Updated on December 15, 2025 by Ruth
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Farming is challenging. Every year seems to bring more challenges, with volatile weather, uncertain pricing, supply chain issues, or labor shortage as some of the big issues. Then there is weather, predators, equipment failure, marketing, social media, customers, and time pressures for some of the daily issues. I know, weather is listed twice; weather is always top of the mind for farmers.
The goal of all of this is to sell what you grow and make it worthwhile to do it all over again. So if your goal is to grow food for yourself and sell directly to customers, then let’s look at the options. Note: my experience is growing fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers, not in meat production. Many of the principles can still apply, so read on.
How do you survive all of the random things that can come your way?
Table of Contents
Diversity of crops and sales opportunities to ensure profit
For small acreage farmers, diversity of crops is key. Most farmers with small acreage like the variety of crops for a number of reasons. First, this is what you and your family eat. Second, if one crop fails there is a different one that can succeed. Third, the variety helps build appeal to your customers if you sell direct to consumer.
In addition to diversity of crops, you want to have a diversity of sales venues. I recommend to all my clients that you should have at least two different ways of selling your produce.
Why the emphasis on diversity? If one crop fails, for whatever reason, there should be two more to take its place. If one sales venue falters, there is another way to sell your produce. Think of it as your back up plan in action.
What are some different sales venues for small farms?
Sales opportunities can be a Community Supported Agriculture program and an on-farm market. It can be a farmers market and online orders. It can be a delivery service and sales through a food hub. It can be restaurant sales and pop up markets. Whatever combination works for you is what is good.
Each sales venue requires a different support system. If it is an online ordering system, then someone monitors the orders, someone packs the order, and someone delivers or has it ready for pick up at the right time and in the right place. Who does the delivery? Who labels the order?
If you have an on-farm market, then someone preps the produce for display, someone sells and does check out. Do you provide bags or do the customers bring their own? Who creates the price signs? Is there a scale for weighing the produce? Does your system provide a receipt? If you rely on the honor system, what will you do if someone is not honorable?
Farmers Markets for Diversifying Profit
If you sell at a farmers market, you need a vehicle to get to the market, containers to pack the produce, tables and a tent, price signs, a farm sign, and display props, a way to process sales, both cash and credit card. In addition, one or two people need to drive there, set up, sell, take down, and get everything back to the farm. Once you have your market props, you use them over and over. It is an up-front investment.
Farmers markets can be an excellent way for new farmers to sell their produce. If you do not have a large quantity of produce at first, consider partnering with a complementary farmer. If you grow vegetables, can you work with someone who grows mushrooms? Or who makes salsas, jams, pickles? Or are you inspired to make some shelf-stable products to increase your offerings? This could be soaps, salves, herbal-scented sprays, etc. It takes time and practice to learn how to grow enough for a market, how to display, and how to maximize your sales.
If you do not yet have a following, a farmers market is a good way to get your produce in front of a lot of people in one day. Look for farmers markets that have a good quantity of people coming to the market. You want people who like the idea of supporting local farmers and buying directly from the farmer. If the market is in an area where everyone has a backyard garden and is on a tight budget, this will be difficult to make enough to pay for your time going.
Be sure to collect email addresses to build your mailing list. You can remind customers that you will be at the market and what additional products you will bring.
Selling to Restaurants for Profit
If you sell to restaurants, I recommend strongly having at least one other way to sell your produce. Restaurants are often the first to suffer effects from changes in the economy and the last to recover. Restaurants open and close easily. The chefs may continue to order from you, but the volume can drop dramatically. Having another way to sell means you can continue to sell to the restaurant until circumstances improve.
If you are a microgreens grower and restaurants are your primary customers, work on developing an alternate sales route. You may want to have a distributor that you can sell to as well or have direct to consumer sales at a farmer’s market.
It helps if you can be organized. Set up specific delivery days that you can deliver to the restaurant. Charge a delivery fee. Contact the chef to get the order, allowing yourself enough time to harvest, prep, and pack. Most restaurants have miniscule storage and rely on frequent deliveries.
Do not feel that you have to discount your produce heavily in order to sell to restaurants. They pay premium prices from the large food companies. Your product will be fresher, more flavorful, and comes with a story—“the family farm just x miles away” is a story that helps sell the entrée on the menu.
We have a select number of restaurants that we work with. Although it is a small percentage of our business, we derive some public relations benefit from this as well. The restaurant notes us as a partner on the menu—salad items from Highland Orchards on Foulk Road. Even if people don’t order the salad, they see our name. Free marketing!
Be clear regarding ordering, delivery, and payment. Some restaurants can be slow at paying. Until a restaurant has shown that it can pay promptly, I collect payment at delivery.
Diversity of crops for profit
To maximize your profits on a small farm, you want a variety of crops. Looks at your sales venues and calculate how much of each crop you can sell weekly. That gives you an idea of what quantity to plant. Remember, just because it is “easy” for you to grow does not mean you should ignore it as a profitable crop. What is easy for us as farmers is NOT easy for the vast majority of the population.
