Crop profitability
Which crops carry the farm
Yield, labor and price, crop by crop. Find out which ones earn their space in the field, and which ones you’re growing at a loss.
Included in your $1,000 marketing credit
Find out which crops are paying you, and which ones aren’t.
Ellen Polishuk farmed for more than 30 years, 25 of them as a co-owner of Potomac Vegetable Farms outside Washington, D.C. Since 2010 she’s coached growers across the country on bookkeeping, labor and profitability. Business Pro members can book her one-on-one to find where the farm makes its money, and where it leaks out.
- Profit — which crops and markets earn their keep
- Labor — the hours behind every crop
- Books — QuickBooks that tells you something
- Markets — whether a new channel will pay
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Ellen Polishuk
Founder, Plant to Profit
Request your session
Loading the request form…If it doesn’t appear, email michelle@gofarmhand.com and we’ll book it for you.
A 30-minute video call, one-on-one. $50 of your $1,000 annual Business Pro marketing credit — no separate charge, no card.
Where she looks first
Selling well, but not paying yourself?
It’s one of the most common reasons growers call Ellen. She starts with the four places the money goes. Bring your numbers and she’ll go through them with you.
Request your session-
1
Yield.
What each crop actually brings in for the bed space and the season it takes up.
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2
Labor.
The hours behind every crop, from seeding to market. On a vegetable farm, it’s often the biggest cost on the books.
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3
Price.
Whether each price covers what the crop costs to grow, harvest, pack and sell.
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4
Overhead.
Insurance, fuel, repairs and market fees, spread across the crops that have to carry them.
What to bring her
Bring the numbers you’ve been avoiding.
Bookkeeping
QuickBooks that tells you something
A chart of accounts set up for a farm, so your reports answer real questions. What to track, and how to keep up with it in less time.
Labor
Hiring and leading a crew
How many people you need, what an hour of work really costs you, and how to lead the crew you’ve got. Ellen coaches the people side as much as the numbers.
New markets
Whether a new market will pay
Another farmers market, a wholesale account, a bigger CSA. Whether the price and the volume still leave you a profit, before you commit.
Who you'll be talking to
Ellen Polishuk
Ellen grew up in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., studied horticulture at Virginia Tech, and spent four years in vegetable seed research in California. She had trained at Potomac Vegetable Farms in college, and went back to farm it.
Over 25 years as a co-owner, she managed the farm’s organic ground in Loudoun County, Virginia: ten acres of vegetables and herbs, and ten more in soil-building crops. The farm sold through farmers markets, two roadside stands and a 550-member CSA.
Leadership is not technology, it is spirit and skill and heart.
She started consulting in 2010 while still farming, and has coached full time since she retired from the field in 2017. She teaches profitability, labor and record-keeping at farm conferences around the country, runs the Market Farmers Mastermind, and co-wrote Start Your Farm with Forrest Pritchard.
Ellen Polishuk, Plant to Profit
- FirmPlant to Profit, farm business coaching
- Based inMaryland, outside Washington, D.C.
- FarmingMore than 30 years, 25 as a co-owner of Potomac Vegetable Farms
- BookStart Your Farm, with Forrest Pritchard
How it works
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01
Submit the form
Ellen will review it along with your website, and reach out to coordinate your consultation time.
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02
You talk, she answers
30 minutes, one-on-one, over video.
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03
No charge, no invoice
Each call draws $50 from your $1,000 annual Business Pro marketing credit — up to twenty a year, if that’s how you want to spend it.
Not on Business Pro yet?
Join this fall and you get $1,000 in marketing credit now, and another $1,000 in January. It covers calls like this one, plus a multi-page website, ads, print and 1:1 coaching with Ari.
No sales team — every call is with Ari, our founder.