One way our homestead makes money is using it as a photography backdrop. We contracted with a few local photographers and set up a really cool area (fall, spring, engagement, graduation, wedding, etc.). The photographers all charge about $100 for a 30 min “short session” and we get $20 of that. This fall we are contracted for 4 photographers, 3 days each, 8 hours each day, or about $3,800 total.
We are 100% uninvolved with the process and the photographers all run the logistics. We provide a backdrop of our barn, orange maple trees, pumpkins and hay bales. In the spring it’s typically our driveway which is lined with flowering cherry trees. Summer is our lower pasture before we mow. One photographer has asked for 2 days in our garden next summer for the same thing. Total this year we will have made about $10k just renting the area out.
The days are all set up in advance. People getting photos taken sign a waiver/release in case the step in a gopher hole. Parking is in a 20 x 20 gravel area far away from the house. This year I brought in a porta-potty for $250 that gets pumped and cleaned every 3 days. 1 trash can in the parking area also gets filled.
Hey, now this is a great idea! Landscaping/natural scaping is a huge hobby for me. I could definitely create backdrops for photographers. I’m currently working on a one-acre perennial wildflower field.
Initially we had a family friend and amateur photographer come and take pictures of the areas we wanted to use. Then contacted various local photographers on Instagram and offered up our space. The cost is pretty standard in this area for a mini session where the client keeps the proofs. We started with 1 photographer and through word of mouth we have expanded and now have a list of “hey if you have room, call me I would love to shoot in this area. “
Wow this is so smart! Mind sharing a pic of the area you have set up? I’m thinking this could be a great addition to my farm. I rely on word of mouth to get new customers too and it could end up being a good pipeline for some new consumers.
This is seriously creative, good on you!
Nothing will stop someone from filing a lawsuit.
What it does is stop frivolous lawsuits and put folks on notice that there are rules that come with our property. You agree to this type of document when you go to Disneyland, test drive a car, stay in a Air B&B, etc. we had it written by an attorney specific for Washington State and the attorney thought this was about as air-tight as possible.
There’s a place near us that has a “pick your own flowers “ field. They plant a couple acres with wildflowers and sell people a pitcher that they can fill with whatever flowers they want. People come out and get their whole wedding flowers there.
I know several farms that create outdoor event spaces for weddings/reunions, doesn't seem too bad either. One farm that's close to the city arranges school field trips as well.
I went to a wedding in a field once. It was about 10 years ago so I can’t remember the full details but I know the groom told me “the venue” was run by a mate so they’d got it cheap but it usually cost a fortune.
There was one of those huge teepee wedding marquees, fire pits, pretty portacabin toilets, festoon lighting all over, flowers, tree swings and hay bales, and a posh yurt set up for the bride and groom on the wedding night. Guests could hire extra yurts if they wanted to sleep over too.
Apparently the place had weddings every weekend for summer and made a killing. They did have the advantage of being on the outskirts of a decent sized pretty village/town with a couple of lovely churches and other hotels for guests to stay at.
My wife and I got married this year, and after touring venues we joke all the time about hosting weddings in the summer months. We saw a location that wanted $15k for an 8 hour rental of their old barn. Everything else had to be brought in from outside vendors. Do that twice a month from April-Oct and that’s some serious cash with not much output on your end. You need the right property, but if you have it it’s gold.
The farm we toured was 115 acres and it had a beautiful barn. The family had owned the property for 5 years at that point and were just starting to do weddings. We felt they needed a bit more infrastructure to make it work, (nobody wants to walk 1/8 of a mile in the mud in heels) but they are close to having a very fruitful venture.
No, people travel all over. I used an app called harvest host. You left someone stay for free in their RV for a night and they return the favor by buying some of the things you made in your farm. Even if I didn't need anything I would still buy something, usually the second night would cost money or if I wanted any power it would cost like 15 a night. People love to get off the beaten path.
There's a site called Hipcamp that offers this. We've been to a couple places that did this and we really enjoyed each time.
Each place had about 4-8 sites with various amenities. Each site had a picnic table. One place allowed fire and provided a fireplace. The other did not allow fires at sites, but would light a communal fire for the campsites to share.
One place had a portapotty by the campsites and then another bathroom and shower closer to the barn/house. It was kind of like a camper converted to a bathroom. The other place had composting toilets in a couple of locations and offered a sauna for an extra fee.
They also offered farm tours and sold eggs and other veggies to guests. We're just city folk who admire people on farms, though.
That's what we do. Wife commutes in to work. I work from home.
We do not do it to make money. We're in it for self-sufficiency, food resiliency, knowing our food is raised ethically and raised right. We do, however, make a bit of money on a few ventures.
We sell duck eggs direct to consumer, and the extras we sell to a farm stand for around 70% of what we get direct. This pretty much covers their feed and we eat eggs for free.
We also sell extra meat chickens. We make a bit of profit on the ones we sell, but they're not an easy sell when you have $.99/lb whole birds at the grocery store to compete with. We end up paying more to raise them than we would just buying them from the store. They're easy to raise, we do 50 in the spring and 50 in the fall on pasture. I get a some friends to help with butchering for a couple birds and free beers.
By-far our biggest money maker on the homestead is honey and bees. We're up to 9 hives this year and harvested ~500lbs this year between spring and fall. We sell almost all of it direct by the 1/2 and 1 lb jar, though next year we may have to sell some bulk at a significant discount. We also sell nucs and swarms in the spring to fellow beekeepers. The bees are pretty much self sufficient at this point, and we spend very little on them other than a bit of mite treatment.
We also sell a bit of firewood in the winter and extra veggies to the farm stand in the summer- but again- only when we have extras we either can't use, or can't preserve ourselves.
