Crystal Hochstetler

I don't know about some of the national laws, but I do know that the state laws vary.  My husband and I are from Virginia originally.  We have a number of friends and family that do farmer's markets.  One was an older couple who processed chickens in there own kitchen -nothing commercial about it.  It was certainly not new either.  We moved to South Carolina and wanted to get started with market gardening, but especially baked goods as the income stream would be a lot quicker and larger.  We ended up not doing it, but we would have needed a separate, approved kitchen, not our personal one, with I believe,  a grease trap!?!  For baked goods only!  We would not have been allowed to cook anything.  Technically melting butter would have put us over the top and then we would have needed a commercial hood as well.  We worked with DHEC in figuring this out and they certainly weren't discouraging us.  We had a great relationship from the restaurant we had been running.  -And we made the effort to be nice, because initially my husband could have strangled somebody for their ridiculous nonsense.   We ended up getting into real estate and now just talk about market gardens in a dream kind of way.  We have moved across the line into Georgia and their they have cottage food laws where you can cook in your own home, but I'm not sure on all the details.  I have an aunt in Indiana who would rent a commercial kitchen to bake pies, cakes, and breads to market as they were not allowed to do it at home to sell.

At Nellie, I don't understand how the different prices work for the acreage and where the land is located, but I do know that sometimes appraisals can vary widely from what I would call the functional value of the land or what it is actually worth on the market.  To get a feel for what it would bring on an open market, and whether or not your appraiser was doing you justice, you need to have a realtor run a comp on what similar land has sold for in the last few months in that area.  Sometimes, you don't have the best comparisons but you can generally get a good feel for a land's worth.  My husband flips houses and we have had some (jerk) appraisers deliberately devalue a house by picking poor comps for the property and refusing to acknowledge the better ones.  (Goodbye $7k.)  We actually had one who got blacklisted by the bank as he'd pulled that stunt before.

We just moved to NE GA.  We were wanting a little land, hopefully 20-30 acres.  We started in SC but prices close to the border were significantly higher and there were fewer options.  A friend connected us with a place that did not work for him.  He had seen it while listed in real estate and then pursued it after it was no longer listed.  We got 24 acres with a 1700 sq. ft. house for just under 150k.  The house was built in the 70's and had orginal everything except bathroom faucets, newer gas hot water heater, and five year old good quality metal roof.  We're talking dark paneling and 70's linoleum throughout the entire house, -remember those lovely greens and oranges?  I think that's why it didn't sell when he had it listed over 70k higher.  People couldn't get over it.  It's got a wood stove.  Initially we painted some walls and even the linoleum in the main room and now it's no longer depressing but very serviceable.  The expensive stuff is done; it's brick, new metal roof, the woodstove, some really key things.  In several years we update how we want starting with wood floors.  Here's the kicker, larger properties generally are less expensive as straight agricultural land is not worth as much.   The 83 acres next door went for just over 4k an acre; they are putting it into pasture, but can't put any chx houses on it -YES!  By waiting and watching the market for a while, we got what we wanted at a very good price for this area.  There is a creek that is not running above ground but still has water in it, in the middle of our current drought.  Lots of big,old trees along the creek.  Do we cut them or not for a pond?   Several other potential pond sites although not as good as creek.  Wild plums, persimmons, blackberries, pecans, and lots of birds, and other wildlife are present as well.  It even has a serviceable barn.  If you take your time and watch your area for a while, you may just get a very good deal.  Work with an agent and get them to put you on an e-mail notification list for properties that meet your must have specification list even if you are several years out and you may end up with a very good deal.  It's also a very good way of getting a feel for what land is going for in your area.  Be aware though, that asking price and sold price can vary greatly as there are some dreamers out there.

Your three-year-old daughter runs away from her five-year-old brother who is chasing her with an earthworm, and your response is, "My daughter is NOT going to scream about bugs!" Therefore you go plant something in the garden and talk about how good worms are, even though you had a baby two weeks ago and will be moving shortly. Bonus: the giggles and chortles when they wriggle now that she likes to pick them up.