Christopher Staley

Gosh Cathy that is so true!  I will say this.  It's hard to market without products, so they will go hand in hand.  Also, there can be changes that you will have to roll with.  For example, you may start a market garden and next thing you know a pandemic happens and what once was is no longer.  

Edit:. I just wanted to add. I know everyone had to deal and adapt with the pandemic.  In my case, I live in a more rural area with a lot of small towns nearby frequented on the weekends by people escaping the city. The restaurants in these towns were a bit more upscale and more likely to buy local produce.  This dryed up just as I began trying to market.  Hopefully we can slowly get back, but I'm sure everyone has had to adapt their marketing a bit lately.

Mike Haasl wrote:One detail to consider is how much money you'll actually make.  After expanding the gardens, buying all the stuff, putting your time in, buying a new place, etc.  Will you be making $100 a market or $500?  If it's $100 would your time have been better spent at a workee job?

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that market farming isn't a quick/easy buck.  It's lots of hard work.  Even after putting in the hard work it might just not be worth the money earned.

Sorry to be the devil's advocate or a downer but it's worth doing the math...

As one who has spent the last four years building a market garden, I think the statement above sums up the reality of a one person market garden. I feel like you will have to charge a premium for your crops to make enough profit to afford inputs and to live. That typically means the big city, or farmers markets where the big city comes to shop on the weekend. It took me four years to build my soil and the infrastructure to run a market garden, but I am finding it difficult to find avenues to sell. Ultimately I will likely end up at a farmers market many miles away closer to the big city where I have to pay a fee to have a booth. There just isn't a lot of extra money for booths, marketing, gas, compost, etc...

I have so much to add but want to go back through this thread and add my 2 cents to several outstanding comments by others when I have a little more time.