I get where you are coming from. The sad reality is that we live in a world of industrial farming; our competitive edge is based on an economy of scales that makes small production unworkable. Take wheat, a bushel is 60 pounds, the wholesale price is currently $7 per bushel. An acre produces on average about 40 bushels, so that’s $280 gross, before all the expenses are accounted for. You have to admit that under that light $2,500 from an acre of apples starts looking mighty attractive.
Even attempting to tap the retail market directly is not that profitable; retailing is extremely labor intensive. What has been effective for me and my microscopic orchard (15 trees, as many bushes, probably hitting 20 each when everything is said and done?) has been selling plants. My Northline Saskatoon is grossing me $70 this year, I transplanted 8 suckers, keeping one and selling the rest for $10 a pop. No way I could efficiently sell the fruit and even if I did it would be a time and labor intensive endeavor.
I think blueberries can last longer in refrigeration, and are more forgiving in terms of being picked before peak greatness, but I have experienced the blackberries which I picked under ripe are bitter and sour and sometimes when they are sweet and perfectly ripe, they become extremely soft and fragile, hence may not be practical for retail sale and storage
That’s great- you are a lucky man! Interestingly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a robin in my cherries. In order of enemies it is always: 1) Catbirds/Mocking Birds (hard to tell difference at distance), 2) Cardinals, 3) Wood Thrush, 4) Blue Jays.
Speaking of your birds going after haskaps first, I’ve read some people say they plant “diversion” trees/plants for the purpose of providing a preferential food to divert birds from something they like better. Sounds like your haskaps do that- though it might not be your prefence for birds to eat them instead of cherries? But I’ve always wondered if the idea of a diversion feed might not work the way Japanese Beetle Traps do…In other words, they certainly will feed wildlife but they might bring in more birds than otherwise would come and many of the newly attracted birds then end up eating cherries. In other words, I wonder if the net effect of diversion crops might be a net loss of what is trying to be protected??? Probably never know for sure, just something I think about. Might even be true for same species of fruit…If I have one Romance cherry bush I’ll have a limited number of birds that feed on it. If i have 3, there will be more cherries but also more birds. I would think at some point the higher number of trees would mean more net cherries survive, but I’m not sure- especially over long term the population might just grow to meet the food availability? hmmm.
i suspect a large factor in this is due to the easier mechanical harvesting of blueberries. (ie, graft on sparkelberry, have a machine with a catch net under the stemmed bush and just shake to bush for harvest)
As far as im aware there’s not a efficient mechanical harvester for fresh undamaged blackberries.
Strawberries can be quite productive.
So can grapes. If also seen monster harvests of quince. But dunno if your area is fire blight prone. However, as far as im aware apple is one of if not the highest yielding fruit per surface. (in current comercial production) surpased by tomoto if you consider that a fruit.
I think however it’s an unfair comparison if you compare something low vs something high. The shadow the higher bush will trow, might decrease the yield of the next plant due to shading.
If you take shading into account. And don’t mind shading of walkways. you could use http://shadowcalculator.eu/
If discribed how to use it in more detail in this post.
If used it to determine the shade length a tree gives. For me for a east west row, the shade length is approx the tree hight. So im makeing that my row width.
And plant something like goosberries that tolerate the semi shade that tree creates in the shade of that tree. This will likely increase effective yield per sq feet.
Although i like productive fruit plants. I think a more intresting question is how to maximise yield, for most fruits.
I think maximizing light interception and airflow. Minimizing unwanted shading and disease and unwanted overly vigerous growth would be an excelent way to go.
You are exactly right about the profit potential for many large scale farms who sell commodities at the market price. These folks make a lot of money when prices are high and weather is good, but can loose big time when prices are low. My 30 years of experience with small farms is very different. Lots of small growers in my area have learned to make a comfortable living selling direct to the consumer but it takes a lot of effort, knowledge and experience. We have found that a basic knowledge of finance really helps too.
Most small farmers we see in my area produce high value annual crops often in a high tunnel or some type of free range chickens or eggs. This type of farm depends on large amounts of grunt labor to make it happen along with very high sales prices, but we have seen some small farms that generate over 50K per acre!