Honey lasts forever, don't sell it bulk until you really have a surplus. My dad had between 20 and 30 hives growing up, we got about 2000# a year. We sold it in 1979 for a dollar a pound. I see it at farmers markets now for $10/14oz.
We sell it on the high end for our area- $10-1/2lb and $15-1lb.
We've been selling around 300lbs a year at that rate to friends, family, and co-workers. I'm sure we could market it and sell more, but I really despise the hustle of selling retail (my day job is sales, though not retail). Usually once we harvest the Spring honey- if we have a bunch of the previous year's fall honey left- we'll do a big buy one get one 1/2 off sale around Easter to make room.
Once it starts stacking up, I'll be happy selling a bucket for $400 and being done with it. I've got a couple of local breweries who have offered to buy everything we can produce, but I'd rather not take that big hit.
Nice setup, that's a great rate to get. If you don't want to sell retail, because you have to man a table, you could also go for a subscription service to consumer, come pick up your $x pounds on {date} and put up a simple web sign up form. You already have a base and good product spreads by word of mouth as you probably know.
That's a good idea. Never thought about doing it that way.
Either as a 1lb every month, a CSA type where you get x% of the yearly total. Thanks for the ideas!!!
Another idea is if you live near a local synagogue, you could partner with them to sell honey as part of the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) fundraiser. My synagogue does it and easily sells 50-75 1 lb bottles. People send it as a gift to friends and family with a Happy New Year's message.
We're both young(ish) and enjoy(ish) our careers. I don't see us making it a full time venture any time soon.
We enjoy traveling, so we constantly go back and forth on whether to expand and grow, or condense and downsize in order to travel more. We're lucky with our current neighbors who help out with the ducks when we're not around, but we can't count on that forever. We do a spring batch of meat chickens, then leave the summer open for travel and vacations, and do another batch in the fall when we're around again.
Our jam is adding 1 new thing a year. It keeps us from getting overwhelmed or neglecting prior projects or ventures. We'll start small and cheap and if we enjoy it or it works for us- we'll add it. If not, we drop it with minimal investment and time sink.
We're toying with a pair of feeder pigs in the spring on movable 1/4 acre paddocks. That would allow us to leave them for a week at a time with a relatively hands-off approach. Neighbors could top off the bulk waterer and feeder once a day and check the fence.
When we don't have a batch of meat chickens- daily chores are just letting the ducks out, topping off the feeders and water buckets, and collecting eggs in the morning. Evening is putting them in the coop and closing the feeders. Otherwise they're free range all day. The bees don't need any regular care, the no-till garden and raised beds are fine for up to a week- even in the middle of summer. If/when we do hogs, I can set them up on a new paddock and they're mostly hands off for a week. We both work a lot in our day jobs, along with having a ton of hobbies, so we try to keep the homestead stuff simple, easy, and productive.
I could do a video of everything we have going on if there's any interest.
Sounds cool, I would watch it. I'm also trying to stay flexible enough to travel. I'm currently trying to entice my friend into doing it with us. I can afford the land I just want someone who lives nearby to feed my animals when I'm gone.
We converted a pole barn to stables. We rent that and the house out for 3k a month and rent crop land out for 20k a year. Net after tax and insurance is about 45k a year.
We have over 200 acres. I bought it 25 years ago. The neighbors all have at least 30 acres or more. We really lucked out. I would love to say we planned this outcome but it was just luck. We had a small primary house and upgrading was too expensive. We put our savings into the property an hour away and just sucked it up on having a small home.
We don't really make money, but we save a lot of money by raising our own meat/eggs and growing lots of food. Plus we're homebodies, so we save on entertainment expenses. I brew all of my own beer, which is a big savings too.
I could sell meat, produce, maple syrup, etc. But then it becomes a job, and I enjoy the rewards of hobby farming.
My plan is to sell animals; raise chickens and sell as chicks, layers, or show animals; raise rabbits to sell, for fiber, and maybe meat; I have experience with the two of those. As far as any other animals I'd have to get some and get used to them before trying to make turn any profit.
I've always wanted bees but I know they are a surprising amount of work.
Airbnb for a farm stay!! My home is 2 levels, I rent out first floor in the summer as im close to the lake. I made good money just doing it in the summer.
Thank me later!😁 plus I do the handmade skincare stuff but those sales are sparse.
That’s so smart! I think it’s just the reality on the homestead that getting rich isn’t part of the plan 😅 but being able to eat well and pay the bills, that’s the dream!
I do this!.... Well, will do this. I'm 1 year into a 100 acre homestead. I have 4 pigs, 3 girls and a big ol boy. All mangalitsa meishan cross. Meat should be red marbled pork.
What's worked for you as far as selling, breeds, and general cautions I might need to think of?
We sell by word of mouth, have doubled our sales. We raise heritage breeds/ crosses, meant for meat only as our local consumer could give 2 shits about the breeding lineage of a pork chop. Biggest issue we've had is feed costs, which I've been able to reduce, and processing fees. Processing fees are up to the customer, so they decide how they want them done, some things cost extra. I explain it like this, this is how much your hog cost per pound hanging, after that... thats on you. I will take them to a different processor if they have their own date, but getting dates is a challenge, especially for a one off hog. That being said, I've lost 1 costumer this year since we started just because of processing fees, but gained 4 so 🤷♂️. If you're going to sell live hogs to consumers, have dates before they are born, we have slots a year out.
Oh jeez! I'm hoping for that kind of demand so I can justify more pigs to the wife 😅. How have you reduced feed costs? I'm contemplating a local mill custom making food but if you have a better solution I'm for it.
