S5 ● E7 Where to start in farming? (Help direct my book!)

So you remember since last summer I've been talking about writing another book or. Well, it started as an ebook, looking at helping people with how to choose which enterprises they could consider running based on their property size, the value they need to get out for their income, the skills and resources they have, the marketplace they have, etc. Well, that's turned into a bit of a book project that I've talked about in a few videos, but plans have radically changed. I've taken taking some time out now to go and finish that book before the spring. So I just want to let you know about that and you can have input on the book at this stage still. So this idea really developed into a whole book because I feel like having watched thousands of people come through our trainings on farm and abroad at other people's places, I see that people really get stuck in ideas. They arrive at a project knowing what they want to do before they look at what the land is capable of producing or wants to do, as it were, and sort of this idea of imposing their ideas on the landscape. And as a designer for nearly half my life, I'm really interested in how we allow the landscape to, you know, lead us to the appropriate enterprise choices. And I think a lot of people have trouble getting into the scale that they need to run an enterprise at to make it work for a livelihood. And based on all this, I started to put together some ideas last summer and it's developed into a whole book which I think will be really helpful for people starting out. And it doesn't really exist in the literature there. And knowing from my own journey, like looking up, say, Joel Salatin's pastry poultry books, and then trying to compare that enterprise with something written 20 years later in a different country by a market gardener. There's no way to easily compare enterprises and that's the strength I feel, of this book. It's going to compare pastured poultry in terms of layers, broilers, turkeys, etc. Tree nurseries, tree crops, market gardens, microgreens, pasture raised lamb and micro dairies, as well as forest raised pigs. Look at them all and in a comparative and analytical way to help people get started. So it's going to start by an introduction looking at why we need regenerative agriculture, what it is, and then it's going to go into why farms typically fail, things that I've, you know, pattern languages I've observed around the world and. And then it's going to go into an overall comparison of all of them, looking at things like how friendly Is this enterprise for a newbie? What sort of capital investments are necessary? What things are absolutely required? What things ideally you should have and what things you might have if you want a bit more luxury or simplicity. So, like a must should could of each enterprise, what sort of daily time you can expect to put in, what sort of additional weekly chores you could put in, how easy it is to market that product typically, how easy is to store that product, how easy it is to value add that product, how good it is for landscapes, you know, how does it contribute to building soil, how much is the minimum land needed? And what I want to do is put together like a general infographic, like comparing these things. I think it's going to be a really visual book. Lots of infographics, lots of images, and I want to break it so far. This is what I'm thinking. This is what I'd like your input on. I want to scale each enterprise to make a family income. Here in Sweden, I thought about not putting things in financial terms because obviously that's going to be different for people all over the world. And someone will say, hey, well, broilers looks better where you are than layers, but over here it's the other way around. Of course this is going to be the case, but I think, you know, all the other information is still going to be really relevant. The time needed, you know, the materials needed, the minimum space needed. So you can really analyze. Yeah, this is my time, place and circumstance. And this looks like the best enterprise for me. I've got two hectares, I've got this much money to invest, I need this much out. Here's two things I, you know, can really see working and then you need to go and check it in your own marketplace and time, place, circumstance. But I've been really encouraged to do this by a lot of our followers because it really doesn't exist in the literature out there. And the fact that we have these diverse enterprises going on here means that the value of that comparative analysis is really beneficial because it's all coming from one place. So even if the numbers are different where you live, the relative values are the same as it were, because it's coming from the same place. So I think it's really cool and I love the concept. So I wanted to do some infographics, like quick analysis of each one and then it will go into a chapter of each enterprise. So this is a way it will update our other book, Making Small Farms Work and go into, like how things have changed on our farm. So it will be a More up to date version of what we do. And so you'll have an overview of how each enterprise works here and then we'll go into detail of each of those headings from the larger infographics. So it'll break down the economy in detail. We'll do an economy for a whole farm, for a whole family income, which is about €30,000 here. So it means you've got to generate 55, €56,000 of profit from that enterprise to draw that €30,000 salary out, as it were, from tax perspective. So how many microgreens a