Connor Breen

I am hoping to start a vegetable farm for the 2024 season that will sell its produce through a CSA program as well as to local restaurants (which could start as soon as January if I am able to install the right infrastructure before a frost hits). I am hoping to utilize 1-3 acres of land (and live on site) to grow mostly high-profit / quick growing crops (salad greens, radishes…) with some additional crops to add variety to the CSA shares (eggplant, carrots, tomatoes…). Another possibility would be to grow larger amounts of slower-growing crops (winter squash, potatoes, corn) and sell these to an established CSA program that cannot grow these profitably because they are limited in terms of land size.

In terms of my background, I first got into farming when I worked for a local, 4th generation produce farmer for two years in high school. I did not delve too deep into the technical side of farming at this point, but the experience definitely taught me how to make it through a day of hard manual labor without losing the smile on my face as well as how to perform many different functions within a business. After this, I took two years away from the farm, which I spent working for myself detailing cars during the day and running the day-to-day operations of a kids’ karate school I used to attend during the evenings. During this time, I also got into gardening as well as cooking and preserving my own food, which is what drew me back to the farm this season. This year, I have gotten to see more of the business side of farming by talking shop with many local farmers as well as visiting their farms in preparation for starting my own small-scale operation next year.

Although I want to begin by farming on a small scale because this is the most financially accessible way for me to start, I’m not in this to grow into a large farming operation but rather for the lifestyle it will provide me with. I have been increasingly drawn to a slower, more rural, and more self-sufficient lifestyle this year by working with my hands again on the farm as well as preserving most of my own produce for this winter. Because of all of this, I am interested in finding like-minded property owners that would be willing to negotiate a deal that is less along the lines of a traditional annual lease (ie. smaller and more frequent payments like a rental fee, a share of the produce and profits of the farm as a form of payment, or paying rent until the farm is able to afford a larger, lease-like down payment). I would also be interested in using a portion of the farmland for personal projects (growing some vegetables that are not in high-demand, maybe beekeeping, growing berries, and also potentially raising some livestock).