I want to grow kale to sell in local markets. I live in an apartment. How can I do this?

JackieChang

So I have a small allotment in the local community. It's enough to feed myself and the missus.

Since I've become a boring dad recently I've been looking for ways to get out of the house (I work from home)

I want to grow more kale and sell it. Like, an acres worth. Or a half acre. I live in an apartment. None of my family own land other than a regular garden out the back.

How can I do this? Where do I start?

Would a farmer let me "till" his land? How much would this cost? Or would he give it to me for free if it's laying there doing nothing.

I don't expect to make a lot of money. It's purely a personal project. Well, if customers like my kale, maybe I'll start growing more and rent more acres. Who knows, I could become a kale billionaire.

Is this idea dead already?

What have I not thought about?

youllbemine

You'd need to pull together a solid plan of what you want it to look like. Main thing is finding customers. I'd say to try get some farming experience anyway you can. Ideally on a veg farm but there are only 60 odd field scale growers remaining so I believe. Some market gardens operating around the country that might be worth looking at. Aonghus from an Garraí Glas in Connemara is looking for volunteers.

blackbox

Who's going to eat all that kale?

bogman_bass

the biggest issue I see with aspiring veg growers is they don’t realise that what they do in the garden is really hard to scale up. And if things go wrong it can be costly.
every single kale, cabbage and cauliflower I grew in the garden this year got devoured by caterpillars.
it was annoying but that was all. Can you imagine loosing 10,000 plants?

I don’t mean to scare you off but just go into this with your eyes wide open.

This might give some guidance

https://teagasc.ie/wp-content/uploads/media/website/publications/2020/A-Guide-to-Vegetable-Growing---9th-Edition.pdf

con747

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058422897/i-want-to-grow-kale-to-sell-in-local-markets-i-live-in-an-apartment-how-can-i-do-this

What area are you in and how far are you willing to travel if the right place was on offer?

Austinbrick

We grew a few stalks of kale here that survived the caterpillar ( cabbage) patch!!!! beside it.

My daughter put thumb sized pieces of it in the air fryer with some oil. Very tasty it turned out.

Castlekeeper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058422897/i-want-to-grow-kale-to-sell-in-local-markets-i-live-in-an-apartment-how-can-i-do-this

There's some good market gardening courses on nots.ie that you would know an awful lot more after.

alps

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123771098#Comment_123771098

TThat's a really good bit of advise as you'll meet up with some really helpful people. It's a great network.