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MannDude I've always wondered how places like that actually make money. It looks to small to have enoguh of a turnover.
The garden was just for fun, it wasn't an income garden and was mostly just for the few of us that lived on the property.
It was a 20 acre orchard and we planted well over 1,000 pomegranate trees. There was a good 20+ aged and fruiting ones already. The orchard itself, when I arrived, was neglected and my job was to help clean it up. It wasn't until I told the owner that his Pomegrantes are going to waste, they're awesome and just falling to the ground that we created a business. One mature tree produced on average about 400 fruit per tree. Whole Foods sales these for $3 a pop. That's $1,200~ per tree each year. Remember, we planted over 1,000 more.
I got the fruit in with Whole Foods in the Vegas area but they wanted to pay us next to nothing, and the fruit they were selling was shipped in from Cali. I then developed an online marketplace where the fruit could be bought from us direct, cutting out the middle man. Also had plans to sell other things. Dried figs, for example, are expensive... same with apricots. The best tasting figs and apricots I've ever had grew on that orchard.
The owner actually doesn't live in state. The orchard was mainly used as a wildlife bird refuge and was purchased in the late 70's and later became a home for his elderly mother before she died. Over the years it was neglected to a degree and not kept very well. Now? Easily a million dollar a year business. After a year I was forced out because as a young and dumb idiot nothing was on paper and the path I layed out is being implemented to this day. I see that he is still using the site(s) I developed and according to Google Earth/Maps, I can see the trees we planted are doing good and that he's even expanded the operation by filling in one of the ponds with dirt and planting trees where there was once a pond for the birds.
So, I sort of got screwed out of all of that when my original job was to simply feed the birds and other animals, clear out willow trees growing along ditch lines and live in the house where his mother died and pick him up from the airport every other weekend and drop him back off 2 days later. But noo, I saw money growing on trees and made the mistake of starting a business without getting contracts signed. He was already very well off and wealthy, now he can be even more so.
Live and learn.
