Our plan is this: We will stay in NJ (yuck!) for another 3-4 years. In the mean while we will be building our farmhouse and planning. My question is this - I want to be able to move and be as sustainable as possible. I plan on having a garden and animals to make that true. I have also been looking into other ways to make money, all of the current fads included: organicaly raised beef, chickens, goats, herbs, ginsing(note:from what I've been reading the property we have is prime for it!} , etc. Trying to find a niche market. Is this really even a possibility or is this what everyone is doing and I will be facing a flooded market in 3 years? Please dont get me wrong I am not looking to move to the country and make a profit. I just want to live on my land and do something worthwile. Something that will make my soul happy and contribute to the planet. My dearly beloved has made me aware that he is uncomfortable with raising animals for slaughter and I love him the more for that. So that is that. I ramble. The question is what should I be reading about? What should I be learning? I have piles of information everywhere. HELP! Laura Lee

-- lee daisy (leedaisyw@cs.com), July 06, 2001

Answers

Response to How to Make a Living

You don't really tell us much about the property, where it is, how much of it you have, is any of it fenced, how much is wooded, how much open, is any of the open decent pasture, what's growing there already, are there free-flowing water sources and are they year round ... can't really say what's feasible without knowing what you already have. How about your current skills? Are you gardening and canning now? What markets are available to you in the new location - is it near say a college town or suburbs or a city with an organic contingent of residents who would buy specialty veggies and flowers (possibly eggs)?

Ginseng: This is a REALLY long term crop. Yes, you can make some money with it, but only the "wild" sang - that grows in the forest more or less naturally and takes about 7 years to reach maturity - commands top dollar. Trying to grow it in a field under lattice will net you CONSIDERABLY lower price per pound. Buyers can tell the difference.

-- Sojourner (notime4@summer.spam), July 07, 2001.

Response to How to Make a Living

Don't overlook "skills" and other non-food products which may provide income.

cheers,

-- Max (Maxel@inwindsor.com), July 07, 2001.

Response to How to Make a Living

Spend the next 3-4 years learning all you can about skills that are in demand such as welding, horse shoeing, tractor repair, computer repair and troubleshooting, house wireing, vet assisting, surveying, construction, ect. This locks in a fall back income. As for the land use there is a magazine called "Ag Ventures" that you might find helpful, it reports on nitch farming.

Start seeking what is needed for your area; does the state need specialty plants for wetland application; is there a population there that wants "ethnic" types of vegestables; is there anybody supplying white mice for snake owners and labs? Is any body raising fish bait? What about cut flowers? Organic veggies?

-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), July 07, 2001.

Response to How to Make a Living

If I didn't have to make money for 5 years I would put in an orchard. I would love to put in an apple orchard but they have problems in this area. Thought myself about peaches, but not really a big peach lover. Have put in both a blueberry u-pick which this year I got my money "not labor" back, it is not quite 3 years on those bushes, planted a Christmas Tree Farm, not looking for any profits there for 5 years. Have very close friends up North with an apple orchard, they did it organically so they get alot more put bushel then normal. They claim if they did it over they wouldn't have some many different varieties. I think they have 80 varities, didn't even know there were 80 to begin with. They also started out with 4,000 trees which is way more than a family of 5 can possible take care of (3 are kids). I would plant less than 1/2 of that and stick to say 10 varities. Good Luck

-- Debbie (bwolcott@cwis.net), July 07, 2001.

One thing that I'm planning on doing is redesign my chicken coop so that I can raise fishing worms under the roost. I have brown leghorn hens that lay a lot of eggs. I sell the extra eggs to pay for the feed that the chickens eat. Now they will provide food for the fishing worms also. I will sell the worms and will have a rich organic waste to use in my garden. This method may not make all your income but it will help out.

-- Russell Hays (rhays@sstelco.com), July 07, 2001.

To be self sufficient, you should always try to look at both sides of the equation. One view is to be "sensible shoe" consevrvative, the other view looking for the "you gotta be kidding" niche markets. The combination of these to types of looking at the same situation is the "outside the box" view" that is a must to successful modern homesteading. A good start is to get a few self sufficiency books and a subscription to Countryside magazine if your haven't already. Also, look in the older threads under Income and you will find a wealth of information.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), July 07, 2001.

IMHO the VERY FIRST thing to do is actually get as self-sufficent as possible so that out of the pocket money for food is all but none existent. While you are doing that you will see what you like to do best and see if it is possible to make a little money doing it. Food, heat, shelter............if they are not costing you a bundle than you need to earn far less money just to survive. It is also my opinion that organically grown anything is not just a current fad. More and more people are seeing that the factory farms are filling them with stuff that they don't want and if they can find it will buy goods that are not produced in that way.

We sell organically produced eggs.............could sell 1000 times what we are currently raising but don't get bigger because that would by necessity change how we raise them. A little of this and a little of that is what homesteading does best. Asparagus in the spring, then strawberries, then blueberries and garden produce. Our farm "grows" really pretty rocks so they can be sold occasionally as landscape material. Each area, each piece of land will have something that will come to you if you get in touch with it and you can only do that by doing that. Good luck.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), July 07, 2001.

I have read articles on how some farmers will have a "bed and breakfast" or weekend vacation for people who want to experience living on a farm for a couple of days (or longer). See if you have one in the area, maybe a weekend spent with people with experience could give you a lot of education. You may not necessarily want the same type of outfit they have, but they could share with you all the practical basics that homesteaders need to know.

-- Chelsea (rmbehr@istar.ca), July 08, 2001.

