Pitching income ideas

We have a 1-acre farm in west Michigan. I made a few thousand dollars last year off the farm and will make about double this year. We sell around $150 in produce weekly through the summer. We will be butchering and selling a dozen small-breed pigs this fall  at $125 each, and I have a farm blog that makes $50-$100 a month (from ads). I'll sell a few cords of firewood too. All in all, probably $5,000 or $5,500 ish in farm money. We have $297 in expenses for it all.

The produce selling has been more of a time drain than it's worth, but we're keeping it up as a family activity for now. We need new venues for income. What say you's? I need to increase the farm value one way or another. Ideas include:
Get into some basic nursery work, probably vegetable starts and a few basic potted perennials (I could Jerry rig a greenhouse that could work).
Getting some higher end clientele for a weekly delivery of our beyond organic produce.
Increasing our woods-pastured pig operation (but we're not supposed to have pigs on our parcel do to it's size. I hide them).
Selling infused biochar through my website and advertising it around my site.
Working on my farm site to get more reliable and more valuable blog traffic.

I think that the pigs area should not get so much bigger that you lose what you have now.
Can you introduce new varieties of veges?
Can you improve production in any way?
Would aquaculture appeal?
Berry crops?

There seems to be little money in selling primary produce. Primary producers always seem to get the shaft.

And nobody Instagrams their latest acquisition of vegetables etc.

The money, I think, is in selling "experiences" to people. Have they every dug a potato or a carrot? Have their children? Have they dressed a hog carcass (after the unpleasant first act is done)? Things like that can be photographed and captioned. My 2c.

There are lots of ideas for making income here on the forum.

Here are some threads with ideas:

https://permies.com/t/20054/ideas-acres-bring-income

https://permies.com/t/280/21994/money-permaculture

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:There seems to be little money in selling primary produce. Primary producers always seem to get the shaft.

And nobody Instagrams their latest acquisition of vegetables etc.

The money, I think, is in selling "experiences" to people. Have they every dug a potato or a carrot? Have their children? Have they dressed a hog carcass (after the unpleasant first act is done)? Things like that can be photographed and captioned. My 2c.

I've been thinking more about that principle. An experience takes something common and makes it valuable. When we get more land, we want to have a very experience-rich operation.

Much depends upon where your farm is.  Generally, I agree with Douglas in that produce is not a path to financial success for someone with small acreage. I have encounter one significant exception.  I know of one produce grower who raises crops in a pocket with a number of upper end restaurants. He raises crops as his customers dictate. They are high quality. A number of greenhouses are involved to assure year round delivery.

John F Dean wrote:Much depends upon where your farm is.  Generally, I agree with Dave in that produce is not a path to financial success. I have encounter one significant exception.  I know of one produce grower who raises crops in a pocket with a number of upper end restaurants. He raises crops as his customers dictate. They are high quality. A number of greenhouses are involved to assure year round delivery.

The only feasible option I can figure would be weekly delivery of top-notch produce to high end households. There's a market for it, but I need to get more proficient with planting/ harvesting cycles and need to grow a lot of variety, often 30 plus crops, to pull it off. Currently, I'm keeping up the farmer's market because it is reliable money and my young kids are also able to participate because it's slower paced. I consider it part of their home schooling. It's working for now, an honest start.

What I’ve seen here is that some people propagate native plants.   No need for a greenhouse.  What grows there that  people might be interested in?   Not everyone wants edible plants, some people want native azaleas, redbud, or dogwood.   Also plants that multiply easily like irises, lilies, hostas.  Then there is the homesteading crowd looking for economical sources of fruit trees, all kinds of berries, autumn olive, elderberry.   Lots of good info on the YouTube channels on how to easily propagate various plants from softwood or hardwood cuttings.  

