Leaving your job to farm in the city may sound outlandish, but that is exactly what Gail Vandersteen and Wally Satzewich from Saskatoon in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan and Roxanne Christensen from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have developed with their Small Plot INtensive or SPIN farming concept.

The outcome of their collaboration resulted in the creation 10 how-to guides and case studies for urban sub-acre food production. Sub-acre means less than one acre. Their case studies profile a number of SPIN Farm scenarios, including: a 5,000-square-foot, part-time, hobby-farm model that generates $10,000 to $20,000 in gross annual sales; a 20,000-square-foot, intermediate, full-time farm model that generates $54,000 annually; and a 1-acre, full-time model that grosses $50,000 to $65,000 annually

Wally Satzewich quotes, "While the land base and expenses for a sub-acre farm are a fraction of the costs for a conventional, multi-acre farm, the bottom lines are similar. And counter intuitive though it seems, a sub-acre farmer can expect to make the same living as a large-scale farmer, but with less stress and overhead, and with more certainty of success from year to year."