Selling produce with my brother at the Hood River Farmer’s Market community stand.
By DC Ruhlen, Age 13. Aug. 24, 2017. When my parents first took out our front lawn for a fruit and veggie garden and planted grape vines in our backyard, I didn’t really understand what their purpose was. I was five years old! I was told the plants could provide food and shade.
I was curious about the beings living in the soil. I also loved going to the Hood River Farmers Market for the food and music, and saw people selling their own produce at booths. That’s what got me thinking that maybe I could sell produce of my own at the market and make some money!
Sometimes I wondered why fresh-picked organic food seemed to cost so much. Perhaps it was easy to make money, because all I would have to do was go out and pick it. I soon found that there was a lot more work involved in selling at the market than I anticipated. I started selling produce at the end of the summer of 2016.
On Saturdays, to prepare I would wake up at 7:30 a.m., get out a stepladder, and start gingerly picking my figs and baby kiwis, trimming my grape bunches, soaking them in water to clean them, picking out the bad ones, then getting to the market. Next was weighing, pricing, and standing at the table for hours with my brother selling them.
After all the work from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., I estimated that I made $5 an hour (after giving 10 percent of the profits to the market). That wasn’t even counting watering and plant maintenance by my family, but this was a good profit for 12-year old me.
This summer I decided to dedicate more of my time to caring for the plants themselves to see how hard the journey from seed to fruit is.
A lot of time is required to water, care for, trim, inspect, and harvest your plants and its bounty—not to mention that at any time your plants could get a serious disease or insect infestation. This summer, some of our grapes have powdery mildew and a bug is eating the leaves. It is worrisome. We also won’t get any kiwis to sell this year, probably due to a lack of pollination of the male and female plants. You have to be dedicated to grow crops.
There are however, many environmental benefits to growing a garden. It is estimated that if every lawn in America was a fruit and veggie garden, there would be enough food to feed the entire country. Gardens also: keep more CO2 out of the air, encourage pollinators to stay, and provide habitat.
Also, when food is bought at the farmers market, more money stays in the economy. It tastes better. It’s a win-win for everybody. I believe that with all the problems in the world, growing a garden is helpful, because it fixes multiple problems at once!
Selling produce for the first time taught me the importance of time and resources, but it also taught me how important local farmers are to the economy. Head down to the farmers market sometime, and maybe sometime you could try some of my delicious goods!
In our .17 acre city lot we get 4 kinds of grapes, kiwis, figs, plums, raspberries, blackberries, currants, blueberries, kale, chard, herbs, beans, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, and more. Most of it is eaten by our family.
Before
Garden beds installed 2009
2017- Veggies and me – still growing!
DC: Great article! You inspire me to plant more garden — I have bits of propertythat could be productive, too. Thanks for the insights on what it takes to be an urban gardener, and take care of our little corner of the world.
Right on man!! Thanks and good luck with your garden. – DC
Good work, DC. I had a similar start to my own gardening career. Keep growing!
Thanks. Same to you!
Great article DC, there’s so much to apply to gardening, math, science, geology, culinary skills, business, marketing, biology, home economics, you name it. I’m also really impressed with your dedication and thoughtfulness around which crops do best in your yard. Keep it up. And thanks very much for participating in our Gorge Grown Market telling your story there makes everyone’s shopping experience that much richer.