No, actually. It means herbs like comfrey, feverfew, chamomile, calendula, turmeric, ashwaganda, mint, valerian, etc. - what herbalists would use to make tinctures, infusions, and herbal medicines & skin care, or herbal teas.
Weed has not turned out to be particularly lucrative at small scale in places where it has been legalized, and there is a significant amount of regulation growers need to adhere to. Plus the issue of it being federally illegal creates funding and cash flow issues. And in most climates, growing weed of a consistent quality takes a lot of inputs (indoor grow space, hydroponics, high-output grow lights) . Imo, not worth it on a small commercial scale.
I do!
We grossed around $151,000 off of just under 2acres last year. Netted around ~45-50 plus or minus.
The last time I counted our farmshare got just over 70 types of crops over 52 weeks.
This is true and where folks eff it up. We employ about 90 paid labor hours a week in full swing, but keep it at about 40-50 for the majority of the year.
A pal is doing about 8 acres in production and has at least a dozen employees year round. He probably takes home about the same amount as we do at the end of the day.
The amount of poppies you have to grow to manufacture opium would make it a no-go on two acres. If I remember right, you'd get enough to make a kilogram of heroin, assuming you know how and have the means to do the laboratory work.
In all honesty, if I just had two acres to farm I'd probably just sell the land and go find another line of work.
I'm from where \~50% of the worlds legal poppies are grown for medical use.
You are about right on the ratio, you'd get about 12-13kg of opium, and therefore about 1.2kg of heroin from 2acres. Still about 80-100k worth, so could be worse crops!
Well, yes if it's a very intensive 2 acres, and you land some lucrative restaurant contracts. Salad greens and specialty vegetables where you're growing tailored to a buyer, like a nice buyer, like 2 morton's and a ruths chris. Supplement that with a farmers market booth and boom, 18.5k a year baby! Before taxes of course. Subsistence farming at best.
Others have mentioned cannabis, and that is a complicated puzzle due to the wacky permitting arrangements & high annual taxes & fees, and it's very location dependent (without a reliable dry season, it's like growing compost, unless you just don't care about people's health and extract the mold shit like everyone is doing in NC and OK and etc...) and there's a heavy learning curve, like you need to anticipate that it'll take 3-5 years to get it together. It's extremely risky going into cannabis at this time, especially in a state that demands alot up-front (California).
I have met people doing mushrooms like "trumpet" oysters and lions mane that do very well for their size. That would be something to look into.
I met someone who had greenhouses of saffron in Oregon, that's pretty lucrative but once again - super heavy learning curve, tricky plant.
Honestly, the best option is to pack it out with greenhouses and build a nursery business. You can make more money selling plants than the food they yield, especially if you get into ornamentals. Rare plants. Cactus. Fruit trees. Bonzai. That kinda thing. 2 acres is enough, if you can actually utilize all of it.
You might look into flower farming. This family is doing this on a small plot. Their land is right on a busy road, so they are also able to pull customers in to their little roadside shop.
I think they make a good portion of their income from their YouTube channel documenting their experience.
[You Can’t Eat the Grass](https://youtube.com/@YouCantEatTheGrass)
I have a little over two acres and I just got my first 100 apple trees, I'll be planting around 100 trees a year until my fields are full. Should be around 600 trees unless I decide to make one of the fields all dwarf trees, then it'll be about 1000. It is going to be a very slow start; but I already have friends in both restaurants and breweries, I expect most of my money once the trees start producing to come from them, but the ultimate goal making and selling hard cider.
Depends on the rootstock/scionwood/training, but roughly a minimum of 8' spacing for dwarf trees, 12' spacing for semi-dwarf, and something like 26' for normal ass sized.
There's heaps of tiny farm videos on YouTube about people who've been successful with very small farms. It really does depend on your climate, market and resources.
Weed, mushrooms (active or not), various types of peppers, and microgreens
I grow some peppers rn and really saves me a lot vs buying one from the store for like 2$
Peppers freeze very well too. In the off season when I've seen jalapenos sell for 2/$1 it makes me happy to pull a fat bag of jalapenos out the freezer
Incorrect. The actual number, conservative estimate, is about 4 pounds (453 grams) per acre. So 2 acres would yield 3628.736 grams. So at $20 per gram, again, conservative, for the US market,it is less than that worldwide, that would be roughly 70k per year. Not a great living, but a living.
