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Daniel Chappell and his wife Anna own a 40-acre farm. They grow herbs, vegetables and grains, and raise poultry.

"I actually really do love the job," says Chappell. "Part of it is being self-employed -- being able to make our own decisions and being able to derive our well-being off our own land is just satisfying on its own. But also we just really enjoy working with our animals and working with the soil and the land itself as well."

The Chappells sell their products at farmers' markets as well as through a share program. The share program is based on a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model. Many small farmers use this type of program. It involves customers paying in advance to receive a certain amount of fresh food on a regular basis.

Chappell says customers like the connection they can have with farmers such as him through buying locally produced goods.

"A lot of people like to come out and see the farm because they do want to make that connection, and I think a lot of people are getting more concerned with the distance they have from their food supply," says Chappell.

Barbara Moore agrees that many people want to feel connected to the food that they consume. She's executive director of Harvest Mountain Farm Gardens in Lakewood, Colorado.

"They'd rather meet the person that's working very hard in the hot sun to grow quality produce," says Moore.

Moore's farm grows vegetables that she sells to chefs, at farmers' markets, and through the CSA model.

"CSA is a pretty good way to know that when you grow crops, people are going to buy them and also get to eat them," says Moore.

"So I found people that wanted to do the (CSA) shares and I did a market stand and then I went around to restaurants and told them I was going to be growing organic produce. And it's pretty easy to start in produce when you don't have any competition. Literally, there was nobody else approaching these restaurants."

Moore says being a small farm owner is very rewarding, especially when you get positive feedback from your customers.

"It's extremely rewarding," says Moore. "Like when I was bringing my produce to the chefs, and then the chefs would of course taste it and love it. I've grown hundreds of different kinds of fabulous tomatoes. They'd be like, 'Oh my gosh, this tastes so good!'"

Moore has developed programs to educate young people and other aspiring farmers about running a small farm. She says mentoring and coaching are essential for new farmers.

"It's not easy to figure out how to be financially viable as a small farmer," says Moore. "It's not easy. If you want to have some kind of income where if you wanted [you could] have a family and buy clothes for your kids and have a little bit of a life, you really need to get coaching."

Craig Rogers owns a sheep farm in Virginia. His retirement from academia ended up becoming a very full-time job as a farmer and shepherd.

"My wife and I saw a sheepdog trial on campus one day, and we thought it was the most amazing thing we had ever seen," says Rogers.

"A dog without commands casting out to gather up sheep more than a quarter of a mile away, and with the lyrical melody of a shepherd's whistle, [the dog] was able to so deftly and precisely navigate sheep around the course. We were just taken by that."

Rogers and his wife bought a small farm and within three days had six sheep and a trained Border Collie.

"I woke up one day with 600 sheep and knew that I needed to figure out what I was going to do with them, and so created this enterprise where I sell lamb to many of the best chefs on the entire East Coast," says Rogers.

"There are two aspects to raising quality lamb," says Rogers. "One is that you obviously need to be proficient at animal husbandry. But the most important thing is to be exceptionally proficient at grass farming. So our efforts are almost evenly divided between caring for the sheep and caring for the land.

"We also slaughter 52 weeks a year, which then also means that we have pretty consistent chores, everything from sorting animals to delivering to slaughterhouses. [And] we sell direct, so it means sorting parts and shipping to our customers every week. So there's a lot of logistics involved in what we do as well."

It's a lot of work. Fortunately, Rogers loves what he does. He says it's the secret of his success as a sheep farmer.

"I think that the primary quality to succeeding at this is having a passion for the animals," says Rogers.

"I used to have cattle. I didn't have the same passion for cattle as I do for sheep. I'm a sheep man. And what I've always noticed is that even farmers who have multiple species, that there's probably one that is their favorite. And those are always the best looking animals."

As you might guess, Rogers' advice for other farmers is to make sure they love what they're doing. It will probably make the difference between their success and failure as a farmer.

"I highly encourage anybody to follow their passion," Rogers says.

"If you get into this strictly from a financial point of view, trying to figure out which species are going to be easier to market or distribute or whatever the case is, and you don't have passion for that animal, it's going to be a long road, because there's always somebody out there who does have passion and that's very powerful."

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OCAP believes that financial literacy and understanding the financial aid process are critical aspects of college planning and student success. OCAP staff who work with students, parents, educators and community partners in the areas of personal finance education, state and federal financial aid, and student loan management do not provide financial, investment, legal, and/or tax advice. This website and all information provided is for general educational purposes only, and is not intended to be construed as financial, investment, legal, and/or tax advice.