AGRITOURISM – TRENDS: Interested in making crop circles as an agritourism draw? Here’s a link to a history and guide on how to make crop circles from the UK.
Similar to corn mazes, but steeped in more mystery and attracting huge crowds, a handful of English farmers in the past along with “cereologists” have made more money on crop circles that appeared in their fields than they could have with the grain reaped from the flattened plants. The mystery itself – that these could not be made by humans — is no doubt part of the draw.
In this article on how humans can make crop circles for themselves, we’re not suggesting using deception as a form of agritourism, but instead, using the popular draws of novelty, discovery of DIY methods, and the miracles of art that humans can create when they put their minds to it.
Many micro eco-farms don’t have large fields to use for typical crop circles, and even small-scale farming often avoids fields of large monocrops. But one of our editor’s own rural microfarm, for example, has a couple acres of natural hay meadows, and other small farming projects may be able to adapt the project.
We have no personal or business affiliate, nor have we tested it ourselves.
– www.MicroEcoFarming.com
TRENDS – Want to make money farming? “It can’t be done with small farms,” we were told way back when by the status quo.
But we knew they were wrong. And now the status quo is catching up and seeing the new mathematics of micro eco-farming. When calculating how small and micro farms make money farming, you don’t use the same calculations as you do for big-ag commodity farming. Theirs is a different world.
Here’s a quote from a recent USDA report on how small and micro farms make money farming:
“Historically, farmers have been “price takers” when they deal with mainstream markets such as wholesalers, terminal markets, mainline food service distributors, or brokers—i.e., they exert little control over the prices of their goods. Such price-sensitive market outlets tend to favor farm enterprises that produce large quantities of undifferentiated agricultural commodities at low cost. The consumers who purchase these goods also tend to be relatively “passive” buyers, for the most part neither aware of nor interested in how or where their food was produced.
Today, however, an emerging wave of alternative marketing channels is enhancing the potential for smaller farmers to generate larger revenues by off ering products with specifi c qualities or production process characteristics not commonly available from mainstream suppliers. These might include featuring unusual or “heirloom” varieties of products (especially agricultural products with characteristics that deteriorate or diminish when transported long distances). Other traits that may increase marketability include organic certification, integrated pest management, sustainable farming methods, or locally grown product.
These alternative market channels can be divided into two categories—farmto-consumer marketing and farm-to-firm marketing. In farm-to-consumer marketing, the farmer sells directly to individual consumers without an intermediary. Farmers markets, farm stands, subscription farming schemes (also known as community supported agriculture, in which consumers prepay for a season’s worth of fruit and vegetables, thus sharing the risk with the farmer), pick-your-own operations, and fl ea markets are the most common forms of direct-to-consumer food marketing.
Generally speaking, in direct-to-consumer marketing, farmers are “price makers,” able to determine prices because their products have distinct characteristics, not easily substituted, that consumers want.” The full PDF is at http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELPRDC5076556&acct=wdmgeninfo
MICRO FARMING HOW-TO: If your small scale farming or backyard farming operation involves growing watermelons, your customers will thank and remember you more if your melons are very sweet.
As your melons begin to swell in size, help them get as sweet as possible. Find ways to raise the melons’ temperature if your summers are in general of typical temperate climate. This helps the watermelons turn starches to sugars more easily. Watermelons also tend to like warmer nighttime temperatures, whereas some other heat-loving crops aren’t as picky about nighttime dips.
A few methods: Large rocks around each melon will soak up heat by day and release it slowly overnight. Black plastic or recyclable black paper around the melons will also heat things up. Recycled plastic milk jugs painted black will absorb lots of heat during the day and release it at night. — www.MicroEcoFarming.com
Affiliate sponsor: How to Grow Square Watermelons
MARKETING: If you’re growing berries for profit, here’s a fun berry tip you can offer via your farm newsletter or the free recipes you hand out to berry customers. In the summer, freeze berries and use them to chill fruit drinks. For most berries, freeze them untouching on a tray, then the frozen berries can be poured into a freezer bag for future storage and will stay frozen without sticking together.
Growing berries sometimes means lots of fresh fruit all at once. Most berries such as blueberries and strawberries… even grapes and cherries, have a great texture when frozen whole. Your customers can also put fresh berries on kabob or popsicle sticks and freeze them for summertime snacks.
If growing berries is a major crop for your farm, other recipes to seek out for your customers are handcrafted berry soda pop, berry syrups, and of course the familiar berry jams, jellies, pies and muffins. — www.MicroEcoFarming.com
VALUE-ADDED: The season for harvesting and selling herbs is here.
If you’re selling herbs or other crops to make into value-added products, Mountain Rose Herbs is one of our favorite and only affiliate wholesale sources for bottles, jars, tins, tea bags, cotton muslin bags, misters, jugs, lip balm tubes, powder containers and lotion pumps and so on.
If you’re interested in viewing their products for selling herbs, this link goes to their main site, then click on “Products” at the top.
This long established company supports organics and local eco-farming around the world in multiple ways, including donating and supporting higher eco-causes.
Their products are often made of recycled materials and very socially and environmentally sensitive, which is something you can pass on to your customers, letting then know your packaging is eco-friendly, when using them for selling herbs.
Mountain Rose Herbs also sells ingredients sometimes needed by those selling herbs who want to formulate their herbs into products that need waxes, aloe vera, and so forth.
— www.MicroEcoFarming.com