The little artsy, eclectic, touristy city near me is really bustling this year. Way more than pre-covid times. There are a couple of new places open for eating/drinking and one has live music. Guy with a big grill making plates up and doing a good amount of business. A road side stand selling watermelons and doing a good amount of business.
A lot of city people have bought land out here to spend their weekends at and probably as a shtf retreat. A few existing owners spent a lot of time here during covid because St Louis was locked down as far as restaurants and any other public venues for weekend enjoyment.
I still have my dream of selling surplus heirloom organically grown veggies and I think this little city is about viable for that. The only other option is a couple of Farmer’s Markets in a college town 50 miles away. I’d rather set my own schedule, pull into a parking lot and open up a Elliot Coleman style trailer.
Check with the restaurants you mentioned - chefs are always looking for ‘fresh and local’ veggies.
We did a decent business in that when I worked for my in-laws and grew for market and for restaurants. Raspberries were our biggest seller.
It’s really quite satisfying. Herbs are easy and quick to grow, as are salad greens - and you could probably grow those under cover most of the winter down by you.
I did a quick search:
https://sweetfernorganics.com/top-30-profitable-crops/
https://hortzone.com/blog/high-value-vegetables/
https://grocycle.com/starting-a-market-garden/
Oh, no! I’m getting the ITCH again, LOL!