Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Bell.
Michael, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’ve always had a garden of some sort, going all the way back to when I helped my grandma in hers at age five! I tell people I’m probably the only college guy that ever watered his tomato plants with a massive hang over. Then in 2016 I stumbled across a guy by the name of Curtis Stone who was doing “urban farming,” which is basically farming peoples backyards and he was making $100,000+ a year with a total area of 1/3 of an acre!
He was doing daily blogs on YouTube and I fell in love with his processes and decided I wanted to do the ex’s t same thing, so with the $7500 inheritance money that grandma left me 20 years ago, I bought a piece of property and started.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The struggles have all been farming related, I have no problem selling my product or marketing it. It’s the lack of experience that I struggle with. It’s one thing to grow a few heads of lettuce in a garden but another to plan for and produce 20lbs a week of lettuce if you’ve never done it at that scale. Then of course in Texas, we have such extreme quick weather changes which makes it very difficult. Finally, time is my biggest struggle, I’m a full-time elementary PE teacher with a wife and three kids so I work late nights after the kids go to bed and early mornings before school. It’s been tough but I want to do this full time for the rest of my life very soon, so some late nights don’t bother me when you compare to living out your dream for the rest of your life.
Dallas Half Acre Farm – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I grow 7-8 vegetables per season with a few things such as salad mix and carrots year-round. I’m probably known as the farmer that doesn’t look like a farmer. Lol, I’m 5’11 250 pound amateur bodybuilder that grows lettuce. Lol, so I tend to stick in people’s mind when I start talking about gardening. My passion for small scale farming is what sets me apart, this isn’t a job to me. If I win the lottery tomorrow, I’d still get up and go to my farm, but I’d have a lot more cool toys to play with while I was there lol.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I don’t have one moment in particular. I feel such a sense of pride when I have someone call or text me asking me if they can purchase some of my produce because their friend told them how good it was. Personal referrals mean the most to me. Along those same lines picking up a new client like Anne’s Health Food in South Dallas was such a confidence booster for me, and it usually happens when I need it the most.
Contact Info:
- Phone: 940-841-4241
- Instagram: DallasHalfAcreFarm
Image Credit:
Credit Kate Voskova for the plant daddy photo holding the onions.
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