Here is a snapshot/estimate of my monthly expenses and income for May.  Many of the expense items I order in bulk at the beginning of the season so I divided by 12 to get a monthly average.

Expenses:

Rent: $200

Water: $35 (this number will increase as we get deeper into our summer weather pattern)

Bathroom: $30 ( I split the cost of a port a potty with other tenants on the property)

Electricity:  $50 (I share a shipping container cooled by an ac unit that runs off electricity.)

Seeds/transplants: $130

Fertilizer:  $100 (2 gallons of emulsion (applied through my driptape with a venturi injector), 2 ounces of maxicrop (kelp),

50 pounds of bat guano and bone meal (added to seedling soil mixes and side dressed on certain crops)

Irrigation supplies: $65 (I spent $800 for irrigation so far this year which is enough to last at least until next season)

Compost:  $40 (I spent $500 this year on a bulk order of compost)

Labor: $240 (I am currently paying one employee $10 an hour for 6 hours of harvest labor every Monday morning)

Fuel: $100 (tractor, driving to market, deliveries)

Miscellaneous materials: $150 (there is something every month that comes up, this number varies greatly)

Total May Expenses: $1140

Income:

CSA:  $1,300 (13 members and growing)

Farmers Market: $480 (I’ve been averaging just of around $120 per market)

Farm tours: $120 ( I had a UCSB and a City College Class come out and tour the farm this month,  each time I got $60)

Wholesale Deliveries: $100 (when I have enough volume of certain crops I box and sell to local produce markets)

Total May Income: $2000

So at the end of May I am left with $860 to pay for all my living expenses.  My budget living is Santa Barbara is around 2,000 so I have a long way to go before I am actually making any money.  There were also many months this winter/spring with no income and similar expenses.  So far I have spent $7,000 of money that I had saved over the last few years and taken a $10,000 loan from my father.  As with starting any business it takes some initial investment and a lot of time and work to see any profit.  This year I will be in the red but I feel confident that in the near future I will start to see some payoff.

Honey in the Heart Farm has been a labor of love from the beginning, which I was hoping would at least pay for itself by the end of the season.  I am working part time at Peaceful Valley in the store which gives me some income, but mostly I live a simple lifestyle that does not require a lot of money.  I am lucky enough to lease the acre of land I am cultivating for veggies (next season it will be $500.00 a year) and the water I use is free.  Those are major expenses that a lot of other farmers… Read the rest of this article »

In keeping with the theme of this week’s Freshman Farmer Blog postings, I want to share with you a picture of DeepSeeded Farm’s financials.  It’s a lot of information to portray in a short posting, so I’ve attached a spreadsheet to provide more detail (on next page).  In short, however, I’ll summarize costs and revenues below. Funding: $33,000 - Eddie’s Savings $25,000 - Economic Fuel Competition Prize Money $45,000 - 5-year infrastructure loan from California… Read the rest of this article »

A thorough conversation on financials will kill all plant life within a 30 mile radius.  I can take it because I have an MBA and had my yawn glands removed as a child.  I will not subject you to that sort of TMI (Too Much Information for the humans among us) but instead go from the general to the specific in a gradual manner.  Just as you would not empty your manure pond into your vegetable field all at once, I will feed you financial manure at a rate that can be absorbed. We bought… Read the rest of this article »

Sorry for the departure.  We’ve been working sun up till sun down and it’s been above average temps here in the pacific northwest.  All the farmers around here have a glow of joy about them as we’re actually getting a summer (and a tan!).  Our csa has enjoyed our heirloom variety tomatoes now for three weeks.  Although that’s great news and we’re stoked to be filling our CSA shares with those vine ripe goody balls, we’ re missing the income… Read the rest of this article »

I’ve been farming long enough now (on other people’s farms) to have a pretty good idea of what kind of infrastructure and equipment I wanted.  I have seen how many farms create space for their CSA members, wash their produce, store their equipment, and select tools to manage their field operations.  Now, I know that many farmers follow the “boot-strap” method of finance - just buying the equipment and buildings they can pay for out of pocket, adding more as time goes on. … Read the rest of this article »

Want to know how much it costs to start up a farm? How much it costs to fence in an acre of land? On a monthly basis the Freshman Farmers will be posting their budgets, lists of expenses, and general financial information. Hopefully this information will help budding farmers be able to budget for and plan for the expected and unexpected, secure funding from CSAs and/or banks, and run a successful farm! Read the rest of this article »