Cabbage Breakthrough: From Seedling to Sale—Buyer secured

Welcome back to the farm with me the Frontier Farmer. Back to the farm this week. Been a while, been like two weeks, I've been away. So I got back and I thought maybe we'll revisit some of the things that I've shown you before for the progress of the things, some of the things that we've been able to do. So let's go back to our cabbages because two weeks ago I'd shown you the progress of these cabbages and I said I was happy with the progress. I'm still happy, they are almost ready. There's a section that I think in the next week or so they'll be going to market. We already have someone who had come to look at them and I suggested we give them another two weeks and he will come pick them. So just look at it, if you can remember this is the section, this is one of the sections that we have the cabbages and these are the cabbages that we also propagate in our nursery or the seed propagation unit. We produce a lot of Gloria F1 cabbages. These are the Gloria F1 cabbages. So what you see here are not any variety, they are just the Gloria F1 cabbages. So these cabbages have been here for now I think close to four weeks and as you can see they are doing very well. You can see the size of one, how big these cabbages could be. These ones are not yet ready for market, not ready for market but there's a section here that we planted earlier that I think in the next one week or so or even now they can still go to market but the buyer wants to have all of them at the same time. So these ones that are already ready will still have to wait for these other ones to get ready maybe in the next week or so. So this is a section that we had grown, we planted earlier, this one here, this particular section and you can see even from the size of the cabbage itself, this is one of it and you can see, this cabbage as we speak as for now could be close to four kgs but when it is fully, it's not fully matured yet so we're expecting it to go to as much as six, some will even hit 10 kg. So unfortunately I'm not sure if you want, if you will want cabbage I'll be able to get them to you because I already have a buyer but if you want one or two just to consume, I'm sure you will not miss those ones. So for my friends out there, my followers who have been following my journey with this kind of farming, vegetable farming especially these cabbages, if you're anywhere between Akuru, Timbarua, even Nairobi because I'm planning to be in Nairobi maybe sometime next week, I can get you a fruit, just for you to get a taste of our cabbages. So anyone who has any questions about vegetable propagation and vegetable farming, you can reach out to me, we can brainstorm. I usually say I'm not a farmer, I'm masquerading here as a farmer. I do other things but my passion, this is where my passion is. So I love this thing, that's why I'm here at the farm most of the time because it gives me a sense of purpose. You know, sometimes we do things out there and we are just doing them to earn an income but for me I love seeing I love going through the challenges that farmers go through to be able to make sure that you, if you are not able or farming is not your thing, you are still able to eat, to find food at the end of the day. So from the farm, we make sure we get it to you on your table and what we get to you on your table should be of very good quality and also very healthy. So out here we rarely use chemicals because our farms are very fertile. So the only thing we did here was we use DAP fertilizer when we were planting and that is it. We've not had issues because sometimes most of the problems that we have as farmers is infestation by aphids. You've seen those small whitish insects that come and eat, chew on the leaves. They usually, they are always a lot during the dry season. They're also trying to find some water somewhere or something but when it rains they disappear. So like now this season or this year the rains have been very good. So we've not had any problem with aphids. So we didn't have a reason to use any insecticide to deal with them. I can say this crop is 90 or 80 to 90 percent organic because the only thing we've used is DAP fertilizer. We still have used animal manure because we also have a lot of cows at the farm and we produce a lot of manure. We've been tiling it up over time. But we usually come now when we harvest all these vegetables. We come and put the manure, we apply the manure on this farm before the next season. But I'm thinking when I remove these ones or when I sell all these vegetables I will still put more vegetables this season. Because this year has been very nice. The weather has been very good and we cannot complain. So this is it. This is something you can do. Especially cabbages. They are not very demanding as other crops. So if you want to become a telephone farmer you can try cabbage farming. The unfortunate part with cabbage farming is that when you do a lot of it and you've not done your market research and then you also find out that other people have also planted a lot of it. And then when all of you hit the market at the same time there's a glut. There will be no market for you or the price will be so bad to a point that you feel there's no even point of going to market. That's what happens to some people. And if you can talk to people who have been doing cabbages they will tell you. This can make or break you. So sometimes you need to do your market research just to know whether there will be a market at the end of the season. That's what we call agribusiness. You just don't plant and then go look for market when the crop is ready. Start doing your research. How is the market for cabbage in the next 3-4 months? Because if you put it on the ground you expect in the next 3-4 months you are done. It's ready for market. So if you don't do your research you will hit the market when everyone else is also hitting the market. And then you start crying and saying farming is the worst thing you can do. You can never venture into it. But for us we did our market research. We even went ahead to look for potential clients or potential customers. Unfortunately for us or fortunately for us there is a school that usually buys our cabbages. But you know schools are now closed. But because we still have two weeks the schools will open again in the next few weeks. So we might not really suffer that much because when they open school they will need the cabbages. But also we already have another client who was here this week. Look at them. So he said he will give them another two weeks then he will come and pick them. So if he doesn't pick all of them we are still guaranteed even if they stay for another 2-3 weeks we can still get market. The only thing we will be praying in those 2-3 weeks is that the rain should not be that much. Because cabbages and too much water is another big problem. They start rotting and there will be nothing to take to the market. But nonetheless if it comes to that which we don't want to come to that. If it ever comes to that we can still feed it to our animals. So either way we are not going to lose anything. What we say in this farm is we are practicing what we call circular economy. Anything we produce in the farm all of it should be used within the farm. I also introduced the black soldier flies to the farm. So those are our go to animals when we want the waste that remains from the farm. So we feed it to them. They produce amazing organic manure also known as grass and that's what we now use to grow our crops. So nothing goes to waste and I think going forward that is what every farmer should aspire to do. Make sure that your farm is a circular economy where everything that is produced in the farm is consumed and completely finished in the farm. So that is it from me. Thank you very much for those who have been walking this journey with me. The vegetables you can see they are doing great and I am a happy man or I am a happy farmer. Though I need to also do a little bit of grooming myself. I look like a bushman but sometimes in the farm you don't have to. When the money hits your pocket you will look like a million dollar person. I will look like a million dollar so that is what I am trying to say. So until next time goodbye please subscribe to our channel on YouTube The Frontier Farmer. On Facebook the same. I am also on Twitter The Frontier Farmer. And slowly I will be joining TikTok and the other social media platforms so that we can also engage. I am also very passionate to ensure that also young people give a try to farming. It's not easy that one I will tell you. So don't come to farming thinking I just put the crop on the ground and wait for nature to do the rest. You will be shocked. So it is a journey and a very good journey. It makes you feel fulfilled somehow. Especially if it is a passion of yours like me. Farming is a passion of mine. So even the challenges sometimes you feel some pain but at the end of the day you tell yourself next time I will do much better. So for example this year we have not bothered with trying to introduce irrigation on the farm because there has been plenty of rain. But those are some of the things I am thinking because it is not every year that there will be enough rainfall. Or the weather will behave like this year. So those are things that I am having in mind. So if I harvest this crop and want to invest others in some equipment that just tomorrow there will be no rain I will not lose my crop. That is what farmers in this century should be thinking. That is how farmers should be thinking. So until next time goodbye from me the Frontier Farmer. Bye Bye.