Microfarming for Profit: From Garden to Glory

As more and more people convert their yards into vegetable gardens, urban farming establishes itself as très Brooklyn, and middle-class incomes falter, many newly hatched home agriculturalists are bound to daydream about turning their green thumbs into greenbacks. This useful, entertaining guide from DeWitt, the prolific author dubbed the “pope of peppers,” gives prospective microfarmers the dirt on realistic essentials for turning a garden into a money-making enterprise. Unlike some starry-eyed back-to-the-land advocates, DeWitt, who has gardened and sold garden produce from an early age, warns readers that a microfarm is more likely to enhance rather than replace current income sources and that sales and business know-how are more important than gardening skills. The author advises on such basics as business plans and sales techniques; profiles a range of actual working microfarms, from flowers to killer bees; and relates hilarious stories from his own microfarming, including a disastrous attempt at cannabis raising. Emphasizing the importance of value-added products, DeWitt offers up some wacky but shrewd agrotourism ideas: Edible Aquarium and Sushi Bar or Beautiful but Deadly Microfarm and Poison Museum, anyone? (Jan.)