My family has almost always lived in the country, for many generations, and the one major thing that would have made lots of money, both from us and our neighbors, were folks who would COME OUT to you your house to do appliance repairs, instead of half-crippled old Aunty having to find some way to get her behemoth of a broken washing machine into town given that

A) she didn't have the strength to pull a baby carrot out of the ground and

B) you couldn't fit the machine into her 1965 "green dragon" gas guzzler, despite the capacious trunk space.

Appliance repair is not the only "house-call" service that you could consider - how about:

Hair dressing

Meal preparation (both of these are great for the elderly, and their health insurance may just cover them)

Non-nursing, and nursing, home health care services

Typing and other secretarial work

Car/equipment repair

Errand running

There are many other ideas, just use your imagination. If all else fails, spend a year out in the country and write down everything that you would have paid money not to have done yourself or not to have left the farm to have done by another.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), July 08, 2001.

The orchard is a good idea. Especially since you wouldn't live there for 3-4 years. That way when you did move there, you wouldn't have but a couple of years to wait until you get fruit. Make it a u-pick & you greatly reduce your labor. Strawberries give you fruit in the first year. You can do the same with tomatoes, greenbeans, squash, cucumbers, etc... (makeing them a u-pick) for a single years sales. One years road side stand sales might pay for the orchard plants (trees, bushes, vines, & brambles). If location for road side stand sales is a problem, you could always grow it on your property & sell it where you are currently liveing. People tend to willing drive farther to go to an orchard (when they do you can sell vegi's with your fruit). (note: to make it easyier for you & those that want to pick from your orchard, get dwarf or semi-dwarf trees as you don't need a ladder for harvest. You won't get sued if someone falls out of your trees if they don't get big enough to need climbing.)

Good luck

animalfarms

-- animalfarms (IN) (jawjlewis@netzero.net), July 09, 2001.

The first question you have to answer is what do you like to do, or more importantly, what do you absolutely hate to do. If you don't like chores at least twice a day, manure hanndling, or are intimidated by large animals, raising them wouldn't be a good choice for you no matter how lucrative. The same goes for meat birds if you can't handle the butchering process. There are a lot of ways to make money, but the most important aspect is whether or not you're happy doing it. If you're not, you may as well stay in your town job because it will be even more of a burden. Most jobs you can walk away from after 8 hours, most farm ventures sit there and stare you in the face 24/7. Invest your time now in finding something that pleases you and your money later in making it a reality. As for over crowded markets later, work now to build your clientel. Some you may lose to cheaper products later, but if you give them what they want for what is percieved as a fair price, you'll be surprized at their loyalty. I know more than one long term vendor at the farmer's markets we go to who's price is consistently higher, but who consistently have great sales because they've worked to build their customer base.

-- ray s (mmoetc@yahoo.com), July 09, 2001.

my husband is self-employed as a carpenter. i am a homemaker, midwife in early retirement, herbalist, and studying to be a homeopathist. I will see clients here to keep the costs down for them, and keep me from having to leave my home. we have a market saturated with everything in this homestead mentality area. the only unique thing i can come up with off our land is ORGANIC beeswax and honey. that would be unique for around here, and could be cheap since there is almost no overhead since we do top bar hives. this means organic propolis, with i am experiementing making tinctures and antiseptic salve out of. i would never do a u-pick because I would hate having folks here. we have enough work to do with the husband working full-time, me homeschooling/doing chores/odd jobs, that we just frankly don't care about plotting to make money off the land. the land is my sanctuary and salvation. the healing work and carpentry are blessed talents given to us. if i do make money off herbs from the land or honey, it will be small and accidental. making my land a business would make it work and not "church" if you know what I mean. I WANT to go out and work in my garden or with my animals. Some days I may not be in the mood. But if I HAD to go out and do it for my income, my sanity would be gone...

-- marcee king (thathope@mwt.net), July 10, 2001.

My offer of a free e-book copy of my book, "How to Earn Extra Money in the Country," is available on request to scharabo@aol.com. Not great literature, but I think it contains some useful information.

Ken Schrabok

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), July 10, 2001.

My husband started a handyman business in June of last year and it is going great! I write for two newspapers from an office in my home and have done that for the past 21 years.

In the past I've also taught piano, keyboard and beginning guitar lessons too (but I don't have the patience for that now!

Think about what services you could offer, what you could teach, etc. like teaching cake decorating, teaching knitting, etc. good luck!

-- Suzy in Bama (slgt@yahoo.com), July 10, 2001.

I don't know your economics there, but have you considered Christmas trees? You could cover the establishment costs out of your current income, then it would give you an income boost just when you'd need it. Could also be the start of a wood-lot for your personal use. As someone wrote once, "Pine isn't the greatest firewood: it burns a bit too hot and too fast, it throws sparks, and it creates too much creosote; but if it's there, it does burn well, it's fairly light, easy to get, easy to split, and it doesn't blunten the chainsaw." This was someone who ended up with someone else's unharvested Chrismas tree plantation, so you might think about both sides of that. You could interplant a few hardwoods in the pine trees too to give a better firewood balance. Also, if you keep limb-pruning the remainder so they develop long clean trunks, then that's your superannuation - a crop of lumber some way down the track - and you can get firewood from the prunings - and use the needles as mulch for blueberries. If you thin the trees far enough, you can end up with sheltered grazing between them - can be important at lambing or after shearing if you're going to do that. Otherwise, not thinning them as much and not letting animals in, you could grow "wild" ginseng in there, and I understand that pine forests are a good place for wild (gourmet) mushrooms. Or a bit of both.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), July 10, 2001.