Our process is very different, It’s capital intensive initially when the trees/bushes are planted but does not require a lot of labor or other inputs once the establishment cost are paid for, except for Apples where the chemical bill is too high… We sell most of the 5 acres of fruit we grow in just two 5 hour days for 10 hours per week… The target for gross sales is $1000 per hour on a good day. The revenue target is 25K per acre. Once the cost of establishing the fruit is paid for, the out of pocket cost of production is small which creates a high profit margin. We are a “price maker” where we set the selling price as opposed to a being a “price taker” like farmer growing and selling commodities like wheat, corn of even large scale commercial fruit.
The transition I see from large scale industrial ag to a more sustainable system of small farms is real and growing. It’s positive in just about every way except it requires the local food to be sold for high prices relative to the supermarket. In most cases the quality is higher so a higher sales price is justified. Unfortunately, a substantial portion of society struggles to afford the price of industrial food and will probably never be big customers for me
For backyard growing, I tend to do more of a general net calculation. Initial cost+maintenance costs+labour+space is compared to $ value of crop+rarity or our personal desire for that crop+quality difference to commercially available+ processing time/labour.
So far, we had several years where the big winner was the fall bearing red raspberries. Tons of production with very little costs in and deeply valued. Sadly, they don’t take drought well and we have root borers so they have mostly dropped off.
As they get older, the sour cherry trees are moving up as are the pear trees. I expect the pears to be top very soon. ( if our lying freeloaders plums trees ever produced for the flowers they set, they would have been top of the heap years ago. As things stand, they are possibly getting taken out next year)
Blueberrythrill, thanks for taking the time to put together that detailed post, great info.
My house is on 1.14 acres of land, probably tap close to .20 that I can dedicate to trees and bushes plus other areas where plants will make it but not on 100% sun. I still have 12~13 years until I retire and the plan is to make about $20k a year in various endeavors to augment my retirement income. I’m cheating by doing the capital investments now as part of my hobbies, and will contribute the cheap labor (myself) once I retire.
On the plant front I’m currently I’m building my plant library, meaning growing the bushes and trees that will provide me with the material to reproduce. I’m also building my skills, specially in the reproduction of hard to start varieties such as sour cherries; nothing works to keep the competition at bay than to raise the skill bar. Next year I’ll put down a 20’ by 10’ lean-to green house that will greatly increase my short season.
Based on some low level sales (to test assumptions and to further fund my hobby) It should not take much effort to turn $5k a year on plant sales. I should be able to bring another $500 running a you-pick operation, and may streamline sweet cider production to the point I could efficiently bring in another $1,000 through that venue. It may not sound like much but when it comes on top of an already funded retirement and I enjoy doing it, well it will keep me busy and happy.
Don, if you want small scale money streams, consider doing at least a couple of preserves with your produce.
Sour cherries can make a very easy and delicious jam. Lots of other jams are also quite simple to do, and if you are growing the fruits, you get all of the end product, added value rather than just moving the raw materials.
Relishes made at home are shockingly tastier than any commercial.
It might be possible to rent or join a co-op that allows for small scale commercial kitchen or processing space.
I expect you could move a decent amount just to your other stream clients or at holiday sales.
I did the math and it is just not worth it. While I’m in line to produce a good amount of cherries and apples I can probably consume most of the cherries myself and for the apples I do plan on funneling the abundance into cider, so anything beyond personal consumption I’m sure I can dispose of, I just don’t think it will be that much
The rest? Well as I said on my limited space the rest of my bushes are my plant library, there to provide material for reproducing bushes. As such I may have two of a given variety at most, so I have limited capacity for production and once again; most goes to personal consumption or to gift away. Besides it is too small a scale to really make much gains in efficiency to make it worth it; instead of making $2 a square foot of soil from fruit I end up making $4, in exchange for hours of labor.
The respectable amount of money seem to be on bushes, specially the edible kind. I can gross $40 per square foot with the end product in half gallon pots that fit four to a square foot. The lean-to green house I planning on putting up will have a working capacity of around 96 square feet; between that indoor space, outdoor space, and able to provide plants for summer and fall planting, I can really maximize the use of my limited space while just eating everything that grows
Who knows. For now i’m just experimenting, learning, and testing the market with some sales. Between now and retirement I’m bound to figure ways to fine tune my approach. I may do volume of starter plants to sell to nurseries bypassing retail, or find that starter veggies and herbs are extra profitable. What I do know is that I like growing plants and the intellectual challenge of figuring out efficient methods and processes.