Jerusalem artichokes are a good permaculture crop that comes back every year, and you can sell tubers for eating or planting, and also dry tops as winter forage for your livestock, or feed leaves fresh to pigs, as it is very high protein with as much as 28%, compared to alfalfa at 17%.   I think you said you were already growing it.  With soft soil, (let the pigs work it up, their saliva enriches the soil greatly), it produces huge plants with tons of tubers.  I cut tops off mine when they reach two feet high as it makes them branch and grow more plant growth to  have more energy for more tubers.  Then I dry those tops to give critters in winter, or just feed fresh.  With very soft soil they are easy to dig and wash clean easily as the soil does not cling to them.  That means lot of organic matter in the soil, not just clay.  In the patch the pigs got into, that soil was so poor it would not grow anything.  I sprinkled s little gypsum on it, they rooted it all up (by accident), and I just raked it over to spread the manure they left behind, to let it compost naturally.  I thought they must have eaten all the tubers.  They missed some of the tubers and what came back up was incredible.  Thick and dark green, and over 12 feet tall.  Can’t wait to dig those this fall.  

There’s money in plants if you have a market for it, and if you just sell small plants, doesn’t take up much room.  Get pots from nurseries for free, or from the dump sites if they will let you forage.  Use rotted leaves, some native soil, compost and a little sand as a potting mix.  Add some trace minerals and a little extra
calcium/phosphorous,  and a pinch of wood ash.  As you already know, start small and see what works, then enlarge those efforts.  

Just talked about your situation with my husband.  He said grow vertically, green beans, cucumbers, small squash, strawberry towers, etc. , and also think about how much you make per square foot.  Garlic likes rich, soft soil but you can plant it 3” apart both ways, do wide rows with a small walkway.   Huge market  for organic garlic.   The Jerusalem artichokes I already mentioned can produce 5 times more than potatoes on  the same amount of land (mine actually do more than that). And sell for about $8. a pound here, and demand is high.   Lettuce likes a little shade in summer so grow between your cuke or bean towers.  Stack functions to take up less space.  

Faye Streiff wrote:Just talked about your situation with my husband.  He said grow vertically, green beans, cucumbers, small squash, strawberry towers, etc. , and also think about how much you make per square foot.  Garlic likes rich, soft soil but you can plant it 3” apart both ways, do wide rows with a small walkway.   Huge market  for organic garlic.   The Jerusalem artichokes I already mentioned can produce 5 times more than potatoes on  the same amount of land (mine actually do more than that). And sell for about $8. a pound here, and demand is high.   Lettuce likes a little shade in summer so grow between your cuke or bean towers.  Stack functions to take up less space.  

I'm actually writing article on Jerusalem Artichokes for Permaculture Design Magazine. We grow them as livestock feed, hay, table fare, and erosion control. The idea of easier maintenance perennials sounds nice to me. I have been collecting a few different Hostas, varieties of rhubarb, and several types of comfrey. I also have a collection of red and white mulberry that I'd like to propagate into nursery stock. We have a hedgerow of America Elder, sambucus canadensis, (both Adams and John varieties) that would be fun to propagate cuttings from. All it would require is a nursery grower's license, annual inspections, and a suitable small greenhouse setup.

We are a permaculture-heavy operation and I like those sort of plants. Perhaps I could get set up to sell some of those from my blog/website.

I think hosting classes are very valuable! Either online or in person. Charging for each event. I am too, from West Michigan, and there is little to none hands on classes for basic learning skills. Even simple as garden planning. Or hog butchering. Basic farm practices.

J Manszewski wrote:I think hosting classes are very valuable! Either online or in person. Charging for each event. I am too, from West Michigan, and there is little to none hands on classes for basic learning skills. Even simple as garden planning. Or hog butchering. Basic farm practices.

That's true.

We make a little money by almost completely eliminating production costs and effort. That for a start means little if any food. Produce is just too much effort to produce and when it's ready to sell, it has to sell. That sometimes means lowering the price, giving it away or composting it. No profit at all in that. Dealing with food in general especially any kind of meat leads to issues with safety and regulations, more time and trouble than it's worth on a small scale and one acre is small scale. I've never known anyone, producer or customer that was happy with a CSA but that might be different in a more urban and affluent area than mine.

We don't do farmer markets but instead yard sales, swap meets and flea markets. Our products are for the most part free to produce so sales are nearly 100% profit except for the gas to transport. We do not use greenhouses; we don't buy potting soil or anything else. We focus a lot on some of the following.

