Niche farming practices became relevant to our farm decades ago when we started growing sunflowers and buckwheat for birdseed and flour. Vegetables were started in the early 2000's when we grew a small amount of sweet corn and tomatoes and a few other standards in the vegetables market selling them on the farm. Soon, we started growing more varieties and acres. With some help from two of our wholesale customers we moved into plastic culture including unheated greenhouse used as high tunnels. Drip irrigation became a major part of the operation with the purchase of a bed layer that with one pass will make a raised bed covered with plastic mulch and lay the drip line a couple of inches beneath the dirt. The depth will vary depending on the crop. Over time with pumpkins, sweet corn, tomatoes, peppers, legumes, cole crops, brassica crops, potatoes, and including the high tunnels and microgreens building and greenhouse we are at 60 acres of vegetables grown on the farm. We still raise beef for sale and will have hogs this fall all for freezer meat. We also grow our own feed for the animals such as pollinators fields for our bees. We also still plant some sunflowers and buckwheat.