Another way to make cash

Charge $50 per person (limit of 18 people) for a Lamb  BBQ, recipes, and stories included.

Jamison Farms does this every few weeks in addition to producing 5000 lambs/year on 210 acres..

Their lamb (one leg at a time) goes for $20/lb.
Even their kabob meat is $15/lb.

http://www.jamisonfarm.com/lambs-tales.htm

They are organic, polyculture pasture fed lambs. Looks nice, actually.
Annual Gross is probably a few million/year. (150,000 lbs of lamb times $15 per lb)
Cool.

The other weekend I went on a little permaculture farm tour which was $10 per person.  There were at least a dozen people so the farm owner made $120+ for an hour's work and no expense.  That's not a bad wage in my book.    If one were able to generate enough interest in the farm to give a tour once a week that would be a nice little side income and help spread ideas about permaculture.  Since the owner was not "teaching permaculture" but just showing what she was doing with it, no certification was needed.

Topics on the tour were:

Rainwater harvesting
Greywater
Composting toilets
General composting
Perennial food plants
Geothermal heating and cooling
Keyhole gardens
Mulching
Chickens
Alternative housing/yurts
Worm composting
Drip irrigation
Permaculture ethics
Global climate change effects on the region

...and probably some I'm forgetting!

Unfortunately the farm is closing this year, the property having been sold.    But it has inspired me to work toward developing something worth showing off. 

Hey Ludi,
I suspect that she could have charged $25 for a two hour tour:-)

Heck, tours alone could make you $5 grand a year. Not a living, but way better than a poke in the eye.

How was the tour? Worth the $10?

I guess it is a "branding issue", isn't it?

Rich, the tour was worth more than $10 in my opinion though I might not have gone if it had been more.  I had only just heard about this farm a month earlier though it is only a few miles away, so there was no "branding" really - just the fact that some Dominican nuns had a little permaculture farm nearby was enough to make me try to gather up friends and family and go on the tour (the friends couldn't make it but the family - my husband and my father - could).  It was extremely inspiring and reinvigorating.  We brought along a picnic (which was suggested in the email about the tour) and had a delightful lunch under the shade of cedar trees.  It was a perfect day, which helped of course (can't guarantee a perfect day).  I would really like to emulate what I saw and perhaps be able to give tours at my place at some point in the future.     We're already doing a lot of what was there, but our place is kind of a dump, whereas the little farm (more of a retreat/meeting facility actually) was very well organized and neat with no "poor white trash" heaps of old car parts like we have.    I have a LOT of work to do to get to my place looking that good.  It was not "fancy" by any stretch of the imagination, but it was very nice.

Yeah,
Got to get rid of the El Camino up on blocks and get indoor plumbing before we invite folks over I guess
It is amazing what a little paint, a couple of 2X4's, nails, and a run to the dump can do to spruce up a property.

But, a bunch of dominican nuns doing Permi stuff?  Cool.

Yup, I think it's definitely important to have a pleasing looking place to lure people into paying for an "evening on the farm" experience.  The sorts of people who can afford that sort of meal want a farm that looks really cute and rustic and not at all white trashy I'm sure. 

I'm sort of fantasizing about this possibility.  A couple of successful events a year could really help keep the farm afloat, plus provide sources of customers to buy things between parties. 

dellartemis wrote:
Yup, I think it's definitely important to have a pleasing looking place to lure people into paying for an "evening on the farm" experience.  The sorts of people who can afford that sort of meal want a farm that looks really cute and rustic and not at all white trashy I'm sure. 

I'm sort of fantasizing about this possibility.  A couple of successful events a year could really help keep the farm afloat, plus provide sources of customers to buy things between parties. 

I guess "White trashy" would be bad.  Checked with the wife. That's an affirmative!

Richard

I know of a guy who started raising 2 hogs.  He couldn't afford to go the USDA butcher route (and didn't need 300 lb of pork for the year).  He invited his church members over for a pig BBQ one Sunday after services.  Now, every year he has 10-12 pigs sold (wholes, and halves) before he even buys his feeders.  He is now eating free pork, and putting some serious cash in his pocket each autumn.

Hey John, I like that approach... :-0

The trick to selling your neighbors meat without bringing the FDA down upon your head is selling the whole LIVE animal.  Even "only" 10 pigs a year is illegal if you're exchanging cash for meat.  If you sell them the pig and they contract you to butcher it, that's fine. 

I love the idea of having a party as a way to pre-sell the next litter, as well as educate people about how you're raising their meat.  As well as having a good time!  Shared good times make communities stronger. 

Yeah.  I don't know the exact breakdown how he charges.  I think it is a set fee ($50?) for the feeder, then so much to bring it to butcher weight (or x amount per pound hanging?).  Each Sunday in the summer, a few of the "owners" come by to see their animal after church.  While there, most of them buy some eggs, tomatoes, lettuce, etc.  He says "Best party I ever threw."  Those customers will probably never buy pork again in a supermarket.
A win-win all around.

The "Model Farm" has been a successful method for organizing estates since at least the eighteenth century. Andrea Wulf's books: the Brother Gardeners and the Founding Gardeners Give a great historical perspective on gardening and income from gardening, and certainly people have been paying to visit gardens and attractive farms since people began living in cities.

So if I sell my live animal to a customer and deliver it to a butcher (I know a good butcher)  - then who kills it?  Can I slaughter it when I get it to the butcher and still not be selling 'meat'?

This sounds like a lot of loopholes but the whole idea sounds appealing to me.

Unless I have mis-read the laws, to legally sell the meat, it has to be slaughtered and butchered by a USDA certified butcher.  Any other butcher who does this for you is obligated to package it with a "Not for Resale" label.  If you and your customers know and respect the butcher, what's the difference?  If they say anything, tell them you're from Detroit (where 63% of the population are illiterate).