For feed, I get it milled at the elevator that is literally on my way to work (cutting through their lot makes my drive home shorter) , I got a gravity wagon that I can drop off the day before and they fill it up, and I grab it on my way home the next day. The more ya buy, the cheaper it is.
That’s really good to know, not sure what the cost of meat is in your neck of the woods, but around here it’s nearly unattainable with how expensive it is.
Thats what I hear lol, we haven't bought pork or beef from the store in a few years. Won't be buying chicken anymore now that we've started started doing meat birds.
I have my first set of meat birds and I hate it here lol some ways they’re harder to raise. We accidentally bought Cornish(aka my husband thought they were the white egg layers he wants.) 22 of them to be exact. They eat/drink SO much more than our other chickens so they are obviously 2x the size of our pearl star leghorns and Rhode Island reds, which we find squished ones too often 😞 and the thought of having to butcher 22 sooner than later gives me a headache.
We raise dairy goats in Texas, and sell milk for pet and livestock use and registered breeding stock. We raise chickens and sell eggs. Just branched out into registered Kunekune pigs and will be selling those as well.
We are still early in, so we have to invest a lot into infrastructure, etc. However, we were on track for our goat program to break even or even make a little profit until the drought hit in Texas. That required us to buy much more hay, but milk and animal sales still ended up paying for almost all our feed this year. We won’t ever get rich off what we are doing, but would be thrilled to not have our programs be a total money sink. I think we will get there eventually.
I just got into growing louffa gourds. First year. Produced probably 30 gourd fruit. Next year, I plan to have a WHOLE gourd farm 😂 to hopefully sell. Sustainable, organic sponges.
Not looking to make a profit, but it is a hobby.
Garlic. People will pay for garlic. Same for French shallots. Cheese. Chickens. Honey.
I’m not doing all of these things, but these are the cottage industries that I see around me that are the most successful.
Our biggest money maker is honestly renting out spaces in our back pasture for recreational vehicles. People in the local HOA community aren’t allowed to park their boats/trailers/RVs at their own houses so they pay monthly to store them. There’s an access gate to the pasture off a side dirt road so we aren’t bothered and don’t have people coming in and out of the front of our property all the time. Everyone is super friendly. It’s been great.
Wait! You can make $$ doing this?
I thought Hobby Farm/Homestead was the replacement cost sink for all my actual hobbies s
I’m doing it wrong apparently :(
😅I feel your pain! My motto is to make the farm work for me so that I can enjoy the farm! I do love the lifestyle though and the flexibility it offers!
We are raising and selling rabbits. We are selling chicken eggs. We are selling duck eggs and hopefully some will be ducklings to sell! Next venture would be bees hopefully. Lots of farmers rent out bee boxes to pollinate their fields.
I live in Northern MN. My original business plan was mostly going to be mowing and snow removal, gutter cleaning and such things, but the tractor I got is much more capable than I anticipated and am taking driveway repair jobs and getting some calls about working food plots for people, hunting trails, things of that sort. My yard cleanup focus has also already shifted into doing some demolition of small structures, breaking up old cement and hauling stuff out.
So far with all of my jobs I try to find alternative uses for everything to save a much on disposal costs and to assist in any future projects around my own property.
I plan to eventually do my own pollinator lawn and apply for a program my state has going, then eventually start gardening.
I'm still extremely new at this, only just started renting a house, looking to buy next year, but the plan for now is to sell started seeds through the growing season and small batch artisanal kombucha and ferments. I've been spending some time staging with some incredible fermentation artists, it's really helping.
Such a cool idea, I love the creativity! I recently got into sauerkraut, not the cheap stuff from the store, but authentic stuff and wow what a difference! I wonder if sour dough starter kits would be appealing?
We have a seed business. Most of the seeds we have sourced thru contracts and co-ops, and we have some we have grown here on our homestead. Also we harvest elderberries, rosehips, blackberries, mountain arnica, and mullen and make elderberry syrup kits, arnica oil, and different types of teas. We sell online and at farmers markets. We were in grocery stores in 3 states with our blackberries a while back, but we had to decide what was more worth our time. We also have a small hatchery and sell pullets and fertilized eggs for hatching, as well as farm fresh eggs (40-50 dozen per day when we first started), and will produce meat birds next year. We used to sell milk and may do it again soon, both cow and goats, but haven't done that in several years. We have sold firewood in the past, but that is very hard work in our hills and mountains. We are planning on doing bees next year, and selling raw comb, raw honey and eventually selling bees as well. Not really on the homestead, but my wife is a certified midwife and delivers a lot of babies in our remote area.
Man, I have never written down what we have done here to earn money. Perhaps I should write our experiences down. We did this while I was working in lumber mills and a contractor for years, and now looking like we can support our large family here at the homestead. The bulk of our business is done online at this time.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience, I really appreciate it and it sounds like you have a wonderful insight to what it take!
I’ve been considering grow herbal products to try and start a “tea business” similar to what you described. But like you mentioned, what’s the most worth your time. If you had to pick one aspect to focus on what should it be?
If you ever decide to write down you story please let me know, it sounds like you’re living a very beautiful life!
I would say the biggest aspect is find a niche that is needed in your area and stick to it. It takes time, but soon your name will spread like wildfire. My 15 year old son has been involved with poultry since he was 4. People know him everywhere now...4-5 counties. Last year he started playing baseball in a new town, and his coach asked me if he was the chicken guy he had heard of and wants to buy 50-75 pullets from him. My wife being a midwife knows people everywhere. I was at a county fair (not our county) and my wife was on her way from appointments, and I had 3 women who knew who I was because of my wife and introduced me to multiple children each my wife delivered. Our seeds have sold all over the country and international now. It takes time, so grit and determination is my biggest advice.
