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kleinbl00  ·  2760 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

Whatcom County grows 80% of the raspberries in the United States. Wholesale they make between $1.50 and $1.80 a pound. An acre of raspberries in Whatcom County costs $3500 to produce, and produces between 5,000 and 8,000 lbs of marketable raspberries.

I was looking at a 20 acre raspberry farm for about a million dollars. That's somewhere between $100k and $300k gross every year. Clearly - it's a living. Clearly, it's something you can turn a profit on. But you better like raspberries.

I was also looking at hazelnuts. Whatcom County used to produce 80% of the hazelnuts in the united states and I like trees. Unfortunately, the U of Oregon agriculture department determined that the break-even period on a hazelnut tree is 14 years, and they only produce for 20-25. And that is why there are no new hazelnut orchards.