As a specialist in farm business management and marketing for the Cooperative Extension Service, Gary Bullen is asked one question at least once a week. It goes something like this: "I just bought 10 acres. How can I make some money with the land?"

The same trend is seen by Lowell Lenschow, manager of the Illinois Specialty Growers Association. "We're seeing more and more people purchasing a small tract of land on the outskirts of a major metropolitan area. All of a sudden, they have this land and want to know what they can do with it." His association serves as an umbrella for several other smaller state associations, including the Illinois Ginseng Growers Association, the Illinois Herb Association, The Illinois Irrigation Association, the Illinois State Horticulture Society, the Illinois Vegetable Growers Association, and the Illinois Christmas Tree Association.

"It is amazing how often people jump into a new enterprise without first taking a good hard look at its feasibility," Bullen tells an audience at a well-attended recent conference, one of several being offered around the state by CES, on growing and marketing small-acreage crops.

"Without proper planning you will waste precious limited resources," said Bullen, recalling the man who called him in July and asked if he knew of any markets for okra. "No, but I can give you a few recipes." Bullen told the man. "Half the work is in the marketing."

The crucial first step toward successfully making a living off the land, Bullen advises, is to carefully analyze five factors: yourself, your family, labor, finances, management and market potential.

"The decision to start an alternative enterprise will affect the entire family, so sit down with them and discuss everyone's goals and preferences," he said. "Is your family willing to make the sacrifices required to make the enterprise successful?"

Analyze your resources, including land, soils, climate, water, buildings, machinery, and equipment. Is there adequate labor available when you need it?

If you still think you and your family are ready to sow some seeds— but before you do—develop a business plan, one that includes a clearly thought-out and carefully researched market plan. You must know where you will sell the fruits of your efforts before you plant anything.

To open new markets, he said, you've got to figure out what you can give customers that their local supermarket doesn't. "Why is your corn better than the corn down the street?" he asks. "If you can't tell me the advantage, you're not going to stay in business." What sets small-acreage growers apart is the fact that their produce is of better quality, tastes better, is of better color, is grown locally and sometimes organically, is just-picked or can be picked by the customer, costs less and is available in small quantities, because few people can produce anymore.

"Customers today are demanding local, fresh, in-season produce," said Bullen, who himself grew up on a farm. "People are looking for nutrition and health, which can be used as a marketing tool."

There is another market growing larger every day. It feeds on nostalgia and is called "entertainment" farming. "If I explained it to my grandfather, he would laugh at me," Bullen said. People whose children or grandchildren grew up in an urban setting have no idea what it is or what it was like to live on a farm. Those people will pay money to bring those kids to the farm for a few hours or a day.

"They're paying for the experience to do that," Bullen said. "They want things that make you feel good. Feeling and emotion. If you can attach an emotion to a produce, you can make a living."

They're also paying for appealing displays offering variety. Grow pumpkins, for example, then add a haunted house and dress up as a witch.

Grow a product and offer an array of related products, and you have the potential to lure visitors to your place. Herbs, berries, orchards, pumpkins and Christmas trees are the sorts of crops that lend themselves to hosting visitors who actually will pay you to pick their own.

Many small acreage operations arrange for busloads of school children to come to their small farm for a nominal fee, knowing a bigger payoff comes when they bring mom and dad back. Many operations also are working with other similar operations and developing bus tours that include a couple of stops besides their own. People with enough disposable income to spend on a tour are likely to spend money at each of the stops, and they're likely to return or to advise others to visit.

It's critical to be attentive to your customers. Bullen cited a survey that showed 15 percent of customers won't come back if they feel the quality is lacking, 15 percent won't come back if they feel the cost is too high, and 70 percent won't come back because they don't like the people running the business. "They like friendly, cheerful people who serve them."

MARCH 1997 ILLINOIS COUNTRY LIVING 9

Deftly, Bob Malham grasps a peach limb and slips a sharp knife through a tiny developing bud. Last year's peach crop was lost to sub-zero temperatures, and he is eager to see if January's frigid grip took yet another crop.

The slice reveals a lime green color. "That's live," he says. Then he slices through another bud, and uses the knife's tip to point. "See that little bitty brown spot in there? That's the peach. That one's dead." He points back to the first. "That one's alive. Oh yeah, we've lost some. Don't know what's left. But if I get two or three peaches on this limb, that's all that limb can stand anyway. If I lose 80 percent, it won't hurt."

It's good news, but winter isn't over, yet. While each tree seems lifeless in Mother Nature's icy grip, each actually is developing important new growth deep within. Some of the Malhams' most important work—pruning— must be done now, if there is to be bounty come fall.

"There have been some tough times. Sure. You bet. Hey, you're gonna take it on the chin. Mother Nature is not going to be nice to you all the time."

But she's been kind enough that Bob and his wife, La Verne, have been able to make a modest living from their Macoupin County orchard, which is believed to have been planted in the 1880s, since they bought the property about 17 years ago. The Malhams, who will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary in May, now own 125 acres, with about 85 of them producing 21 varieties of apples.

Twice now in the eight-year history of the Illinois Specialty Growers Association competition, the Malhams' apple cider has been judged best in the state, first in 1991 and again last year.

Recent incidents of illness caused by E. coli contamination of unpasteurized cider in the East and in California have caused some concern about the quality of apple cider sold by operations like the Malham's. The Illinois State Horticulture Society has met with Illinois Department of Health officials and is urging that the state set some standards for Illinois cider through education and inspection. But the Malham's are quick to point out they use only picked apples in their cider and they discard all bad apples.

Above, Bob Malham inspects damage to a tree limb caused by deer. At top, his wife, La Verne, pauses to speak to a visitor outside the couple's retail fruit market at their home near Carlinville.

