Information on budgeting, business planning and marketing strategies for a season extension enterprise.
Building a Sustainable Business
Bringing the business planning process alive, Building a Sustainable Business: A Guide to Developing a Business Plan for Farms and Rural Businesses helps today's alternative and sustainable agriculture entrepreneurs transform farm-grown inspiration into profitable enterprises. Incluye una versión abreviada en español. Download File (3.06 MB)
Expanding Winter Harvest and Sales for New England Vegetable Crops
This University of Massachusetts website offers resources on winter vegetable crop storage, marketing and low-cost season extension through structures such as hoop houses and low tunnels.
Local Harvest
Local Harvest: A Multifarm CSA Handbook offers straightforward guidance on cooperative marketing, an innovative practice that is helping CSAs stay strong and viable over the long term. Download File (1.87 MB)
High Tunnels
This manual on using high tunnels or hoop houses for season extension includes case studies, a supplier list and chapters on marketing, site selection, construction and types, and soil, pest and environmental management. Download File (2.39 MB)
Moving Nursery Producers Toward Sustainable Practices Fact Sheets
These fact sheets discuss alternative containers, marketing and crop selection, alternatives to synthetic herbicides and integrated pest management in commercial nursery plant production.
Success Basics in High Tunnel Production: Three Maryland Case Studies
This three-year study involved five innovative farmers in building high tunnels to investigate best practices in high-tunnel construction, tomato production and factors influencing profitability. Download File (1,022.24 kB)
High Tunnel Growing: Is it Right for Me?
A report to assist farms incorporating high tunnels for market competitiveness, with research from West Virginia's Mid-Ohio River Valley. Download File (1.01 MB)
Additional Resources on Marketing and Economics
The following resources, which were not funded or produced by SARE, contain valuable information.
Hoophouse Farming Startup: Economics, Efforts and Experiences from 12 Novice Hoophouse Farmers (a Michigan State University Extension bulletin)
Planning for Profit: How to Analyze High Tunnel Finances (a Cornell University High Tunnel Team fact sheet)
Properties and Recommended Conditions for the Long-Term Storage of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables (a University of California, Davis resource)
Sample Budgets and Spreadsheets for Specific Crops (a Cornell University High Tunnel Team resource)
Vegetable Production Budgets for a High Tunnel (an Iowa State University fact sheet)