A Family Entrepreneurial Spirit

We purchased our home thrilled with everything about it — except the busy road on which it is situated. Although we’re out in the country, this road leads to a nearby school and town, so during the school year it is frequented by cars zooming back and forth to drop off and pick up their kids.

Instead of bemoaning our problem, we’ve been thinking of ways to turn the lemon of traffic into lemonade. 😉

How can we make the most of this?

Our answer: by selling the bounty we produce from our land.

Our first two years of owning a farm were focused on remodeling the farm house, but this year we were able to focus on planting and developing our garden. With that said, our garden is in its elementary stages, and although we have feasted and shared with others, we’re not yet able to sell our harvest. Our goal this year is to simply establish our garden, figure out what we like growing, and save seeds accordingly.

In the midst of this, we also make our yearly summer pilgrimages to a blueberry farm about an hour away, since our own berry plants are not yet producing. The farm is multi-generational, with blueberry trees, and offers amazing pesticide-free berries at an incredible price.

Piggybacking on a great idea

This summer, we happened to meet some of our friends while blueberry picking. Our friend’s boys were picking not for their family, but for their mother to sell berries at a local bakery.

My husband and I decided to piggy back on this great idea — while we picked for our freezer, we let our children pick as much as they wanted to sell on our road. My seven-year-old daughter, who often plays pretend in her kitchen (the “Farm House Deli”) was aglow with the idea of having a little roadside blueberry market.

Carrying out a plan

Together, our three oldest picked three gallons of berries within a few hours. We went home and sorted their berries, measured them into pints, and bagged them, attaching little hand-made thank you notes. My husband painted signs to advertise the berries, my daughter cut flowers to decorate the selling table, and the kids sat and waited.

And then they were off

An hour brought one sale. The next hour brought so many I didn’t have time to help sort through the berries to bag them!

The next day, a few were left over and much to my daughter’s dismay, she had to shut down her shop — she was totally out of berries because the mailman bought them out. 🙂

With each sale, I required the kids to keep a running notebook of what they sold: date, number of pints, and money received.

Our family went back to the blueberry farm one more time, and the kids sold another three gallons. Thankfully, although the sales were a bit more sporadic, they sold them all again and delighted in their little blueberry business.

An unexpected feast

A knock on the door one morning brought the mailman with, not mail, but a blueberry pie made from the blueberries he’d bought the previous day.

Our children feasted on pie for two days after dinner and glowed in the satisfaction of their sales.

What’s next?

Together, our children worked, they planned, they sold, and they were blessed. Our oldest is now devising a plan to buy five-gallon containers of honey and open up shop again.

I am not yet sure where this will lead. With next year’s garden we plan to grow more than we need — first to share, then to sell.

In God’s timing, there will also be more puppies coming soon, some goat kids, and hopefully some fall sweet potatoes (which will allow my daughter’s Farm House Deli dream to continue).

We pray these little entrepreneurial seeds will root in the soil of home, allowing our children to thrive and develop ways of being their own bosses, earning money, all the while being with those they love.

How are your and your family growing an entrepreneurial spirit?