week is that? It's about 34 kilos a week. You know, how many eggs is that? How many hens do I need to get that value out? And then because most of these enterprises work synergistically together, I thought I'll then break it down to a €10,000 output. So how many hens do you need for a €10,000 output, how many microgreens a week for this, etc. So there's a bit of a, you know, because some people will say, right, I want to start off with one enterprise, nail it, get my income out of that, and then I'll start branching out. And some people will want to start, you know, a couple of things at once. So it will give a comparative scale of like, okay, this is how it goes. So I think that's the way I'll approach it. But I'm open to suggestion and yeah, so each chapter will go into a lot of detail of the overview of the enterprise. Then breaking down finances, the typical daily schedule. I'll put photos and infographics of like, the processes. We have weekly and monthly chores that need doing in addition. And then we'll go into summer and winter changes and seasonal variations. You know, market gardening here is a three month frost free growing season, whereas in France you might have nine months or eight months. And so I can relay what sort of income you should expect in that circumstance. So this will be broadly applicable to anyone in Canada, America, Europe, you know, along the same lines of latitude, maybe in Chile, Argentina, etc. It's for temperate and cold temperate climates specifically. We'll go into product storability, marketability, we'll go into value adding, different options there, look at different potential business plans for that, labor inputs. I'll go into, I think, concerns and contextual points because, you know, for example, what did it cost to set up a market gardens? Well, about €24,000, but €8,000 of that was building a pond for irrigation and a pump unit, whereas if you had water from a municipal supply, you wouldn't need to invest 8,000. So those sort of things need contextualizing because I can also understand which bits are going to be very different in different parts of the world, you know. So I'll do a bunch of contextualization and talk about regulations and concerns. Obviously that will be different country to country, but I think I'll be able to point out the sort of main pattern languages and concerns. We'll go into ecological benefits and how each enterprise can integrate with another one. And then I think we'll end up with a chapter on like a checklist and then thinking about marketing and sales and we'll talk about all of our different experiences with sales, like restaurants, CSAs, drop off points, the RICO rings that we work with and end up with sort of another bit about business. There's. So it's really exciting. I'm working on that and I've actually booked in about a month, I'm going away for a month to finish the book. I'm working on it every day, but I only get to put in like 12 hours maximum a day around all the chores, looking after family, etc. Here. So I think it's. I worked out the hours. If I go away for about three weeks working full time, then it will be equivalent to working at the rate I am now for five months. So I actually booked tickets to go take time out and I'm gonna take my screen with me and just set up an office somewhere far away where I have no distractions, where it's very cheap to live and eat out and just focus all my time and get this thing done. I would like to. Originally, you might remember I was gonna put this out as an ebook, but I think it's gonna be a full book. So. So I'm thinking as it goes along I'm going to post information about it and see if people want to have it printed as a book, which I think will be as a reference. It should be as a printed book. I think it won't be a hardcover book like Making Small Farms Work. But what I might do is put out a Kickstarter so people can get a discounted signed book up front somewhere in the spring and hopefully we can cover the printing costs. That's a cool way to do that. It's what we did with Making Small Farms Work. It's a way for you to get a cheaper copy if you want one. And it covers the great expense of printing in the initial case. So I think that's the way we'll run and I'm really excited about it. I think it's going to be an awesome book but there's a lot of information in there. It's a bit of a one take rabble for a YouTube video, but have a think about those things that I've put out there and let me know what you would find useful in such a book. I think it's going to be quite unique and there isn't anything I'm aware of like it. So you know, think updated detailed account of how to run each enterprise mixed in with comparative business analysis to help you select based on your area of land, your financial inputs you want to put into invest and all of that stuff. And what information would you need? What do you want to see in there? I can't obviously include everything but I'm totally open to ideas to make it an awesome resource because I think it's definitely a missing piece in the literature and I'm really happy to do that work so I'm excited to take the time out to finish that. I really hope I can get it done. It's looking good and I feel good about it, but do let me know Anyway, that's all for today. Bit of a one take video but I really appreciate your feedback. I'm really excited about this project and traveling with my office to bring this to you. Thanks as always for watching and you can find out about the farming, making small farms work and hopefully later this year in this book too. See you in the next video. Sam.