your inner farming entrepreneur.

I teach in a very rural community where a lot of my students spend their afternoons working on local farms for extra cash. Many of the boys (although girls work on farms, too) are planning on making a career out of farming. I try to fill my classroom book shelves with books that everyone can enjoy so Farms with a Future by Rebecca Thistlethwaite, was a welcomed addition to my collection.

 

This book revolves around creating and growing a sustainable farm business. My students aren't exactly looking into starting up their own farms, but Farms absolutely solved the "Miss Hagen, you don't have anything interesting to read" problem that I have during study halls with a lot of my male students. Rebecca (her last name is too wild so we are on a first name basis), begins at the beginning. Using Chapter 1 to get you started then moves right on to the best practices used in starting your own small-to-midscale market farm. Market research, marketing and pricing strategies, soil and water management, accounting and finances (yawn, but necessary), right on to the products that will add to the value of your farm, and make it more profitable. Rebecca means business, and covers all of the business management aspects of running a farm, which many books leave out.

Now, all you need to do is decide whether or not you want to take the plunge and start your own farm. OR make your current farm more sustainable. OR you can just go to farmers market's, like me. The choice is yours.