This is where most farmers fail.

I tried to mix my own soil, which was a disaster.

Couldn't get that consistent mix.

I just didn't have the handling equipment to handle that much potting soil and mix it all consistently.

Then I thought, "I'll just go to the local co-op and get the cheapest potting soil that they have." But the problem is that that's been sitting there for a year, it could be just dead.

And in fact, I would just find that some seeds wouldn't even germinate.

Like, it was like a germination inhibitor was in that stuff.

Ray's sales exploded when he started bagging and labeling his product to look like a premium one.

He was selling something that was a premium product that people couldn't find anywhere else.

It's a very popular crop.

It was very clear to me early on that this was gonna be the one item that if I could figure out consistent production through the shoulder seasons, the dead of winter, dead of summer, that this could really help cash flow our farm dream.

So from the time you seed to the time you can harvest, you're looking at seven to eight weeks, and that's really good.

Say, a tomato, you could be easily at four to five months from the time that you seed to the time that you're getting that full harvest window from that crop.

Ray had a choice, chase short-term profits and burn out the land, or slow down, build up the soil, and build a business model that could last.

If that was the only crop you wanted to grow and sell, I think that is definitely possible, but you do have to look at your soil health.

That can be worked around either by adding, say, a few inches of compost, good quality compost that's been tested between each crop rotation, which I've done before, or you're doing some kind of cover crop or maybe another cash crop like radishes or turnips or maybe kale.