Perennial flowers that we simply dig up and divide from our established patches. Hosta, Iris, Peonies are good sellers and it they don't sell we take them home and place in our "holding pens" till next time.

People seem to love hens and chickens plants, they multiply on their own and sell great. It's amazing what someone might pay for an old shoe or toy with a couple hens and chickens' plants in it. Actually, any winter hardy, self-propagating succulent plant including prickly pear sells like crazy.

Trees are big sellers; I simply collect seeds of maple, tulip poplar, pecan, magnolia, red bud and so on and direct plant them in garden beds. It's free and very little work, they sell easily bare root for up to five dollars apiece.

We do some spring transplants, primarily tomatoes, sold as pulled plants wrapped in in moist newspaper with a little soil. Five bucks for six plants and if they don't sell, compost.

Herbs are big, sometimes as freshly started plants but many like thyme, winter savory and sage can be easily propagated by staking down side branches in the fall and letting them root into new larger plants.

Wildflowers, especially perennials are gold, these include Virginia Bluebells, columbine, wild daises, purple coneflower and more.

Perennial garlic and onion bulbils sell good, not for immediate use as food but to plant. They would actually do better for the customer if sold "as is" to plant themselves but people seem more likely to buy and pay more if they are stuck in a little pot already growing, go figure.

The only foods we dabble in are flavored salts. Grind up some garlic or onion with some quality sea salt and dry it, then regrind, people love it. Dried pepper flakes of various heat levels sell good too.

The only "produce" we sell occasionally, once again isn't for food but decorations. This is mostly ornamental corn and squash. I'm developing a line of popcorn and have aspirations of doing the same with squash where it is both good as food and decorations. Customers don't want the food though, or at least won't pay as much for it so they don't have to know they can eat it unless they ask. They can also, if they ask, plant the seeds and not have to buy it anymore.

We like to garden, and we end up with most of this stuff anyway. It needs divided and thinned anyway. Once it's established its free to produce. So, the path we have taken and that is working pretty well is eliminate as much as possible the expense and effort to produce. The minute you buy something to help increase or improve production you've move into commitment and pressure to make it work and we didn't like that at all.

Most any pots we need are accumulated from other people's discards. The sea salt and bottles cost a bit but selling a half dozen bottles gets it all back, so the next 100 are all profit.

Growing conditions, market availability and customer preferences may be completely different where you live but I suspect with a little observation and assessment you can find some easy high profit things to focus on too.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could let your pigs run wild, rooting up your neighbour’s lawns and gardens? That’s not the world we live in is it?  But there is one type of livestock no one will mind visiting their property.  Some will actually pay you for it.


Bees! How many hives could you keep on your acre? Probably 10. At least 5, depending on local food sources.  Once you master beekeeping you could rent them out to orchards.  In the meantime you could make money selling honey and wax, maybe even nucs.

What about buying a truck and a professional grade chipper and clean up after storms or partner with local arborists to clean up what they drop.  Arborists are skilled workers and would rather be on to next job than waste time cleaning up.  It would be profitable for them to subcontract it out to you.  You get alll the wood chips you’d ever want to mulch your gardens.  Lots of large limbs too to sell for firewood.

Rake up people’s fall leaves for fee and again you get lots of free carbon for your farm.

Or collect fallen black walnuts (for a fee they are a nuisance to most people) husk, cure , crack and sell.

Theme of my ideas is that you don’t have a lot of space in one acre,  so one way or another use other people’s space by being of service to them.

The small acre farmers here stopped doing farmers markets and now sell CSA boxes.  The subscribers get organic, high quality produced every week/month and you know your produce is going to be sold regardless of the weather or other community events competing with the farmers market.  I raise sheep, goats, and chickens.   I start marketing the lambs & kids at breeding time taking deposits when people are excited about what will be available to them.  The deposit is nonrefundable unless I don't have an animal for them because of less than expected births. CSA subscriptions are done in the spring for the same reason.
Another possibility for income might be sprouts or fodder for other farmers' small animals through the winter.