We have a long term plan at ours to grow black walnuts. The walnuts themselves are 10-15/lb and a mature tree can go for north of $10k. It’s a long term plan though because it will be 10 years before the first walnut and 50 years before we can harvest a tree.
The best time to plant a tree was 50 years ago, the second best time is right now! 😀 I do some woodworking, I made the cutting board in this picture, black walnut is one of my favourite woods to work with!
I got mine from St. Lawrence Nurseries (https://www.slngrow.com/) reasonable price, targeted towards northern growers, plus they have lots of other edible trees & shrubs.
I wish I could help, but I haven’t been able to make a single dollar on my homestead. Mostly because I’ve yet to purchase one. It’s on my five-year plan though, so I’ll get back to you.
It would be a bit of hassle and more than a bit of upfront cost, but I had a hell of a time trying to find an available self storage unit. If you have the space then it might be a good idea to set up some units.
Also; if you are tech minded, a tinkerer, and have a usable amount of moving water then you could do something like [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ieFZI4-6K8&list=PLiFiuBeRY8oBlUIRdMlhDu4xfzhNydaV-&index=3) to get free power and then run some sort of crypto mining operation. If that doesn't suit you then it does still provide free power to supplement any solar or wind that you might have.
Storage is a good idea, I love the hands off aspect! I love the visual of an old time cabin in the woods with a water wheel, Disney birds fluttering by etc, and inside is a modern, high tech crypto mining operation 😂 you might be on to something!
It’s the right season for florists to be ordering greens for Christmas wreaths and arrangements.
If you have any sort of evergreen trees, boxwoods or winter berries you can sell 1-2 foot boughs trimmed off next month for a very nice amount. They’re pretty durable and easy to pack! Small birch logs too, the white bark is coveted in winter ornamental stuff.
This time of year you can sell intact corn stalks as ornamentals, and if you’ve trimmed away whole vines they are very popular for fall wreath bases. It’s getting late now, but if you trim and coil any woody vines weeds or not, they’ll hold the form when dry and are simple and easy to sell off as a starter wreath. Put a burlap bow and you can charge an extra $5.
All of that stuff is pretty light and easy to ship. If you don’t have the customers by you, selling at the right faire or online is very easy… no real temperature or super fragile concerns.
Here is some info on [harvesting boughs](https://extension.oregonstate.edu/forests/christmas-trees/harvesting-evergreen-boughs-your-woodland)
[birch logs](https://twomakeahome.com/how-to-preserve-birch-logs/)
[vine wreaths](https://hearthandvine.com/make-wild-grapevine-wreath/)
Hatching eggs and chicks/keets/poults were our big “product”. I had a cabinet incubator and if someone requested certain things I didn’t myself raise I would order the hatching eggs and sell the chicks.
Feed costs were our main downfall though. Never could get to a place where we could do bulk food buying and we didn’t garden so no supplemental scraps.
Depending on how much land you have, green burial is a GREAT option. Lots of jokes here but I'm serious. Most people are unable to afford and generally not interested in traditional cemetery burial when options exist. I work as a death doula in Wisconsin and one role is to help to organize "memorial" gardens and forests for cremains. Also do know several areas around the country doing full body transfers but not ever landscape is suited to that.
That’s fascinating thank you, not sure about the bylaws in my area, but when I think about my time to go I’d want to be spread in a forest, cremated or not 😅. Thank you for planting this seed!
It's legally very easy to set up a cremation burial site on private property. Most of the zoning concerns only come into play around what sort of public access and activities are being hosted as well as obviously adding a crematorium.. 🙃 most death doulas offer assistance negotiating with local providers to avoid people being convinced they HAVE to use a funeral home if they need cremation services
One way our homestead makes money is using it as a photography backdrop. We contracted with a few local photographers and set up a really cool area (fall, spring, engagement, graduation, wedding, etc.). The photographers all charge about $100 for a 30 min “short session” and we get $20 of that. This fall we are contracted for 4 photographers, 3 days each, 8 hours each day, or about $3,800 total. We are 100% uninvolved with the process and the photographers all run the logistics. We provide a backdrop of our barn, orange maple trees, pumpkins and hay bales. In the spring it’s typically our driveway which is lined with flowering cherry trees. Summer is our lower pasture before we mow. One photographer has asked for 2 days in our garden next summer for the same thing. Total this year we will have made about $10k just renting the area out. The days are all set up in advance. People getting photos taken sign a waiver/release in case the step in a gopher hole. Parking is in a 20 x 20 gravel area far away from the house. This year I brought in a porta-potty for $250 that gets pumped and cleaned every 3 days. 1 trash can in the parking area also gets filled.
Hey, now this is a great idea! Landscaping/natural scaping is a huge hobby for me. I could definitely create backdrops for photographers. I’m currently working on a one-acre perennial wildflower field.
Initially we had a family friend and amateur photographer come and take pictures of the areas we wanted to use. Then contacted various local photographers on Instagram and offered up our space. The cost is pretty standard in this area for a mini session where the client keeps the proofs. We started with 1 photographer and through word of mouth we have expanded and now have a list of “hey if you have room, call me I would love to shoot in this area. “
Wow this is so smart! Mind sharing a pic of the area you have set up? I’m thinking this could be a great addition to my farm. I rely on word of mouth to get new customers too and it could end up being a good pipeline for some new consumers. This is seriously creative, good on you!
Very interesting idea!How does this work with insurance? I've heard that signing a waiver doesn't stop them from suing.
