By Dani Baker
Becoming Farmers
As my retirement from a professional office job grew near, I began to panic about how I would fill my “idle” time. Living in a small village in a house with a postage-stamp-sized lot, I feared there would not be enough chores to occupy my time, and my aerobic sports activities could not fill the excess. So, in 2005, my partner David and I bought a 102-acre property where I thought I might raise a couple of horses and do a little landscaping. The fantasy of raising horses evaporated when I realized I could not overcome my fear of falling off one, and my dream of doing a little landscaping was put on hold when we decided to become organic farmers. We named our establishment “Cross Island Farms,” which became certified organic by NOFA NY and began a market vegetable garden. Filling time was no longer a problem.
Nineteen years later, we have a diversified enterprise with vegetable, fruit, livestock and agritourism components. We maintain a mom-and-pop operation with an occasional volunteer and no hired staff. I am the fruit and vegetable farmer, and David is the animal guy. He likes to tell people, “If it grows in the dirt, Dani takes care of it; if it poops on the dirt, David takes care of it.”
Trial and Error
Over the years, we have tried innumerable strategies to improve our bottom line. The vegetable operation began selling retail from our farm stand. We expanded to some wholesale venues, including local schools, and tried to sustain sales to local seasonal restaurants for years. Because of the relatively low input costs (seeds, hand-held equipment, manure from our animals) and not counting our labor, which was essentially dawn to dusk for one person (me) during the growing season, the vegetable operation was in the black from the beginning. Yet, its proceeds were insufficient to support us.
And then came the animals: chickens, ducks, pigs, goats, beef cows and the occasional turkeys. The associated expenses of raising animals came with them. The cost of organic grain for the fowl and pigs, imported organic hay for the ruminants, vet supplies, the labor and expense of building fencing and animal housing, fuel for the tractors and repairs to the infrastructure and machinery all added up. Not to mention the loss of fowl to predators, the loss of goats during seasons of inadequate pasture growth, poor quality hay and/or parasite pressures, and the loss of calves and cows to the vagaries of circumstances. We eventually realized how challenging it would be to profit from our livestock operation.
To increase our farm income, we engaged in some agritourism. We offered educational tours of the farm - first for free and then for a fee. We established a few rustic campsites on our property, which cost us very little in time or money but were rarely used due to a 450-site campground with amenities just down the road. We offered U-pick and sold frozen berries and jams. Although each of these enterprises provided a small supplement to our income, none were sufficient to make a substantial difference in our bottom line.
We assumed it was just a matter of time before our farm business became profitable. But as the years passed, I extended my vision of when we would turn the tide on profitability. At first, I thought it would take three years, then five, then ten, then fifteen, then twenty. Then I heard the expression: “twenty-five years and you’re an overnight success,” sardonically implying that it takes a quarter of a century of sweat equity before a business becomes profitable.
Five years into our farming venture, as my frustration grew regarding our inability to become profitable, I attended a NOFA conference where, as I observed the goings-on, I had the following insight: It seemed the agricultural enterprises at our scale that were providing a living had owners who wrote books and went on the lecture circuit in the winter. This realization lingered in my mind as we continued to develop our farm.
Initiating a Novel Enterprise
In the seventh year of the farm, I attended a two-hour class on “Permaculture” by Steve Gabriel, author of Farming the Woods and Silvopasture. I had never encountered the term permaculture before. I knew nothing about the subject, but the permaculture principles Steve introduced made so much sense to me that I decided to plant an edible forest garden there and then, which we named “The Enchanted Edible Forest.”
An edible forest garden is an intentional planting of diverse perennial food plants modeled after a forest edge - also highly diverse. It comprises vertical layers, from groundcovers to shrubs to trees, each layer populated with perennial food-producing plants. Also integrated into the design are plants supporting food producers by providing nutrients and pest protection. Over time, the food forest becomes self-sustaining, even regenerative. As the human labor required to maintain the garden diminishes, the bounty of the harvest grows. In 2013, I began implementing this model on a half-acre plot, and three years later, I expanded the garden to a full acre.
During that third year, I began giving tours of the garden and presentations at NOFA conferences about various aspects of my edible forest. The talks, illustrated by vivid photos of the garden, were very well attended and enthusiastically received. The garden had been established for seven years when, in January of 2020, as I concluded one of these talks at a NOFA NY Conference, I was approached by a Senior Editor from Chelsea Green Publishing who invited me to submit a proposal for a book on the subject of my garden. Despite some trepidation, I realized I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share everything I had learned and discovered while developing the edible forest.