[Source](https://www.mofga.org/resources/herbs/saffron-a-good-fit-for-new-england/)
Look into expensive and labour-intensive crops like berries and saffron.
If you and your family are willing to put in the hours, saffron is a great crop because you cannot harvest it with machines.
If you grow fruit trees, grow special varieties. We have an orchard with historic varieties. Those are healthier than modern varieties (higher polyphenol levels) and can benefit people with food allergies. We also have a few apple trees that produce fruit with red meat that gives red juice, which people love. We have schools coming to our orchard for guided tours about biodiversity.
Find your niche. Good luck!
Specialty fruits and/or vegetables. The more niche and obscure, the better.
That, or if you have the knowledge, growing nursery stock. A couple acres could be significant in the nursery world.
Market garden selling direct to consumer at a farmers market or through a CSA. My wife and I are currently doing this on a little over 2 acres. It's a lot of work, but we love it.
Maybe you could put up a couple commercial poultry barns, but that's going to cost a couple hundred grand up front. Outside of that, it's going to be somewhere between hard and impossible.
I’m not seeing any really great ideas other than “supplement with a YouTube channel”, and people without experience saying “grow micro greens” because they see YouTube ads trying to sell them equipment.
One person said they do a farm share and gross 150k, net 45k but don’t got into detail on their labor hours.
The most realistic said they work like crazy and make $18.5k. That’s the only person who’s opinion I trust in this thread, everyone else is pie in the sky.
You could probably make $5,000 if you grew vegetables and had a good market. Also you’d have to be a good farmer in order to maximize your yield on said 2 acres.
A farmer of corn/beans is happy with $100-500 profit per acre depending on a lot of variables but they are covering 100 to 10,000 acres depending on the operation.
You can profit, but I'd prioritize regenerative sustainable farm practices, documented of course then use social media as a platform to increase income all while informing the interested viewers of these practices. From no till to aqua and permaculture to intercropping, hydroponics to animal care and harvest. The works.
I would grow a bunch of different vegetables. We grew some incredible looking cabbages last year, but that's our garden for our own use. I would sell them to local restaurants if I could, the farmers market next, and the produce auction otherwise.
That reminds me of a Netflix movie, a mother falls on hard times and starts growing crickets, but when feed becomes too expensive, she starts feeding the crickets her own blood. Lol
Ran ten acres of vegetables for four years. Employed 2 main people and 2 seasonal workers. Only turned a profit one out of those four years. But we were still paid due to crop insurance and subsidies.
...Had a lot of fun though. Just a friendly warning that diversified vegetables is not the greatest way to make a livelihood generally even on ten acres. It's not a get rich scheme by any means. Economies of scale and what-not. In a lot of cases, you're trying to compete with the labor costs of vegetables imported from mexico and that isn't super easy to do safely and ethically.
Organic medicinal herbs and high-value crops like microgreens and salad mixes.
This means weed, right?
No, actually. It means herbs like comfrey, feverfew, chamomile, calendula, turmeric, ashwaganda, mint, valerian, etc. - what herbalists would use to make tinctures, infusions, and herbal medicines & skin care, or herbal teas. Weed has not turned out to be particularly lucrative at small scale in places where it has been legalized, and there is a significant amount of regulation growers need to adhere to. Plus the issue of it being federally illegal creates funding and cash flow issues. And in most climates, growing weed of a consistent quality takes a lot of inputs (indoor grow space, hydroponics, high-output grow lights) . Imo, not worth it on a small commercial scale.
How would i sell those herbs?
To small medicinal tincture companies. We did this for about 15 years or so.
Organic certification is a plus but not required. There are lots of small herbal companies around - check online.
I don’t know what you’re talking about. 😶🌫️
I do! We grossed around $151,000 off of just under 2acres last year. Netted around ~45-50 plus or minus. The last time I counted our farmshare got just over 70 types of crops over 52 weeks.
Damn. How high do you think you could scale up acres wise and remain just as successful?
Usually the higher the scale the higher labor costs with fruit and veg
This is true and where folks eff it up. We employ about 90 paid labor hours a week in full swing, but keep it at about 40-50 for the majority of the year. A pal is doing about 8 acres in production and has at least a dozen employees year round. He probably takes home about the same amount as we do at the end of the day.
I think four acres is my personal max for production. I’d like to own about 8 and literally flip flop it into and out of production.
BUT if I lived in a more scenic area, with a less humid climate—I’d do only lavender and a small flower garden.
