So, a bit of background;

We are in the planning stage of forming a community of like minded people working to become debt free and sustainable, living in the Denver metro. We need to think up viable secondary income streams to help remove mortgages, things that we could do on our back yards or vacant land. Especially if anybody does something like this, please let us know how it goes!

To work for us, income streams must be the following:

They can't take up lots of time for the land owner, maybe along the lines of fifteen minutes a day, and should mostly depend on once a week or once a month bursts of community labor.

As much as possible, they should use existing infrastructure.

Product should not be perishable if possible.

They shouldn't take lots of time to sell, if possible. Direct sales eat up time.

They should produce a product we can eat or use if it does not sell. A squash patch is a good example; hundreds of squash could be stored and eaten over the winter.

They should help us learn skills.

And finally, they must be in demand.

For non produce ones, it would be helpful to be able to do something in the off season.

Things we have thought about;

seedling sales, contract growing for small seed companies, produce sales to stores, upick squash or tomato patches, selling fresh or dried herb bunches, green salvage, turning scrap wood or other materials into craft products or yard ornaments, dried flower arrangements.

Anybody have any experience with the above?

A small scale nursery might be practical. Cost can be very low with some scrounging of pots, and propagating stock from from cuttings/seeds could be well suited to bursts of communal labour.