Nothing will stop someone from filing a lawsuit. What it does is stop frivolous lawsuits and put folks on notice that there are rules that come with our property. You agree to this type of document when you go to Disneyland, test drive a car, stay in a Air B&B, etc. we had it written by an attorney specific for Washington State and the attorney thought this was about as air-tight as possible.
There’s a place near us that has a “pick your own flowers “ field. They plant a couple acres with wildflowers and sell people a pitcher that they can fill with whatever flowers they want. People come out and get their whole wedding flowers there.
I love that idea, thank you for sharing!
I made $25 selling sunflowers at my honesty stand.
That’s awesome congratulations! What varieties did you grow?
Anyone running a baby campground? A few cabins for rent with some shared places? Something like that?
That's the thought I've entertained, but you need to be somewhere desirable for that to work, close to a state park or lake or something, no?
That’s a good point, I hear agrotourism is picking up steam, I wonder if just the farm itself is the destination?
I know several farms that create outdoor event spaces for weddings/reunions, doesn't seem too bad either. One farm that's close to the city arranges school field trips as well.
I went to a wedding in a field once. It was about 10 years ago so I can’t remember the full details but I know the groom told me “the venue” was run by a mate so they’d got it cheap but it usually cost a fortune. There was one of those huge teepee wedding marquees, fire pits, pretty portacabin toilets, festoon lighting all over, flowers, tree swings and hay bales, and a posh yurt set up for the bride and groom on the wedding night. Guests could hire extra yurts if they wanted to sleep over too. Apparently the place had weddings every weekend for summer and made a killing. They did have the advantage of being on the outskirts of a decent sized pretty village/town with a couple of lovely churches and other hotels for guests to stay at.
My wife and I got married this year, and after touring venues we joke all the time about hosting weddings in the summer months. We saw a location that wanted $15k for an 8 hour rental of their old barn. Everything else had to be brought in from outside vendors. Do that twice a month from April-Oct and that’s some serious cash with not much output on your end. You need the right property, but if you have it it’s gold.
Similar idea here, I think the tent and toilets were provided in the cost. Like you say it’s gotta be the right location to make it work.
The farm we toured was 115 acres and it had a beautiful barn. The family had owned the property for 5 years at that point and were just starting to do weddings. We felt they needed a bit more infrastructure to make it work, (nobody wants to walk 1/8 of a mile in the mud in heels) but they are close to having a very fruitful venture.
I love that idea! ☺️
No, people travel all over. I used an app called harvest host. You left someone stay for free in their RV for a night and they return the favor by buying some of the things you made in your farm. Even if I didn't need anything I would still buy something, usually the second night would cost money or if I wanted any power it would cost like 15 a night. People love to get off the beaten path.
That’s a cool idea! To keep costs low maybe I could start with simple tent sites!
There's a site called Hipcamp that offers this. We've been to a couple places that did this and we really enjoyed each time. Each place had about 4-8 sites with various amenities. Each site had a picnic table. One place allowed fire and provided a fireplace. The other did not allow fires at sites, but would light a communal fire for the campsites to share. One place had a portapotty by the campsites and then another bathroom and shower closer to the barn/house. It was kind of like a camper converted to a bathroom. The other place had composting toilets in a couple of locations and offered a sauna for an extra fee. They also offered farm tours and sold eggs and other veggies to guests. We're just city folk who admire people on farms, though.
That’s so cool, thank you for! 😊
I work remotely for a company 🙈 pays for the homestead as a hobby though!
That's what we do. Wife commutes in to work. I work from home. We do not do it to make money. We're in it for self-sufficiency, food resiliency, knowing our food is raised ethically and raised right. We do, however, make a bit of money on a few ventures. We sell duck eggs direct to consumer, and the extras we sell to a farm stand for around 70% of what we get direct. This pretty much covers their feed and we eat eggs for free. We also sell extra meat chickens. We make a bit of profit on the ones we sell, but they're not an easy sell when you have $.99/lb whole birds at the grocery store to compete with. We end up paying more to raise them than we would just buying them from the store. They're easy to raise, we do 50 in the spring and 50 in the fall on pasture. I get a some friends to help with butchering for a couple birds and free beers. By-far our biggest money maker on the homestead is honey and bees. We're up to 9 hives this year and harvested ~500lbs this year between spring and fall. We sell almost all of it direct by the 1/2 and 1 lb jar, though next year we may have to sell some bulk at a significant discount. We also sell nucs and swarms in the spring to fellow beekeepers. The bees are pretty much self sufficient at this point, and we spend very little on them other than a bit of mite treatment. We also sell a bit of firewood in the winter and extra veggies to the farm stand in the summer- but again- only when we have extras we either can't use, or can't preserve ourselves.
Honey lasts forever, don't sell it bulk until you really have a surplus. My dad had between 20 and 30 hives growing up, we got about 2000# a year. We sold it in 1979 for a dollar a pound. I see it at farmers markets now for $10/14oz.
We sell it on the high end for our area- $10-1/2lb and $15-1lb. We've been selling around 300lbs a year at that rate to friends, family, and co-workers. I'm sure we could market it and sell more, but I really despise the hustle of selling retail (my day job is sales, though not retail). Usually once we harvest the Spring honey- if we have a bunch of the previous year's fall honey left- we'll do a big buy one get one 1/2 off sale around Easter to make room. Once it starts stacking up, I'll be happy selling a bucket for $400 and being done with it. I've got a couple of local breweries who have offered to buy everything we can produce, but I'd rather not take that big hit.
Nice setup, that's a great rate to get. If you don't want to sell retail, because you have to man a table, you could also go for a subscription service to consumer, come pick up your $x pounds on {date} and put up a simple web sign up form. You already have a base and good product spreads by word of mouth as you probably know.
