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About Urban Farmer Curtis Stone:
Curtis Stone runs a commercial urban farm called Green City Acres out of Kelowna, BC, Canada. His mission is to show others how they can grow a lot of food on small plots of land and make a living from it. Using DIY and simple infrastructure, one can earn a significant living from their own backyard or someone else’s.
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You're awesome I've been following for a while and just wanted to say I've got to come to your event in QC Arizona!
I've learned so much from your videos, thank you.
Darn it… I grow corn! Nah corn works as a high value crop for me b/c I have 3/4 acre, works out to be about $60 per hour in earnings. I wouldn't do it on 1/4 acre, as you say it's about context.
Thank you for these videos, you have changed my life for the better, and I respect you a great deal.
For reference, a quarter acre is also approximately 104 foot square. This video answers a question I have had, namely: What is your yield from total area to planted bed area? It looks like you are averaging about 2,000 linear bed feet on a quarter acre; times 2.5 feet wide gives 5,000 square feet of planted bed area. This is about a 50% yield on available space. Since your beds are spaced at 10 inches or so (and definitely not 30 inch paths) I find this a little surprising, i.e. a low yield. Edges and ends – are they using up that much space?
I have a 20×40 allotment for 800 square feet; with a fence I lose some at the edges. I use a 2×4 foot frame for my standard little beds, and get about 65 beds. 65×8 = 520 square feet out of 800 for 65% yield. I guess I am surprised you don't have a higher yield, because I know how much you value your space.
On a related note, I know from your background how you appreciate a good metric. To me, it seems the obvious metric is value yield (either gross sales or profit) per standard bed per week. I calculated this once from a chart from Jean Martin Fortier's garden, and then ranked the crops by that metric. It seems to me that this metric provides a summary of all the considerations in your CVR. A few of JMF's crops were surprisingly low on this measure, but that may reflect the need to have a broad variety for the market or CSA.
The other metric is of course "UTILIZATION." This is the number of beds you manage to keep in production each week over the season. Suppose, for example, you have a 25 week growing season and 100 beds, for a total of 2,500 potential bed-weeks. You can measure your effectiveness keeping them in production. Similarly, your use of season extensions increases your available bed-weeks during the growing season.
Nothing fundamentally new here, just a different way of looking at the numbers. i.e. I am sure you have been all over this for years.
Another awesome video. You and Stefan Sobkowiak have inspired another farm! Closing on 5 acres next week.
Curtis, I love your enthusiasm and your willingness to share your knowledge. You are inspiring. I love learning from you!!
Great video, what zone do you need to garden that way? I live in 3b.
LOL… Wanna go broke on very small (micro) farm, grow something that takes lot of space and time. Broccoli and Cauliflower not to mention cabbage. yup! over 3 square feet of space (0.33 square meters approx) and wait around 100 days to harvest for what? so around 2500 heads of broccoli in a season for 1/4 acre (and I'm being very generous) Oh lordy… That's another way to look at it.
tomatoes, cukes, peppers are good money makers especially if you can grow them up a trellis for the first two. And if you have a market, herbs such as basil makes good money. except we just can't get our act together for the basil market. 🙁 But we make a killing on cukes, pepper and of course tomatoes. Lettuce and baby greens do make good money. So for those still thinking about it, look at the needs of the crop in terms of space and in time and see if the gross sale of the crop justifies the space it needs and the time it needs.
If you want to go broke, most definitely, grow corn, potatoes, giant winter squash, asparagus, rhubarb and wheat. something just as bad is cane berries and blueberries.
Remember too that lot of backyard gardeners grow what else tomatoes and summer squash. So you'll be competing with the backyard gardeners. Tis why we stay away from things like sweet million, San Marzano tomatoes, raven zucchini etc.
One thing we do in our greenhouse, we even plant in the walk-way. We plant the walkway with something really short transplant-harvest time and plant areas next to it with something that takes time. Harvest things like radish in the walk-way then harvest full size lettuce 3 weeks later from the "beds". yeah tempted to walk on the radish to check on the lettuce don't you.
Anyway, good info about total cost of crop. And congrats on your new baby.
thanks for the inspiration,im going to start with 1 of 3 acres I have. question,my soil is clay, very flat,should I go raised beds, what amendments to add to make it more suitable to grow? thanks and this question goes out to anyone.thanks
haha "CORN… DON'T EVER GROW CORN"
ok , thank you that helps,was very undecided on how to start these beds,i know clay gets hard here in Texas,didnt realize the drainage issue. I have heard that raised beds need more water, in ground not as much, but I can't drain the soil,i can however water it .thanks for the input.
https://www.facebook.com/freedomfarmsfoundation/posts/1393346140729988
I know of an herb that fetches over $1,000 per lb.
That crop of sunflower shoots looks great, I bought the same seed lot from Mumms after you mentioned it in an earlier video and the quality has been on point. Thanks for the lead!
4 crop outs in Canada? Maybe in Kelowna but not very many other places in CA are like that, here in Alberta its not safe to plant anything till after May long as it almost always snows or says frosty till then.
Curtis, I d/l the Quarter Acre workshop. Great content. My only question, can we get the presentation that you used? Would make a great reference.
On Yotem's plot (sp?), there is a section of curved beds which would seem to make maintenance tougher. Is there a reason why he chose to curve them instead of straight like the adjacent sections?
Who do you go talk to to get these contracts to base your sales off of? Just start cold calling / cold knocking stores and restaurants? Or do you find out what they need then work out the contract after you get an idea of what you can supply them?
The only guy that can shoot a video in a greenhouse with loud ass fans running full tilt and still have clear sound
This episode is FIRE.
Hi Curtis;
Does the Digital tools include templates of your spreadsheets?
Say Curtis If you do not mind or know off hand what are the dimensions of your property. I am trying decide & find out my bed sizes & number of them I can fit into 3 acres.
Curtis, my daughter bought me your book, also the book of Jean-Martin. How much would your digital mode set me back, ( or hopefully, thinking positively, ahead)?
Question: With regards to the Digital Tools package, if your not physically shipping anything and the payment is through Paypal, why are you requesting all of the personal data ie: address, phone etc. before allowing the purchase to go through?
Can someone help me work out this math with a quarter acre which is 10,890 Square feet. A little under 2,000 linear feet of beds at 2.5 feet wide is what Curtis mentions. I get 5,000 square feet which is a little under an 1/8 acre, an acre being 43,560 square feet. I share the same plot size so I’m eager to know but my calculations tell me it’s an 1/8 acre. With path space it would be around a quarter acre is that what’s included in your calculation?
I love your Advises …. Bravo from Paris …
How much do you make profit
i wanna do this
I wonder if it’s 80k NZ dollars or Canadian