$130K/Year Selling Lettuce & Still Turns Down Customers

I

have watermelons and winter squash growing outside.

I'll never grow that stuff again.

But when I planted it, I wasn't necessarily thinking that I was going to have to plan on making a living doing this.

I grew tomatoes this year, which I'm just like, I'm not doing that.

Four hours worth of work every week for $200 worth of tomatoes.

Like maybe not even some weeks.

I think last week I probably made $200 off tomatoes, but like most weeks, not really.

Four hours of work for 200

bucks.

Maybe.

That's what year one looks like for a lot of growers.

You plant everything because you don't know what's going to sell.

Watermelons, squash, tomatoes, salad mix, root crops.

It feels like diversification.

It feels like you're reducing risk.

It feels like you have to grow everything.

But what's actually happening is you're spreading your time across 10 crops.

and getting mediocre at most of them.

I've seen this pattern across so many new farmers.

The farmer who grows 30 things usually can't tell you the actual revenue per bed on any single one.

They know what they planted, they know what they harvested, but they don't always know what it costs to get them there.

Chef Mikey could feel it.

Four hours a week on tomatoes to bring in 200 bucks.

He was running the math in his head and he didn't even need a spreadsheet because the math was telling him something.