Don, that comment about haskaps and cherries hurts. I have wild seedling sweet cherries as sacrificial offering, followed by Himalayan blackberries. But I only have 10 haskap bushes - getting to about 8’ tall now.
Last year I was able to make 1 half pint jar of haskap jam, plus probably ate a few handfuls My varieties like to drop when whey are ripe, so pick one, bump off 2. I like the video I saw of using a kiddie pull with a slit in it to surround the bush.
I did net one year, which helped a bunch. I threw a net over the rows and held it to the ground with steel conduit. But I’ll need to clean out some of the blackberry volunteers in the rows before I dare make such a tangle.
For productivity, and ease of harvest, its hard to beat Aronia. Unfortunately they aren’t the best tasting. I like the juice, from masticating juicer, but the much easier steam extracted tastes awful to me. I do like eating them directly from the bush when they are dead ripe and juicy though.
Oh, trust me; any haskaps those bastards get is not on purpose. I net my bushes and in the morning I would find about 10 robins testing my defenses with at least one that managed to get in. That’s the one that gets a near heart attack when I run outside yelling like a maniac.
I love chokeberries, my daughter specifically loves them in cheesecake. They are like lemons, you can’t judge a lemon because you can’t just eat one off the tree. The juice gets reduced into jelly and syrups, the mush we cook with sugar and use on oat bars.
i have 2 bushes always loaded with fruit but no one likes them. ive tried different recipies and still dont like them. i like tart even sour fruit but that dry astringency gets me everytime. like you , i let them on the bush until they start to wrinkle. i can eat a few fresh but thats it. any tips on how to use them that actually tastes good?
Dude, they are fantastic. Literally think lemons; it would be completely unfair if somebody would attempt to eat one fresh and declare the fruit inedible.
Get a bunch, wash, throw on a pot, add a ton of sugar, and with a potato smasher mush the thing as it cooks. Once you get a goey purple mess use the potato smasher to drain the liquid into another container. That liquid is what you process into syrup and jellies. It should be extremely sweet like something you would use for pancakes.
Don’t dare to throw the mush away. You can add a few spoonfuls to make jams instead of jellies, but another household favorite is on oatmeal bars. As a matter of fact any dry fruit mush left over from extracting juice or jelly is a candidate. Here is the basic recipe:
1 cup peanut butter. The real deal, not jiffy or similar abomination.
1/2 cup honey
3 cups rolled oats
In the microwave warm up the peanut butter and honey (or double boiler on the stove top) to soften it up. Work the oats into the mix. Line an 8x8 pan with parchment paper. Transfer the gooey mess and flatten with a spoon. Chill in the refrigerator to set. Once set cut into bars shape with a knife, at this point it should be fine for room temperature.
But! That’s just the basic recipe. Chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruits, fruit pulp, caramel chunks, dip one side in chocolate, sprinkle some sea salt, add a tablespoon or two of good single malt, a hint of molasses with the honey, there are many many many ways to do this right. To answer your question add the sweet sweet chokeberry mush and distribute well, you won’t even be able to tell that there are seeds in it.
If all else fails in a glass pour an ounce of syrup, two ounces of club soda, an ounce (or two) of vodka, add crushed ice and garnish with a branch of mint leaves. if that doesn’t make you fall in love with chokeberries it was just not meant to be.
i like lemons and limes sprinkled with a little sugar but aronia not so much. i have a european steam juicer. ill try juicing them. ill try the oatmeal bars too. have all kinds of stuff i could throw in them. hate to waste such healthy fruit. tried them dehydrated and they taste almost burnt. still have 20lbs in the freezer taking up space since last summer. get about 35-40lbs from those 2 bushes. ones viking the other is a polish cultivar i dont remember the name.
I have a steam juicer and did not find it to improve any of the qualities. For some reason, juice from a masticating juicer is much better, especially after a few days in the fridge. Reminds me of POM wonderful pomegranate juice. Maybe it’s the ground up then strained out seeds and skin that make it better.
My varieties like to drop when whey are ripe, so pick one, bump off 2. I like the video I saw of using a kiddie pull with a slit in it to surround the bush.