Leafy greens like lettuce, arugula, kale, and chard are consistently in demand. They are staples in many households and restaurants. We sell these crops all four seasons. They germinate easily and quickly, mature quickly, and sell themselves.
Are you growing some of the high demand herbs? Basil, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, thyme, and mint are requested every single day. Fresh herbs help attract the customers that enjoy cooking. Home chefs are ideal customers for farms which sell fresh produce. Restaurant chefs are also optimal customers for fresh herbs. They already know how to use them and love having fresh cut herbs. Herbs can help boost your diversity in growing and your profitability.
Look at the crops that grow easily in your area. These will be the ones that come to maturity soonest, have the fewest problems with pests, and sell consistently. Consider the best options for each season. It is always more profitable to grow with the weather than to try to grow in spite of the weather.
Can flowers be a good way to build profit diversity?
Flowers are beautiful, make people feel good, and are fun to grow. They can also be time consuming and expensive.
By no means am I trying to talk you out of growing flowers as a side to your primary farm operation. After all, we do. I will tell you, though, that I have spent years figuring out how to make flowers profitable. The biggest challenge is the time spent cutting and arranging. It is very easy to spend more time on arranging the flowers than you will ever be able to recover in pricing.
There are three main paths for flower profitability.
First, sell the flowers to local florists. They will pay for the flowers by the stem. Florists are looking for long stems, 18-24” or longer, and will pay $1-$2 or more per stem, depending on the variety. You will need to deliver to the florist. This has the advantage of not needing to arrange and you can move the flowers as soon as you have cut them. You do need buckets and a vehicle to deliver to the florists.
Second, arrange the flowers for high end venues such as parties and weddings. You can charge a premium price. You need a good eye for design, the appropriate support materials and vases, and a way to transport the flowers to the destination. This may include working with specific flowers or growing for specific occasions. One flower farmer I know books events at least a year in advance and then grows the colors and varieties that are ordered.
Third, you can sell the flowers on your farm or at your stand at a farmers market. These can be sold by the stem or in bouquets. For profitable bouquets, you want to be able to assemble them very quickly. Your goal is to arrange and wrap a bouquet in under five minutes. One way to do that is to keep the bouquets simple, all one flowers. Bouquets of tulips, peonies, or sunflowers are beautiful as is. You count the number of stems, trim, and bundle. We sell most of our flowers now through a Flower CSA Subscription. Extra flowers are sold in the market. Flowers are a great addition to any venue, bringing color and elegance to your display.
If you want to grow only flowers, then you build the diversity into your program. Have high end bouquets, mid-priced bouquets, and flowers by the stem. Find the system that sells the most flowers at the best price for you. Monitor your time carefully to make sure that you charge enough for the bouquets to cover your time. That is how you make sure you maintain a profit. Giving away your time is not sustainable.
Crop culture diversity increases profits
What is “crop culture?” This is which crop you grow in which location at the specific time of year. You might also think of it as crop rotation, but there is a bit more involved than just rotation.
For instance, we reduced the aphid pressure in our tunnels during the winter growing season by adjusting our crops and how long we harvested from each crop. We limited the number of times we cut the arugula to three times and then removed the old plants. The longer the arugula sticks around in the winter, the more likely we were to have aphids appear. This is a problem for us only in the darker, damper months of December and January. This means we needed no sprays at all, simply an adjustment in the culture of the tunnel.
You are probably already familiar with the idea of crop rotation. Plant your tomatoes in a different area each time, for example. Problems that occur in tomatoes can stay in the soil and infect a new planting. Changing locations helps keep your plants healthy and your harvest good. This improves your profitability since you do not lose your crop to diseases.
If you are seeing insect pressure or disease issues, look to see if you can change your timing of planting as well as your location. This can increase your harvest amounts.
Conclusion
You can see how diversifying your planting, your schedule, your crops, and your sales venues can improve your profitability. Small farms can be very profitable! Often, it is small adjustments that can make a big difference in results. Diversifying your farm profits has the result of improved profits.
About Highland Orchards: Completely surrounded by suburbia, our small farm has been growing beyond expectations since 1832, just north of Wilmington in Delaware.
Happy growing and happy eating!
~Ruth
About Ruth: I am the 6th generation of my family to farm here at Highland Orchards in Delaware. I grew up here, learning from my grandparents and parents how to plant, weed, harvest, and store fruits, vegetables, and flowers. The farm currently supports three generations of family members. My graduate degree is in history, so I love to research anything and everything. I have taught at all levels, including university and continuing education. I have done everything on the farm, from planting to harvest to selling to social media. I love that I can share knowledge with people through blogs, books, and courses.
Additional Resources
https://greenthumb.samcart.com/products/low-maintenance-high-reward-fruit
https://greenthumb.samcart.com/products/herbs
https://greenthumb.samcart.com/products/lettuce
