8 Things I Learned While Farming this Summer

[LWolf]

18. I had to laugh,

even though it's not all that funny, at the celery/Oxnard connection.

I had a family member, in my earlier years, that lived in a little spot just outside of Oxnard, surrounded by avocado orchards and fields growing all kinds of things, including celery. She used to send us to the closest fields after harvest to gather the leavings.

She's also the person who taught me to garden, to save seed, to pick bugs by hand, to keep chickens, to compost, to plant heirlooms. They work well on a small scale, if not commercially. Her little house on a couple of acres was loaded with fruit trees, berries, flowers, herbs, and produce. She grew enough to feed herself all year with plenty left over.

I wonder what it would be like to grow the vast majority of our food locally, on a smaller scale, in a more sustainable way. Maybe there wouldn't be any profit at all; maybe there would need to be subsidies in the form of land and equipment to make farming on a smaller scale more affordable, to make it possible to make a living farming in a healthy, sustainable way.

My neighbor across the road has 10 acres of garden; he sells much of his harvest at local farmer's markets. I don't know if he makes a profit; it's a side thing for him. It didn't buy his house or land; he bought that before he retired from his "regular" job. I think it just supplements his retirement income.

One of my colleagues at work comes from a farming family. We regularly buy crates of peaches, corn, and asparagus from them. I don't know how they make a living; it isn't from selling us crates of produce.

I've always been interested in those smaller farms that sell...memberships? Shares? Something...and ship out portions of product as they are harvested. Is it possible for a family farm to make a living that way?