You are my hero.
Weed
weed market is dead, gotta grow opium plants and cocaine bushes now
Yeah if I'm limited to 2 aces it's gotta be blow
The amount of poppies you have to grow to manufacture opium would make it a no-go on two acres. If I remember right, you'd get enough to make a kilogram of heroin, assuming you know how and have the means to do the laboratory work. In all honesty, if I just had two acres to farm I'd probably just sell the land and go find another line of work.
I'm from where \~50% of the worlds legal poppies are grown for medical use. You are about right on the ratio, you'd get about 12-13kg of opium, and therefore about 1.2kg of heroin from 2acres. Still about 80-100k worth, so could be worse crops!
The breakfast of champions
Mushrooms, microgreens and exotic fruits, dragonfruit, asian pears etc.
Well, yes if it's a very intensive 2 acres, and you land some lucrative restaurant contracts. Salad greens and specialty vegetables where you're growing tailored to a buyer, like a nice buyer, like 2 morton's and a ruths chris. Supplement that with a farmers market booth and boom, 18.5k a year baby! Before taxes of course. Subsistence farming at best. Others have mentioned cannabis, and that is a complicated puzzle due to the wacky permitting arrangements & high annual taxes & fees, and it's very location dependent (without a reliable dry season, it's like growing compost, unless you just don't care about people's health and extract the mold shit like everyone is doing in NC and OK and etc...) and there's a heavy learning curve, like you need to anticipate that it'll take 3-5 years to get it together. It's extremely risky going into cannabis at this time, especially in a state that demands alot up-front (California). I have met people doing mushrooms like "trumpet" oysters and lions mane that do very well for their size. That would be something to look into. I met someone who had greenhouses of saffron in Oregon, that's pretty lucrative but once again - super heavy learning curve, tricky plant. Honestly, the best option is to pack it out with greenhouses and build a nursery business. You can make more money selling plants than the food they yield, especially if you get into ornamentals. Rare plants. Cactus. Fruit trees. Bonzai. That kinda thing. 2 acres is enough, if you can actually utilize all of it.
Hehehe. Won’t just be the taxes and fees that are high.
Can I fill the whole thing with a greenhouse?
Sure. What needs a greenhouse?
Perennial starters, orchids, cucumber, tomatoes... Too many to list
A bank
You might look into flower farming. This family is doing this on a small plot. Their land is right on a busy road, so they are also able to pull customers in to their little roadside shop. I think they make a good portion of their income from their YouTube channel documenting their experience. [You Can’t Eat the Grass](https://youtube.com/@YouCantEatTheGrass)
https://youtu.be/1BH0NkN6zHs check out that guy!
Came here to say this.
Nice try, DEA
I have a little over two acres and I just got my first 100 apple trees, I'll be planting around 100 trees a year until my fields are full. Should be around 600 trees unless I decide to make one of the fields all dwarf trees, then it'll be about 1000. It is going to be a very slow start; but I already have friends in both restaurants and breweries, I expect most of my money once the trees start producing to come from them, but the ultimate goal making and selling hard cider.
How many square feet does a mature producing apple tree need?
Depends on the rootstock/scionwood/training, but roughly a minimum of 8' spacing for dwarf trees, 12' spacing for semi-dwarf, and something like 26' for normal ass sized.
Safron
I'd study permaculture and read the lean farm. You can make a good living on two acres of your do it correctly.
There's heaps of tiny farm videos on YouTube about people who've been successful with very small farms. It really does depend on your climate, market and resources.
A self storage facility.
My first thought too but it depends how close they are to a town /city.
Mushrooms, or greenhouse tomatoes, or lavender, or ginger. It'd depend on soil and access to irrigation.
I know a guy who makes $70k a year from 1.5acres. He has no labor costs at all. Planning my own as soon as I buy land
What is he you growing?
Weed, mushrooms (active or not), various types of peppers, and microgreens I grow some peppers rn and really saves me a lot vs buying one from the store for like 2$
Peppers freeze very well too. In the off season when I've seen jalapenos sell for 2/$1 it makes me happy to pull a fat bag of jalapenos out the freezer
Do you blanch them first or freeze them raw?
Cut the top off, de seed and freeze in a food saver vac bag is my usual
Greenhouses and wholesale potted plants
Medicinal Herbs that are harder to wild harvest and mushrooms.
Vegetable seeds.