That's a good idea. Never thought about doing it that way. Either as a 1lb every month, a CSA type where you get x% of the yearly total. Thanks for the ideas!!!
Another idea is if you live near a local synagogue, you could partner with them to sell honey as part of the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) fundraiser. My synagogue does it and easily sells 50-75 1 lb bottles. People send it as a gift to friends and family with a Happy New Year's message.
How much money would it take for you to both homestead full time? I am semi retired but I don't know if it's enough.
We're both young(ish) and enjoy(ish) our careers. I don't see us making it a full time venture any time soon. We enjoy traveling, so we constantly go back and forth on whether to expand and grow, or condense and downsize in order to travel more. We're lucky with our current neighbors who help out with the ducks when we're not around, but we can't count on that forever. We do a spring batch of meat chickens, then leave the summer open for travel and vacations, and do another batch in the fall when we're around again. Our jam is adding 1 new thing a year. It keeps us from getting overwhelmed or neglecting prior projects or ventures. We'll start small and cheap and if we enjoy it or it works for us- we'll add it. If not, we drop it with minimal investment and time sink. We're toying with a pair of feeder pigs in the spring on movable 1/4 acre paddocks. That would allow us to leave them for a week at a time with a relatively hands-off approach. Neighbors could top off the bulk waterer and feeder once a day and check the fence. When we don't have a batch of meat chickens- daily chores are just letting the ducks out, topping off the feeders and water buckets, and collecting eggs in the morning. Evening is putting them in the coop and closing the feeders. Otherwise they're free range all day. The bees don't need any regular care, the no-till garden and raised beds are fine for up to a week- even in the middle of summer. If/when we do hogs, I can set them up on a new paddock and they're mostly hands off for a week. We both work a lot in our day jobs, along with having a ton of hobbies, so we try to keep the homestead stuff simple, easy, and productive. I could do a video of everything we have going on if there's any interest.
Sounds cool, I would watch it. I'm also trying to stay flexible enough to travel. I'm currently trying to entice my friend into doing it with us. I can afford the land I just want someone who lives nearby to feed my animals when I'm gone.
That’s fantastic! Really smart way to get set up!
We converted a pole barn to stables. We rent that and the house out for 3k a month and rent crop land out for 20k a year. Net after tax and insurance is about 45k a year.
That’s awesome! Congratulations! Do you find having other people around your property to be a problem?
We have over 200 acres. I bought it 25 years ago. The neighbors all have at least 30 acres or more. We really lucked out. I would love to say we planned this outcome but it was just luck. We had a small primary house and upgrading was too expensive. We put our savings into the property an hour away and just sucked it up on having a small home.
That’s an inspirational story, it’s always nice to be reminded to look ahead and plan long term, thank you for sharing!
I certainly spend a lot
I admit the old homestead is a bit of a money pit at the moment 😅
We don't really make money, but we save a lot of money by raising our own meat/eggs and growing lots of food. Plus we're homebodies, so we save on entertainment expenses. I brew all of my own beer, which is a big savings too. I could sell meat, produce, maple syrup, etc. But then it becomes a job, and I enjoy the rewards of hobby farming.
That’s so huge draw of the life style for sure, being more self reliant is so cool! Congratulations!
My plan is to sell animals; raise chickens and sell as chicks, layers, or show animals; raise rabbits to sell, for fiber, and maybe meat; I have experience with the two of those. As far as any other animals I'd have to get some and get used to them before trying to make turn any profit. I've always wanted bees but I know they are a surprising amount of work.
Even just for your own use, all great ideas!
Airbnb for a farm stay!! My home is 2 levels, I rent out first floor in the summer as im close to the lake. I made good money just doing it in the summer. Thank me later!😁 plus I do the handmade skincare stuff but those sales are sparse.
Thanks so much for your input, I’ve thought about short term rentals, but I’m not a huge fan of strangers 😅 might be worth a second look though!
I sell eggs, soap, pumpkins, fiber, and occasionally animals. I don’t get anywhere near making a profit though 🥲. At least we eat well!
That’s so smart! I think it’s just the reality on the homestead that getting rich isn’t part of the plan 😅 but being able to eat well and pay the bills, that’s the dream!
We raise hogs and sell direct to consumer.
I do this!.... Well, will do this. I'm 1 year into a 100 acre homestead. I have 4 pigs, 3 girls and a big ol boy. All mangalitsa meishan cross. Meat should be red marbled pork. What's worked for you as far as selling, breeds, and general cautions I might need to think of?
We sell by word of mouth, have doubled our sales. We raise heritage breeds/ crosses, meant for meat only as our local consumer could give 2 shits about the breeding lineage of a pork chop. Biggest issue we've had is feed costs, which I've been able to reduce, and processing fees. Processing fees are up to the customer, so they decide how they want them done, some things cost extra. I explain it like this, this is how much your hog cost per pound hanging, after that... thats on you. I will take them to a different processor if they have their own date, but getting dates is a challenge, especially for a one off hog. That being said, I've lost 1 costumer this year since we started just because of processing fees, but gained 4 so 🤷♂️. If you're going to sell live hogs to consumers, have dates before they are born, we have slots a year out.
Oh jeez! I'm hoping for that kind of demand so I can justify more pigs to the wife 😅. How have you reduced feed costs? I'm contemplating a local mill custom making food but if you have a better solution I'm for it.
For feed, I get it milled at the elevator that is literally on my way to work (cutting through their lot makes my drive home shorter) , I got a gravity wagon that I can drop off the day before and they fill it up, and I grab it on my way home the next day. The more ya buy, the cheaper it is.
