Courtesy of Wally S., Wally’s Urban Market Garden, Saskatoon, SK
Round about now many are thinking about spring. If you don’t go to a winter market, or have winter sales of any type, then you will be looking ahead to what SPIN-Farming calls a ” spring debut ” week. For many farmers, sales during this week are very meager, usually in the low hundreds, and significant cash flow usually doesn’t start until late spring/early summer.
SPIN-Farming shows you how to set your sights higher. A good revenue target  for your spring debut week is $1,000. To achieve it you have to plan out the appropriate plantings that will give you a variety of offerings in significant volume.
Many farmers don’t realize lettuce and spinach crops, as well as other greens, can be grown in early spring, without protection. Seed will germinate in cool soil conditions, and crops will stand many frosts. Same with onion sets, and spring planted garlic.
To reach a revenue target of $1,000 in your debut week, you need to decide which crops and in what unit quantities you will need to achieve that income, using SPIN’s pricing per unit strategy. SPIN’s 2.0 crop profiles give you benchmarks on revenue/yields per bed and per segment. $1,000 becomes an obtainable number if you plan it out this way. Plantings to support $1,000 need not be large, and the size of your plantings is what you need to figure out. Couple your outdoor production with indoor plantings of pea/ micro/sunflower greens as described in the Quick Greens guide, and $1,000 your first week will be a slam dunk.
Here is an example of what a $1,000 weekly spring product line looks like.
