labor and equipment, haul free compost from Lee’s Summit to Unity garden     location and make raised beds for planting crops.  One  foot high by three foot wide raised beds     will kill any grass and weeds and since compost is essentially weed free, will have a fertile seed     bed.  If plants are planted at rate of one per square foot, 20,000 plants could be planted on one     acre (An acre has 43,560 square and if compost is laid allowing rows between, half an acre would     be 20,000 plants).

    There are some 8 cool and cold season crops that grow as heads for easy harvesting.  Examples     would  be cabbage, head lettuce, broccoli, Chinese cabbage, chard, cauliflower, kale, and romaine.      These are crops that go for around $1.50 or better in the store.  They can be harvested as needed     within a fairly long growing period.  Seed for 5000 plants would cost around $75 as organic and     considerable less locally at Planters Seed.  At a cost of around $25.00, Jiffy 7 peat pellets could be     used for starting and to begin, volunteers could start at home.

    In addition, there are other crops which can be started at about the same time by direct sowing such     as snow peas, turnips, spinach, beets, radish, With the use of inexpensive row covers, these crops     can be started early with row covers taking care of insect problems.  Crop would be ready 45 to 60     days after planting and if staggered, could last for 2 months or more.

    Projected income- over $5000.00 by June 1st

March to April
    Stagger planting of above plus peas, green beans, and start tomato and pepper(hot and sweet)     plants for transplanting beginning mid to late April.  Continue hauling free compost.  On open     land, we could make 3 ft wide and one foot deep mounds that we will use in late April to plant     melons, cukes, squash.  All the above vining plants will grow in grass as long as the central plant     and root system has bare soil(compost we haul in).  It would be helpful to keep the grass mowed     around the plant as long as possible to help with harvesting.  We would need a different location     for each of the vining plants to prevent cross pollination.  These can all be direct seeded.  At some     point we should be able to afford one days rental on a tractor with tiller to work up some of this     ground surrounding the vining plants and other land that will can begin growing crops which will     increase the fertility of the soil.

    At this time, if we would begin starting bedding plants to sell.  A small green house made by the     barn such as a hoop house (about $300) would enable this.

April to June

    Erect shelter beside barn for vegetable stand.  (Have garage sale with donated items and maybe a     bake sale to establish our presence and generate income.  Begin selling our produce and bring in     Amish produce to establish store.  Begin repotting bedding plants(flowers) to increase the value     from  each seed.  As developed, begin classes on growing own food, recipes, storing(canning),     crafts etc…

June

    Begin planting pumpkin plants for fall harvest. This would be a good time to start winter squash. 
    Start Mums for fall sale. With available compost, cost should not run over $.75 and they will sell     from  $5 on up with the larger ones in a slightly better pot increasing revenue dramatically.   

July

    Begin Christmas Cactus and other plants

August

    Begin plants for fall crops such as were grown in the early spring.  Erect several hoop houses or     green houses as finances allow for late crops such as tomatoes and peppers as well as very late cool     weather plants

Sept

    Utilize tractor with roto tiller to prepare land for planting cover crops that will be plowed under     next year for sweet corn.  Use same machinery to prepare land to plant cover crops for orchard and     begin planting trees using post hole digger borrowed and put on back of tractor.  At same time put     in post for string supports for grape vines and other berries.

    Buy honey in bulk and sell in pint jars.

    Plant strawberries for spring production- at 10 cent ea will bear 1 to ½ lb ea.  A one thousand     dollar investment would  yield 10,000 lbs

By 2010, should have enough equipment to start all plants, till the earth and have a full service garden.  We should be able to pick up from Amish vegetable  auctions to fill in our gaps.

Comments

[Gerald]

I didn't have the intention of putting a number either on the number of green houses or number of acres- that will come in time at its own time

A good strawberry bed will last 3 years or more. I planted strawberries this fall for next spring harvest, but they are planted in such a manner to only have one crop and then be plowed under and another crop take their place. Normally, established beds will take measures to destroy the old plants and let them replace themselves with new plants from runners. The remaining strawberries that are there after fruit harvest has begun from the trees will have already borne their spring crop. If we decide to continue saving the beds, traffic might even help to keep the beds from becoming over populated. At any rate, we would have already re couped our investment

I don't know the answer for labor, but I do know that we will at some point need more than volunteers will probably be able to provide. At the same time, if we have additional sources, then we may decide to limit how much we put out for our own.

[Judy Best]

Gerald -

Great stuff!
Questions:

I think it would definitely be a good idea to sell shares and/or have people pick their own (once trained). In the first year, are you seeing everything to be run by volunteers only or by subscribers (people who've paid in to help finance with expectations of some vegetables for their work/funding)? Is there a way we can "pay" the stand labor with some of the produce?

Also, am I reading your post(s) correctly that you think we'll eventually need three separate greenhouses?

As for planting strawberries between the trees in the orchard, will we just plant them someplace else once the trees start bearing (or won't they get trampled)? What is the life-span of a strawberry plant anyway? I've never grown them.

Again, great, great stuff. Thanks SO much - J