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Larry Butler and Carol Ann Sayle of Austin, Texas, have pursued their dream of growing and selling fresh, organic produce for 25 years. Today, their Boggy Creek Farm offers mixed salad greens (picked and packed the day before sale), potatoes, onions, watermelons, eggplants, squash and mounds of other fresh, local fruits and veggies. They've branched out a little, too: The intense, smoky sweetness of Buder's smoke-dried Roma tomatoes, featured seven times on the Food Network, and a careful selection of other locally produced food products, draws a loyal clientele. With the help of their small band of employees, the couple earns a comfortable income doing just what they set out to do in the 1970s.

Using their combined professional talents, they have effectively sold their high-quality produce with enough marketing finesse to attract the attention of national media and their local Austin American-Statesman newspaper, which ran a feature article on their farm in 1995 that proved to be one of the couple's biggest breaks.

By selling some of their produce to the local Whole Foods Market and, for many years, participating at another local farmer's market, they've been able to promote their operation to shoppers already inclined toward local, organic food.

Other attractions to Boggy Creek Farm have included:

* personal notes of farm happenings "penned" by a guinea hen cartoon character named Miss Ethel, alias Sayle, and tucked into salad bags

* a 2,300-subscriber weekly e-mail newsletter (that recipients also forward to thousands of other readers)

* T-shirts and labels featuring Boggy Creek's famous farm cat and mascot, Tubby J. Tupelo

* a cookbook and a children's book aimed at educating and entertaining readers about real food and life on Boggy Creek Farm.

Even the couple's 1840s-era farmhouse is of interest; it's thought to be one of the three oldest homes in Austin.

Handout recipes--especially for products like kohlrabi, Brussels greens or sorrel--help to convince customers to give something new a try.

"It's been an educational process for us and for our customers," Sayle says. "Our produce signs include cooking tips, it's why we've written up favorite recipes to hand out, and the cookbook was written because of customer demand."

And, of course, the Boggy Creek Farm Web site (www. boggycreekfarm.com) is ever-expanding.

Butler and Sayle work as hard at being friendly and informative as they do at growing fine produce; they say going the extra mile to educate customers about their products and to make them feel at home when they're on the farm is critical to the success of their enterprise. Customer Don Hatch says of his visits to Boggy Creek, "It's a social ritual. I have Wednesdays off, and I come to the market because of the variety of products that are available. My mother-in-law grew up in tough times, and she would gasp if she knew how much I pay for the wonderful greens and lettuce I bring her, but she loves them--it's like she has her own garden."

Boggy Creek's mission, Butler and Sayle say, is simply to grow clean, nutritious food for the community. To that end, they have been employing all their considerable talents for almost a quarter of a century. It was 1981 when Butler, a realtor, and Sayle, an artist, purchased 47 acres near Gause, Texas, about 75 minutes northeast of Austin, on which to garden. They hoped someday to produce enough organic vegetables to pay the bills.

Ten years later, they quit their day jobs and launched their first major market-farming effort with a half-acre patch of certified organic tomatoes. The crop was trucked to Austin and sold from a produce stand set up at a friend's west Austin liquor store. The couple also sold some of their tomatoes to the local Whole Foods Market, with which they continue a business relationship today. "We get a premium wholesale price from Whole Foods for the tomatoes," Sayle says, "and product identification at the store, which helps introduce folks to our farm stand." The couple also sold their produce at Austin's Westlake Farmer's Market for many years.

Another major development occurred in 1992. Thanks to good luck and a downturn in the Austin real estate market, the couple was able to purchase at a bargain price the five-acre historic property along Boggy Creek in east Austin. Today, more than three of those acres are in vegetable and fruit production, and the location is home for the couple's twice-weekly market, which is the primary focus of their sales efforts.

The Boggy Creek ground is good for growing more-perishable vegetables that might not make the trip from Gause in prime condition, Butler says. Among them are eggplants, specialty salad ingredients, peppers, early tomatoes, squash, beans, greens, okra and cut flowers. Back in Gause, the couple produce thousands of tomatoes, including Romas for drying and 'Early Girl' and 'Celebrity' for the fresh market, along with watermelons, onions and potatoes. A winter potato crop is started in the greenhouse in midwinter and dug to sell as new potatoes in February.

Boggy Creek Farm sells these products along with such items from other local producers as honey, goat cheese and goat ice cream, chocolate, free-range eggs (to supplement those from their own hen house), organic beef and chicken, tofu and coffee.

Today, the couple's enterprise includes their two certified-organic growing operations, the twice-weekly market, and the processing of the smoke-dried tomatoes, smoke-dried tomato salad dressing and jams. The work involved keeps eight permanent employees (half of whom are part-time) working year-round.

Regardless of their successes to date, Butler and Sayle say challenges routinely test their resolve. In the fall of 2001, a tornado blew down a huge pecan tree on the Austin farm, damaging their historic home, a greenhouse and the chicken house. Friends and customers helped clean up, and later raised nearly $15,000 to help pay for repairs.

Not as spectacular but sometimes almost as devastating are the early frosts, late frosts, dry seasons, wet seasons (last May, they received more than 17 inches of rain in nine hours at the Gause farm) hail and other extreme Texas weather phenomena. Lately, tax concerns have been heightened as the Texas legislature has considered eliminating all agricultural exemptions in cities with populations of more than 500,000. For now this threat has been put aside, but no one knows when it might resurface.

Boggy Creek Farm's competition comes mostly from the convenience of grocery stores and the occasional farmer who prices quality produce too low; it's almost impossible for a market gardener to prosper if he or she is selling at wholesale prices, or below. Sayle estimates that the cost of their hired labor represents 40 percent of every dollar charged for products at the retail level, with general expenses (equipment, soil amendments, utilities, etc.) accounting for another 30 percent.

"Thankfully, the demand for quality local produce is tremendous," Sayle says. Virtually all the grocery stores would like to sell local produce, Butler adds, but the key is whether they can sell it for a premium so they can pay the producer enough to stay in business. When that's not possible, successful producers like Boggy Creek Farm take charge of their own retail sales. Today, after 13 years of farming and frugally eliminating all long-term debt, Butler says, the net income from their farming enterprises affords them a "moderately comfortable" living, with the ability to save and invest in their own health care plan and eventual retirement.

"Every year's net is different, depending on the weather, but on average, we make approximately the same as a pair of experienced school teachers," he says.

But money's not the only reward.

"We always hoped we could earn enough money to continue doing this," Sayle says, "but our real satisfaction is in thinking that we are contributing something worthwhile, something to help people be healthy, and making a small difference. We feel really good when a customer says, 'Thank you for growing our food.'

"If small, organic, direct-marketing farmers don't feel this way, then they may well be dissatisfied with the amount of money it brings. If it was 'about money,' we would have persevered in our former careers."

As it is, though, Butler and Sayle get to garden all they want and share their joy of growing wonderful foods with their customers, including such regulars as Angele Hall and Sophia Sarmiento. "The market staff is like family," Hall says. "There's a strong community involvement here, and we feel like this market and the fresh produce they offer is a gift to Austin consumers."

Sarmiento agrees. "This is so much more than a grocery experience. These vegetables are made with love."