High Tunnel Refresh and New Business Ideas

High tunnel before the first clean out.

So, I’ve got a new project. I’m refreshing this high tunnel. It’s not my high tunnel, but I’m allowed to use it — with some caveats.

While I enjoyed planning and growing veggies and fruit for weekly deliveries to people’s doors, I don’t have enough land to pay myself. And I’m not going into that much debt in order to make $20,000 a year. Hard pass. So, I’ll still have a big garden this year, but I need to come up with a new idea about what to sell.

I’m thinking about a few small projects, things that would take $100 to try out. That way, I could experiment with 4-5 different things at the same time without going all in on one.

One thing I’ve learned from running my own business: Sometimes, people say one thing and do another.

I’d like to focus on what customers will buy and enjoy, not what they say they’ll buy and enjoy. It’s weird these are two different things, right? I usually attribute this disparity to: 1.) avoiding conflict and 2.) saying something positive is held in higher regard than ‘being negative’.

I get it — sort of.

In my time workings as a journalist and a bartender I’ve had to handle conflict. And yeah, saying negative things usually lands me in hot water, but someone, sometime, eventually has to say them — right? At least, that’s how I feel.

Eventually, someone needs to mention that there’s no running water in the bathrooms — even if the boss gets mad.

Eventually, someone needs to point out that selling alcohol on Sundays would increase sales volume — it’s OK if we decide not to do it, but it would increase sales.

Eventually, someone needs to tell the manager that there’s no cash in the tills — even if that means getting told ‘put a smile on your face and figure it out.’

Eventually, someone needs to say ‘there’s cabbage moth worms destroying this plant,’ — even if that means getting told there are no cabbage moth worms on that plant.

I heard about this position in Japanese companies titled “The Loud American,” where Americans are hired to tell the boss what the employees are generally too respectful to say out loud about the current business plan. I could do that job!

Anyways, here’s some after shots for the same greenhouse after a few hours of work:

From the “front” side.

From the “back” side.

Started pruning the guy on the left. Haven’t touched the overgrown guy on the right. I’m 90 percent sure these are pear trees.