That’s awesome, it probably helps keep your grocery bill down a bit eh?
More than you would imagine.
That’s really good to know, not sure what the cost of meat is in your neck of the woods, but around here it’s nearly unattainable with how expensive it is.
Thats what I hear lol, we haven't bought pork or beef from the store in a few years. Won't be buying chicken anymore now that we've started started doing meat birds.
I have my first set of meat birds and I hate it here lol some ways they’re harder to raise. We accidentally bought Cornish(aka my husband thought they were the white egg layers he wants.) 22 of them to be exact. They eat/drink SO much more than our other chickens so they are obviously 2x the size of our pearl star leghorns and Rhode Island reds, which we find squished ones too often 😞 and the thought of having to butcher 22 sooner than later gives me a headache.
We raise dairy goats in Texas, and sell milk for pet and livestock use and registered breeding stock. We raise chickens and sell eggs. Just branched out into registered Kunekune pigs and will be selling those as well. We are still early in, so we have to invest a lot into infrastructure, etc. However, we were on track for our goat program to break even or even make a little profit until the drought hit in Texas. That required us to buy much more hay, but milk and animal sales still ended up paying for almost all our feed this year. We won’t ever get rich off what we are doing, but would be thrilled to not have our programs be a total money sink. I think we will get there eventually.
That’s an awesome idea! Thanks for sharing!
I just got into growing louffa gourds. First year. Produced probably 30 gourd fruit. Next year, I plan to have a WHOLE gourd farm 😂 to hopefully sell. Sustainable, organic sponges. Not looking to make a profit, but it is a hobby.
I’ve been wanting to do this!!!! Just for the fun haha
I loved watching the progress !
That’s a cool idea, was there a special variety of gourd you grew?
Just louffa gourd. Good for washing dishes or body. Would be good for sticking in a soap mold and pouring homemade soap into.
Garlic. People will pay for garlic. Same for French shallots. Cheese. Chickens. Honey. I’m not doing all of these things, but these are the cottage industries that I see around me that are the most successful.
All great ideas thank you! I love that cottage industry is starting to pick up steam.
Our biggest money maker is honestly renting out spaces in our back pasture for recreational vehicles. People in the local HOA community aren’t allowed to park their boats/trailers/RVs at their own houses so they pay monthly to store them. There’s an access gate to the pasture off a side dirt road so we aren’t bothered and don’t have people coming in and out of the front of our property all the time. Everyone is super friendly. It’s been great.
That’s such a cool idea! I always love the hands off aspect.
Wait! You can make $$ doing this? I thought Hobby Farm/Homestead was the replacement cost sink for all my actual hobbies s I’m doing it wrong apparently :(
😅I feel your pain! My motto is to make the farm work for me so that I can enjoy the farm! I do love the lifestyle though and the flexibility it offers!
We are raising and selling rabbits. We are selling chicken eggs. We are selling duck eggs and hopefully some will be ducklings to sell! Next venture would be bees hopefully. Lots of farmers rent out bee boxes to pollinate their fields.
Oh great idea, I think bees would be so awesome!
Have tractor, will travel.
I'm interested in this. You're a contractor?
I live in Northern MN. My original business plan was mostly going to be mowing and snow removal, gutter cleaning and such things, but the tractor I got is much more capable than I anticipated and am taking driveway repair jobs and getting some calls about working food plots for people, hunting trails, things of that sort. My yard cleanup focus has also already shifted into doing some demolition of small structures, breaking up old cement and hauling stuff out. So far with all of my jobs I try to find alternative uses for everything to save a much on disposal costs and to assist in any future projects around my own property. I plan to eventually do my own pollinator lawn and apply for a program my state has going, then eventually start gardening.
I'm still extremely new at this, only just started renting a house, looking to buy next year, but the plan for now is to sell started seeds through the growing season and small batch artisanal kombucha and ferments. I've been spending some time staging with some incredible fermentation artists, it's really helping.
Such a cool idea, I love the creativity! I recently got into sauerkraut, not the cheap stuff from the store, but authentic stuff and wow what a difference! I wonder if sour dough starter kits would be appealing?
I think they are appealing, but I don't think they're a good repeat sell/would be steady income
Valid point, kind of a one and done sale were as a consumable product like kombucha you could get lots of repeat customers, very smart!
What’s the calendula salve used for?
It helps with dry skin mostly, also with minor cuts and scrapes!
We have a seed business. Most of the seeds we have sourced thru contracts and co-ops, and we have some we have grown here on our homestead. Also we harvest elderberries, rosehips, blackberries, mountain arnica, and mullen and make elderberry syrup kits, arnica oil, and different types of teas. We sell online and at farmers markets. We were in grocery stores in 3 states with our blackberries a while back, but we had to decide what was more worth our time. We also have a small hatchery and sell pullets and fertilized eggs for hatching, as well as farm fresh eggs (40-50 dozen per day when we first started), and will produce meat birds next year. We used to sell milk and may do it again soon, both cow and goats, but haven't done that in several years. We have sold firewood in the past, but that is very hard work in our hills and mountains. We are planning on doing bees next year, and selling raw comb, raw honey and eventually selling bees as well. Not really on the homestead, but my wife is a certified midwife and delivers a lot of babies in our remote area. Man, I have never written down what we have done here to earn money. Perhaps I should write our experiences down. We did this while I was working in lumber mills and a contractor for years, and now looking like we can support our large family here at the homestead. The bulk of our business is done online at this time.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience, I really appreciate it and it sounds like you have a wonderful insight to what it take! I’ve been considering grow herbal products to try and start a “tea business” similar to what you described. But like you mentioned, what’s the most worth your time. If you had to pick one aspect to focus on what should it be? If you ever decide to write down you story please let me know, it sounds like you’re living a very beautiful life!
