In my post, Plant a Garden to Save Money, Eat Healthy and Have Fun, I told you that you that WSJ has reported that a $70 garden could save you $600 in grocery bills.  That's a significant savings.  But you could also make money by selling the fruits and vegetables you grow. 

As Gerald Celente, founder of the Trends Research Institute , has pointed out, micro-farming is a growing trend as more and more people are foregoing the genetically modified, pesticide laden corporate grown food, for the healthier organic food.  As this trend continues to rise there will be more opportunities to make money micro-farming, and even the smallest gardens, such those grown on an urban balcony can make you some money. 

There are different ways to sell your fruits and vegetables, and how you do it will depend on many factors including, how much you can grow, how much time you can devote to it, the laws in your state, and the type of area you live in (urban or rural). 

1)  Sell your fruits and vegetables to the local restaurants grocery stores.  I live in Pennsylvania, and like many states, they encourage locally grown foods, and the stores promote local foods.  While you'll of course need to check state and local laws, you could make a good deal of money selling to local restaurants and grocery stores, many of which are very eager to stock their organic and local food sections.  The drawback to this is that they may require that you can produce a certain number of each crop and therefore, you may only be able to do this if your micro-farm is a decent size, say an acre or more.  But check with the stores before you get too discouraged and just give up on the idea.

2)  Sell your crops at the farmers' market.  Farmers' markets are great places to sell crops, because that's what they are there for.  Just load up your fruits and vegetables and take them down there to sell.  But make sure you check with the farmers' market first to see what requirements they have.

3)  Sell your crops from your yard or on the side of the road.  I'm sure everyone has seen people selling fruits and vegetables out of the back of a pickup truck.  This can be an easy way to sell them, but as always, check with the state and local laws before doing so.  I live in an area that has a large Mennonite population and several of them sell vegetables in their front yard.  They'll often just leave a cooler full of veggies on a table and a can to put the money in.  People will drive up take the food and put their money in the can.  Sure, its all based on the honor system, but it seems to work pretty well for them, so why shouldn't it work for you.

4)  Sell your crops to people you know.  This is the easiest way to do it and works especially well for those who have very small urban gardens.  Just let your friends, family and co-workers know that you've grown fresh organic vegetables and you'd be happy to sell them some if they are interested.  You might be surprised by how many of them will be.  After all, wouldn't you rather buy from a friend than from a grocery store?  

5)  Sell potted plants.  As gardening becomes more and more popular, the demand for potted plants that gardeners can plant themselves to grow their own food will increase.  This could be a big opportunity.  Instead of planting seeds in the ground you plant them in pots and then sell them once they have sprouted into seedlings.  You can sell these the same way as 1-4 above.  And big garden centers such as Home Depot and Lowes, like to sell local plants just like the grocery stores like to sell local food. 

No doubt about it, you can make some money from a micro-farm, but the amount you can make will depend among other things on how much you can grow, how much time you can devote to it, the laws in your state, and the type of area you live in.  If you haven't started your garden yet, but are interested in doing so, its not too late.  Read my post Plant a Garden to Save Money, Eat Healthy and Have Fun to help you get started.  Good luck!