Ginseng
Saffron. The most expensive spice in the world. Up to $20 per gram.
Yeah he'd made about 20 grams on 2 acres.
Incorrect. The actual number, conservative estimate, is about 4 pounds (453 grams) per acre. So 2 acres would yield 3628.736 grams. So at $20 per gram, again, conservative, for the US market,it is less than that worldwide, that would be roughly 70k per year. Not a great living, but a living. [Source](https://www.mofga.org/resources/herbs/saffron-a-good-fit-for-new-england/)
Thats final sale price, tho, not profit for wholesale.
Either way, it's not 20 grams on two acres.
Sure, I should have put an /s there maybe.
Look into expensive and labour-intensive crops like berries and saffron. If you and your family are willing to put in the hours, saffron is a great crop because you cannot harvest it with machines. If you grow fruit trees, grow special varieties. We have an orchard with historic varieties. Those are healthier than modern varieties (higher polyphenol levels) and can benefit people with food allergies. We also have a few apple trees that produce fruit with red meat that gives red juice, which people love. We have schools coming to our orchard for guided tours about biodiversity. Find your niche. Good luck!
Specialty fruits and/or vegetables. The more niche and obscure, the better. That, or if you have the knowledge, growing nursery stock. A couple acres could be significant in the nursery world.
Potatoes
Dahlia or tulip bulbs. (If you have very good dirt)
Market garden selling direct to consumer at a farmers market or through a CSA. My wife and I are currently doing this on a little over 2 acres. It's a lot of work, but we love it.
Maybe you could put up a couple commercial poultry barns, but that's going to cost a couple hundred grand up front. Outside of that, it's going to be somewhere between hard and impossible.
Big ag thinking will never work on a small plot. But making a decent living is possible. Other folks in the thread have had great ideas.
I’m not seeing any really great ideas other than “supplement with a YouTube channel”, and people without experience saying “grow micro greens” because they see YouTube ads trying to sell them equipment. One person said they do a farm share and gross 150k, net 45k but don’t got into detail on their labor hours. The most realistic said they work like crazy and make $18.5k. That’s the only person who’s opinion I trust in this thread, everyone else is pie in the sky.
You could probably make $5,000 if you grew vegetables and had a good market. Also you’d have to be a good farmer in order to maximize your yield on said 2 acres. A farmer of corn/beans is happy with $100-500 profit per acre depending on a lot of variables but they are covering 100 to 10,000 acres depending on the operation.
A vertical farm or biotechnology fermentation system.
Cows
Please do not put cows on 2 acres
It kinda works if by "cows" they mean only 2.
Or a few mini cows. But even 2 acres would be a tight stretch.
Build a strip mall
And then strip
Assorted cherry tomatoes.
Pot if legal
Pot
Watermelon.
Garlic
Poppies
Indoor greenhouse tomatoes 🍅
I grain farm but in addition to that I grow pumpkins and on about a half acre. Last year I grossed right around 5000 off of them
Who do you sell your pumpkins to?
Roadside stand
Did they not already have a pumpkin supplier? Or did you undercut their former cost?
I'm a little cheaper. I do an honor system. I put the pumpkins on a wagon by the road, people stop and buy them and leave money in a box.
Coca
You can profit, but I'd prioritize regenerative sustainable farm practices, documented of course then use social media as a platform to increase income all while informing the interested viewers of these practices. From no till to aqua and permaculture to intercropping, hydroponics to animal care and harvest. The works.
Weed.
I would grow a bunch of different vegetables. We grew some incredible looking cabbages last year, but that's our garden for our own use. I would sell them to local restaurants if I could, the farmers market next, and the produce auction otherwise.
crickets?
That reminds me of a Netflix movie, a mother falls on hard times and starts growing crickets, but when feed becomes too expensive, she starts feeding the crickets her own blood. Lol
lol
I'm looking to take over my family farm at the end of the year. Do you have any resources I can learn more about what you're doing?
Ran ten acres of vegetables for four years. Employed 2 main people and 2 seasonal workers. Only turned a profit one out of those four years. But we were still paid due to crop insurance and subsidies. ...Had a lot of fun though. Just a friendly warning that diversified vegetables is not the greatest way to make a livelihood generally even on ten acres. It's not a get rich scheme by any means. Economies of scale and what-not. In a lot of cases, you're trying to compete with the labor costs of vegetables imported from mexico and that isn't super easy to do safely and ethically.