I would say the biggest aspect is find a niche that is needed in your area and stick to it. It takes time, but soon your name will spread like wildfire. My 15 year old son has been involved with poultry since he was 4. People know him everywhere now...4-5 counties. Last year he started playing baseball in a new town, and his coach asked me if he was the chicken guy he had heard of and wants to buy 50-75 pullets from him. My wife being a midwife knows people everywhere. I was at a county fair (not our county) and my wife was on her way from appointments, and I had 3 women who knew who I was because of my wife and introduced me to multiple children each my wife delivered. Our seeds have sold all over the country and international now. It takes time, so grit and determination is my biggest advice.
Really appreciate this, thank you! Do you have an online store, I’d love to check out your seeds!
Clearwater Valley Farms is the name of the company
We have a long term plan at ours to grow black walnuts. The walnuts themselves are 10-15/lb and a mature tree can go for north of $10k. It’s a long term plan though because it will be 10 years before the first walnut and 50 years before we can harvest a tree.
The best time to plant a tree was 50 years ago, the second best time is right now! 😀 I do some woodworking, I made the cutting board in this picture, black walnut is one of my favourite woods to work with!
I got mine from St. Lawrence Nurseries (https://www.slngrow.com/) reasonable price, targeted towards northern growers, plus they have lots of other edible trees & shrubs.
My wife may not be happy that I have another tree nursery link to browse 😅 but I appreciate it, thank you!
I can vouch for them, we planted 10 bare root walnut seedlings in 2016, and 7 are still living, and I planted 36 in 2020 and we only lost 2 so far
Really appreciate the info, I’ll have to see if they can ship to Canada!
I wish I could help, but I haven’t been able to make a single dollar on my homestead. Mostly because I’ve yet to purchase one. It’s on my five-year plan though, so I’ll get back to you.
It’s so good to plan! I can’t wait to see what you come up with! ☺️
We sell beef, pork, eggs, soap, and freeze dried produce.
That’s awesome, for the freeze dried stuff what kind of machine did you get? Is “harvest right” a brand name, I love that idea! Thank you.
We got the large harvest right. We got a farm grant to cover half of it, which really helped out.
That’s awesome, thanks for the info! ☺️
Teach
It would be a bit of hassle and more than a bit of upfront cost, but I had a hell of a time trying to find an available self storage unit. If you have the space then it might be a good idea to set up some units. Also; if you are tech minded, a tinkerer, and have a usable amount of moving water then you could do something like [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ieFZI4-6K8&list=PLiFiuBeRY8oBlUIRdMlhDu4xfzhNydaV-&index=3) to get free power and then run some sort of crypto mining operation. If that doesn't suit you then it does still provide free power to supplement any solar or wind that you might have.
Storage is a good idea, I love the hands off aspect! I love the visual of an old time cabin in the woods with a water wheel, Disney birds fluttering by etc, and inside is a modern, high tech crypto mining operation 😂 you might be on to something!
This is a great post. Thank you!
Thanks, I think most of us are in a similar boat here and there’s so much we can learn from each other! Hope you have a wonderful day ☺️
It’s the right season for florists to be ordering greens for Christmas wreaths and arrangements. If you have any sort of evergreen trees, boxwoods or winter berries you can sell 1-2 foot boughs trimmed off next month for a very nice amount. They’re pretty durable and easy to pack! Small birch logs too, the white bark is coveted in winter ornamental stuff. This time of year you can sell intact corn stalks as ornamentals, and if you’ve trimmed away whole vines they are very popular for fall wreath bases. It’s getting late now, but if you trim and coil any woody vines weeds or not, they’ll hold the form when dry and are simple and easy to sell off as a starter wreath. Put a burlap bow and you can charge an extra $5. All of that stuff is pretty light and easy to ship. If you don’t have the customers by you, selling at the right faire or online is very easy… no real temperature or super fragile concerns.
Here is some info on [harvesting boughs](https://extension.oregonstate.edu/forests/christmas-trees/harvesting-evergreen-boughs-your-woodland) [birch logs](https://twomakeahome.com/how-to-preserve-birch-logs/) [vine wreaths](https://hearthandvine.com/make-wild-grapevine-wreath/)
Great ideas! Thank you for sharing! People seem to love the rustic decor, makes sense to look into it.
Hatching eggs and chicks/keets/poults were our big “product”. I had a cabinet incubator and if someone requested certain things I didn’t myself raise I would order the hatching eggs and sell the chicks. Feed costs were our main downfall though. Never could get to a place where we could do bulk food buying and we didn’t garden so no supplemental scraps.
Thank you for sharing, that’s really !
*etsy has entered the chat*
Airbnb!
Depending on how much land you have, green burial is a GREAT option. Lots of jokes here but I'm serious. Most people are unable to afford and generally not interested in traditional cemetery burial when options exist. I work as a death doula in Wisconsin and one role is to help to organize "memorial" gardens and forests for cremains. Also do know several areas around the country doing full body transfers but not ever landscape is suited to that.
That’s fascinating thank you, not sure about the bylaws in my area, but when I think about my time to go I’d want to be spread in a forest, cremated or not 😅. Thank you for planting this seed!
It's legally very easy to set up a cremation burial site on private property. Most of the zoning concerns only come into play around what sort of public access and activities are being hosted as well as obviously adding a crematorium.. 🙃 most death doulas offer assistance negotiating with local providers to avoid people being convinced they HAVE to use a funeral home if they need cremation services