Bob's father and two uncles grew up on the property, and one of the uncles, a bachelor, bought the property in 1945. On a visit 35 years later, Bob, a carpenter, casually asked his childless uncle what he would do with the orchards when he was too old to tend to them anymore. He was surprised when the uncle offered to sell it at a price he couldn't refuse.

Bob brought physical and mechanical skills to the enterprise; La Verne added promotional and marketing skills and a green thumb.

"The market's always been here, but Bob's uncle didn't promote a retail market," said La Verne, which has proved far more profitable than wholesale for the Malhams.

The Malhams do some wholesale business with grocery stores in the area and they also sell their fruit to other growers, when they experience a bad year. Occasionally, the Malhams are forced to buy fruit from other growers. But most of their business comes from customers who are willing to drive to their home at the orchard, on M.J.M. Electric Cooperative Inc. lines about two miles southwest of Carlinville. "Retail is the answer," said Bob.

The Malhams bought the mostly apple orchard, and then diversified. Bob's uncle had some pears and a few plums, and the Malhams added more. "We sell bushels of them. Lots of bushels."

They've also added purple raspberries. An experiment with red raspberries proved unprofitable, especially as they tended to ripen in the middle of apple season when labor is

10 ILLINOIS COUNTRY LIVING MARCH 1997

spread thin, so the Malhams plowed them under. Purple raspberries, however, which ripen in late June or early July, give the Malhams an early crop to begin selling and they have been very profitable.

If Mother Nature has spared the peaches, they will begin ripening in late summer and last through August, maybe early September. Plums and pears ripen in August, and then the apples are ready.

A pumpkin patch also helps draw customers, and thornless blackberries have become profitable. The Malhams also grow some alfalfa hay, wheat and soybeans, but those are minor crops, used mostly as cover crops.

People make the trip to the orchard to buy fruit for pies, jellies, and fresh eating. While customers once bought bushels and half-bushels to can, the Malhams have noticed an important new trend. "Now you seldom get anybody who wants to do that," says La Verne. Few of their customers can fruit anymore. "It's mostly by the pound, is the only way anybody will want them," she said.

First in a periodic series

Some tough competition comes from a couple of neighboring orchards, all of them offering retail sales. La Verne largely relies on newspaper advertisements to keep customers informed and to promote special events, and there seems to be plenty of customers to go around. "It's a hassle. Hey! You're in competition. You bet!" said Bob.

"But that's all right," said La Verne. She is quickly echoed by her husband, "It's all right. There's room for us. We're never going to be millionaires," he said. But the Malhams do have a comfortable home on their property, and, even on a cold day late in January, they still had apples and customers, "Because there isn't a surplus of fresh fruit in Illinois," said La Verne.

The Malhams hire about 15 local people, but only during apple-picking time in September and October. But they also have 5 acres that are insured, where customers may pick their own apples.

About two years ago when customers began asking about special events and tours, the Malhams began responding by scheduling special activities, like hay rides, which have been very successful. "They were wanting something to do," said La Verne, noting it's part of what marketing specialists call "entertainment farming." The Malhams say that spells bigger profits. "People were real happy with it," said La Verne.

An important consideration of anyone thinking of starting an orchard, the Malhams say, is the fact it will take at least five years, sometimes more, for trees to begin producing, requiring a beginner to have other income. Because some farm jobs won't wait, would-be growers must have the flexibility in their other employment of being able to handle that chore immediately.

Then there's the question of cost. New trees cost $5 to $8 each. "It takes approximately $1,500 to $2,000 an acre just to plant the trees. And then wait five years for your money back," he said. And one of the biggest pests causing harm to trees, besides insects, is deer, which like to rub their horns on the trunks, damaging the protective bark.

The strongest personality trait the Malham's say an individual needs in a retail orchard business, is a fondness for people. "They have to like people 'cause you're gonna deal with the public. Retail is the answer," says Bob. Both quickly add that the job also requires a strong tolerance of working in bad weather conditions.

The Malhams apple cider twice snared the best-of-state award from the Illinois Specialty Growers Association. Their produce also has won an array of top honors at the State Fair.

Small-acreage farming also appeals to the couple's daughter and son-in-law, Becky and Dale Conrady, who have two acres in strawberries at nearby Backwood Berry Farm. While Dale is involved in large-scale farming with his brothers and father, he and his wife just adopted a child and are attempting to diversify on smaller acreage so Becky wouldn't need an off-farm job.

A major drawback for anyone looking to live entirely off of a small-acreage farm, they point out, is the high cost of health insurance. Some business acumen is essential, also. "I brought some advertising and retailing experience, and marketing. And Bob had the mechanical training and carpentry skills. You need to know a little about everything.," said La Verne.

And, for a couple, a strong marriage is essential. After 40 years of marriage, it's not always bliss in their Garden of Eden "That's hard to do, be a business partner and a lover all at the same time. That's tough," said Bob.

Do they quarrel sometimes? "Damn right," he confesses. How do they continue working when they're angry? "She goes over there and works and I go somewhere else," he said.

La Verne, for instance, has a very different style of pruning than Bob. "You ought to see that blonde lady go at it," says Bob, referring to La Verne's prune-with-a-vengeance style. "Lot of times we can't prune on the same tree, 'cause I've got my way of doing it and she's got her way," But, he admits, her way gets results. "She really works on 'em hard. She makes 'em produce!"

What keeps it all working, said La Verne, is good communication skills. "In fact, our New Year's resolution was to listen to each other better. It's forty years and we're still learning to do those things. So, you never get done learning."

—Stories and photos by Janeen Keener

MARCH 1997 ILLINOIS COUNTRY LIVING 11