I’m lucky to own/operate a small farm I live on. It doesn’t produce almost any real money for me but it serves as a good collection of hobbies/food. My primary income is industrial and doesn’t scratch that itch. But, it pays the bills and affords me a schedule that let’s me maintain the farm. So, what would your ideal small farm setup look like?
Figs. Straight figs. They’re delicious, they sell for a decent price because finding ripe figs at the supermarket is practically impossible, and they’re easily propagated by cuttings, which sell for a decent amount of money.
I love figs so much.
Next is corn, but not sweet corn. Field corn , what’s used to make corn flour, masa, grits, etc. there are many varieties, like Blue corn, purple corn, and red corn, all of which are healthy and taste fantastic. You can use purple corn to make chicha morada, a Peruvian drink. Just keep in mind the kernels are seeds and therefore representative of the two parent plants. If you plant different types together, like blue and red, and they cross pollinate, the resultant corn kernels will be a variety of blue, red, and hybrid blue/red.
Beans, of course.
I want 2 cows. I would name them Betty and Boop.
Goats (milk, cheese, lawn care), alpacas (wool), and maybe a few bee hives for honey to make mead. But I don’t know how to properly care for any of these creatures so it’s best I leave it to those who do.
The last few days I’ve been craving cloudberry and fantasising about growing them at home, so…
Grow: fat
Keep: to myselfProbably what I’m gardening now, but more? Tomatoes. Strawberries. Pickling cucumbers. Jalapeños.
Strawberries. They are the best taste to effort and cost of what little grows here in the north.
Potato is an option but they are cheap at the store.
Peppers and chili is an option but they require a greenhouse to stand a chance.
I’d not bother keeping animals unless I intended to make it a bigger part of my income. Can’t just fuck off for a week and do something else. Chickens would be the first contender if I did though
Strawberries are fantastic. I planted some last year and was really bummed that I didn’t get to eat a single one. Then this summer, we had wild strawberries ALL over thanks to the greedy critters pooping seeds all over. This year I finally got a handful of delicious, perfectly ripe berries and the critters ate the wild ones. Perennial, self-propagating, and delicious. What else could you want?
Goats, pigs, your mom. But I’d need a few hectares for the latter. 😁
Fuck you got me
Just fruits and veggies. Don’t want to take care of animals. We did that when I was a kid and it’s a lot more work than plants. The things that want to get to those animals…. Nah man.
irish wolfhounds
They are beautiful but such short lifespan that I couldn’t deal with it. I’d have a kennel of borzoi to guard my alpacas and maybe a couple of sheep dogs to keep all said in check.
Apples and Bees. Although where I live there’s plenty of orchards and they produce some stunning Honey. So it would be more of a personal thing where I’d produce apple cider and meads for the long winter nights.
You could open a whole restaurant chain with those.
How far apart do you need to plant the bees?
3 bumblebums wide ?
I’d love to be able to grow what I eat every day:
Onions
Carrots
Broccoli
Spinach
Brussel Sprouts
TomatoesChickens
I have no idea how to do this, and I don’t think I’d be very good at it.
Chickens are pretty easy as long as they have access to the outdoors. Keep topping up the chickfeed, keep any foxes and cats away, and they’ll be OK as long as the climate is on your (their) side.
A small plot for my own use, maybe in a greenhouse, and the rest solar panels connected to the grid.
You could buy old solar panels when people upgrade, they aren’t efficient but very cheap.
Fennel, it grows well for me and is a premium crop, and maybe Stokes Purple sweet potatoes and okra.
But really, fennel because it is reasonably well compensated and the only thing I grow the bugs ignore. Hong Tsoi is vigorous for me but doesn’t cost as much.
If you have room for animals, figure out what people will pay for and raise those. I have no idea on that.
Yeah I currently have chickens, goats, sheep, a llama, pigs, ducks and bees. I don’t really operate for money more as a hobby and for food. I do sell and donate my products regularly, pretty much breaks even, which is okay by me.
If you have cottage industry laws (where I live if you are a small producer selling locally you aren’t subject to the same regulations as a bigger producer) you could also think about making soap from the goat milk, people seem to be successful with that here. Candles from beeswax too.
It’s fine to make a living. As my midwife said, you need to value your own knowledge and labor fairly, as you would for someone else.
Onions, tomatoes, and probably hot peppers of varying ass-tearage.