For the proposal, the publisher required an expanded table of contents, two sample chapters, a marketing plan, a detailed art program, and an autobiography. My proposal ran to 50 pages, including seven single-spaced pages outlining the book, which was based to a large extent on the PowerPoint presentations I had been giving about the garden for the past several years. Just over a month after submitting the proposal, I learned it had been accepted. Once a contract with the publisher was finalized, the real work began.
Writing a Book
It was mid-December of 2020. I wanted to complete the manuscript by the first of April, after which all my time would be consumed with the vegetable and edible forest gardens. I realized I needed to discipline myself and determined that to complete the 12 proposed chapters with time to spare, I needed to produce a chapter a week for ten weeks (two chapters were already completed for the proposal). To meet the contractual word count for the manuscript, I had to write 1,800 words a day.
I arose well before sunup each morning and got to work. The detailed table of contents I had prepared for the proposal was essentially an outline of the entire book, making writing relatively easy. I typed between six to eight hours each day until I produced the required words. If I was lucky to finish a chapter before seven days had elapsed, I rewarded myself with a day off from writing. It was fairly smooth going because I had already organized most of the material for talks, and I had pictures of most subjects to stimulate ideas for the page.
I completed the body of the work right on schedule. This left a month before the contracted due date of April 1 to compile a glossary, resource list, bibliography, appendices and art program and arrange all these materials in their proper formats.
Once the manuscript was assembled and submitted, I naively thought the worst was behind me. Then, three months later, the editing began. Although my editors found no fault with my writing, they determined that the book would appeal to a broader audience if it were reorganized entirely and changed from what was more of a journaling format to that of a handbook. I often bristled under my editors’ seemingly endless demands for clarification, elaboration, and requests for copy on additional subjects. After six months of this arduous work, the manuscript was considered ready to submit for copy editing, layout, proofreading, and printing. It was published in May of 2022. Although I found the editing process to be grueling, I am now exceedingly grateful to my editors for helping to make the book much better than I ever thought it could be.
Promoting the Book
One great advantage to having a book produced by a publisher instead of self-publishing is the marketing assistance provided. In self-publishing, the expense of marketing usually falls entirely on the author, and the costs can be prohibitive. On the other hand, Chelsea Green sent the book out to reviewers, connected me with podcasters, facilitated speaking engagements at conferences, and provided marketing assistance in numerous other ways.
In anticipation of the book’s publication, I hired a freelancer to develop a website devoted to the edible forest, where I post a blog, videos, and recordings of podcasts and other presentations. I also initiated a monthly email newsletter.
Once the book was printed, I bought 500 copies from the publisher at a steep discount to sell directly to customers and to wholesale them to roughly a dozen local stores and not-for-profit gift shops. To promote the book in person, I applied to speak at every agricultural conference where information about various aspects of my garden might be of interest. Usually, these venues provide an honorarium in return for a talk, and some even subsidize travel and lodging expenses. I also made myself available to do readings and book signings at local libraries within a reasonable drive. As a result of publishing my book and the publicity surrounding it, I received my first request to consult with local landowners to help them develop their edible forest. I also pitched a gardening series based on the book to our local public television station, which they plan to start shooting this spring and distribute nationally once six episodes are completed. As of this writing, the book has won an award and is in its second printing.
One virtue of publishing and promoting a book through digital media and public appearances is that virtually no manual labor is involved, reducing the strain on the body as one ages. Of course, manual labor continues to be required to develop, maintain, and harvest the fruits of the edible forest. However, since the forest is perennial, growing and changing from year to year, working within it is always new and engaging. And acre by acre, the labor required is considerably less than that needed by an equivalent plot of annual vegetables.
I am just at the beginning of my journey as a published author. However, based on my experience thus far, I suggest that if you believe you have some special knowledge to offer based on your farming or gardening experience and you enjoy writing and public speaking, you might consider giving talks and writing a book as a means of “clever marketing” your enterprise.
Dani Baker is the author of The Home-Scale Forest Garden: How to Plan, Plant and Tend a Resilient Edible Landscape. She is the co-owner of Cross Island Farms and creator of The Enchanted Edible Forest. You can reach her through her website, www.enchantededibleforest.com or by email, danibaker@crossislandfarms.com. Her book is available for sale at the farm and at a number of online venues.
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