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Hi Guys, Thanks to some for the helpful advice and to others for the sarcasam and to others for the non-belief. (People used to laugh when they were told the world was ROUND too....)As I mentioned in my previous post, I was looking for help, nothing else. I'm not trying to start a fight with anyone but here are some things for you to consider: 1.) I HAVE been growing and selling our produce, meat and eggs in smaller quantities than what you probably deal with, but I AM already doing this from our farm in raised beds. I just need to know how to operate an old style 2 or 3 bottom plow properly. 2.)If any of you boys were to actually be more open minded and think that possibly you might be able to LEARN something also, than more farmers would not be going out of business, their farms up for auction and equipment being sold off because of the high over-head and lack of profit, along with ailments caused by the chemicals and the constant need to add more pesticides, poisions, fertilizers and chemicals. 3.)It is a bit more work my way, but I have a variety of things on our farm and can expand numbers slowly as my clientel require more. I have a steady supply of chicken poop and compost which we use generously and it produces beautiful large tomatoes, peppers, okra, lettuce and cucumbers to name a few. We grow certain varieties of flowers and other plants with our veggies to keep the nematodes out of the soil, the hornworms off the 'maters and the slugs and snails out of the soil and off the leaves. 4.)My style of farming is called Community Supported Agriculture and you should try getting some information on it, because you might be interested to know that with this kind of farming, MY crops will all be SOLD and PAID for before they are even GROWN, no MATTER WHAT. I will only need a minimum of 10 customers, and I will have more than paid for my "Old tractor with all her smoke and blow-by" and be able to afford the repairs in CASH this winter and then some. I won't have the worry of what the market will bear for my crop, trucking/shipping it anywhere, or if the bugs DO all eat my crops, (but if you know ANYTHING about companion planting and rotation it's easy, I've BEEN doing it already) because my money will already be in the bank. My customers of which I already have an established base from the trial runs that we have done for the last TWO YEARS are all very excited and are eagerly awaiting for us to get the land tilled and planted so that they can plunk down their $400 PER family of 4 and $250 for a family of 2 for 20 weeks worth of fresh Certified Naturally Grown vegetables. Eggs and meat are EXTRA, at $2.00 a dozen for eggs and over $3.00 per pound for CHICKEN. Do you know, around here FRESH, UN-PASTUREIZED cow's MILK sells for OVER $10.00 a gallon?? Home-made goat's milk cheese is even MORE expensive and people willingly PAY it. Can YOU do that? 5.)Check out www.localharvest.com - We have a store on there and it takes CREDIT CARDS and it costs US NOTHING but %15 of each order and THEY do all the paperwork. Check out these links if you want to learn: Link www.bravehost.com - for a FREE website www.localharvest.com - for a FREE internet store Just keep in mind- We are ALL learning in one way or another, the day you STOP learning is the day you have died. Katharine
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