Fresh Ideas for making money on the homestead

[wewantout]

Let the ideas flow/ What can we do as homesteaders that could sell at restaurants, open air markets, things that alocal CSA could incorporate into their offerings.

Let your creative juices flow folks, Put down every Jam Flavor, Jelly, Bread, Muffin, Butter. Fresh smoked meat idea or process. Crazy salad mixes. Lets use this forum to roundtable the ideas for all of us to use in our respective markets.
Funky Mayonaise recipes, mustard, ketchup.. Any type of condiment, anything canned that could sell at lets say Cracker Barrel or your local store down the road from you.

The trick is it must be good, appeal to a mass market of sorts. We can all share these ideas and use them in our own markets.

What do y'all think? AM i a crackpot. Or are we all so secretive that we cannot let them out.

One of my worries more and more as I look at my families recipes and cookbooks ( homemade cookbooks) is that the way our society is progressing that they will go by the wayside. Lost into the abyss for knowone to carry on or share again.

Cheers
Brett

[Cheribelle]

MIL and I canned some really excellent zuchini relish this summer. One of my sister's better ideas was a home made jalapeno catchup.

[MaineFarmMom]

Well mixed salad greens are working well for me. Microgreens average $45 a pound in big cities. They're very labor intensive. I don't have that market so I grow and sell baby greens.

Customers didn't hesitate to hand over $4 a pint for jams and jellies. I'd charge $4.50 now. Artisan bread sells well. Be sure to look into the requirements for kitchen licenses.

[DenverGirlie]

Originally Posted by wewantout

Let the ideas flow/ What can we do as homesteaders that could sell at restaurants, open air markets, things that alocal CSA could incorporate into their offerings.

First of all I would recommend you check and see what the laws are where you live, who you plan to sell to and what restrictions there are before you start thinking about making stuff at home for sale.

Most counties have regualtions about having to make stuff in an approved commerical kitchen.

[Terri]

*If* you itemize on your taxes, a donation to a food pantry counts as a tax deduction. All you have to do is find one that takes fresh veggies.

[QuiltingLady2]

People in our area love interestingly planted containers.

Chicken and Hen varitities in odd planters.
Hanging baskets made with veggies
Re-made garden junk items.
Signs for the garden and walls.

[Pelenaka]

Being a urban homesteader on less than 1/8 of an acre my greatest money making scheme has been to simply decrease our cost of daily living. Growing, foraging, gleaning, & bartering. Less money spent on food or services = more in my pocket.
That being said we do engage in a few $$ making activities although nothing that will retire us well off tomarrow.
Holding an annual plant & tool sale has not only paid for retail bought plants/seeds but covered the cost of a portable greenhouse, offset our gardening costs, and the purchase of a new 15 qt. canner pot.
Revenues from next years sale will help offset the cost of installing a class b chimmey for a woodstove maybe even the entire cost.
If I can secure more garden space might have a phone order veggie stand targeted toward my local hospital & medical offices a few blocks away. Something along the line of, "Call in your order for organically grown veggies by noon ready for pickup by 3:300 p.m. on your way home from work". Would offer the same arrangement to 2nd & 3rd shift workers.
DH restores antique cider presses. Have been toying with the idea of offerring a press along with supervison for cider making parties/family reunions. Clients would supply the apples & labor. Haven't done any serious research yet as to permits ect.
On selling food products - if required to have a commerical inspected kitchen try calling around to area churches/firehalls inquire about renting for a day. Then schedule the health inspector & pay up for the permit.
~~ pelenaka ~~
http://thirtyfivebyninety.blogspot.com/

[Jim S.]

I just read a fascinating article in the Alabama Farmers Cooperative News about a man who started out milling grits from corn as a hobby, but demand grew so great he and his wife now have fulltime on-farm business and sell all over the world. He and his wife also do blueberries, and laying hens, which keep the bugs off their latest product, hydroponic lettuce. Seems they identified people who are worried about e coli in dirt-grown lettuce, and market to them.

It was a great read!

[longshot38]

well ive been knocking around the idea of making pot hangers, like those metal ones shaped like a sheppards hook for hanging flowers etc. and marketing them to local green houses and at flea markets etc.


dean

[Tricky Grama]

Wanted to grow lavender on our back 4 ac but TX clay is not so condusive to that. Read about a lady growing flowers for cutting-she sold them for $1 a stem...that could get profitable. Took them to restaurants to have a fresh flower on each table every day.

[farmmaid]

Not produce BUT...We ran a dog boarding kennel for years, nice $. Now, in our retirement home we do in-house boarding. A couple of dogs at a time, $12 per night, all bring their own food. Dogs in and out no overhead...Joan

[jnap31]

Originally Posted by MaineFarmMom

Well mixed salad greens are working well for me. Microgreens average $45 a pound in big cities. They're very labor intensive. I don't have that market so I grow and sell baby greens.

Customers didn't hesitate to hand over $4 a pint for jams and jellies. I'd charge $4.50 now. Artisan bread sells well. Be sure to look into the requirements for kitchen licenses.

My lettuce brought in about $500 in mar-may just a small patch I get about $4 a gallon for it.Will be planting a lot more in the spring the chickens destroyed the entire fall crop.

[jnap31]

Originally Posted by MaineFarmMom

Well mixed salad greens are working well for me. Microgreens average $45 a pound in big cities. They're very labor intensive. I don't have that market so I grow and sell baby greens.

Customers didn't hesitate to hand over $4 a pint for jams and jellies. I'd charge $4.50 now. Artisan bread sells well. Be sure to look into the requirements for kitchen licenses.

Wish I could sell canned goods I dont have a USDA approved kitchen.

[james dilley]

Well My brother Sells Cases of Jars Full of Organic Type Honey, Note he does not sell as Organic but he adheres to the practices. And he has A few places that buy by the case every month. (beleiveit or not, Those who fight roosters buy it to feed to the birds)

[jnap31]

Originally Posted by Jim S.

I just read a fascinating article in the Alabama Farmers Cooperative News about a man who started out milling grits from corn as a hobby, but demand grew so great he and his wife now have fulltime on-farm business and sell all over the world. He and his wife also do blueberries, and laying hens, which keep the bugs off their latest product, hydroponic lettuce. Seems they identified people who are worried about e coli in dirt-grown lettuce, and market to them.

It was a great read!

Neat I helped my friend grow lots of hickory cane and we harvested and shelled out 450 lb, I was going to try to make corn meal and see if it would sell as no one else has it at the market.It needs to be done in an approved facility though and the local mill will take 20% I think if they grind it.We have a grinder to bad about all the regs that beat the small farmer down.

[jnap31]

Originally Posted by farmmaid

Not produce BUT...We ran a dog boarding kennel for years, nice $. Now, in our retirement home we do in-house boarding. A couple of dogs at a time, $12 per night, all bring their own food. Dogs in and out no overhead...Joan

A good friend down the road boards dogs and trains them for $200 each dog per week!! makes a good living.

[Blu3duk]

Here in central Idaho we have the problem of short growing season, coupled with folks wanting the item on the menu year round before they are willing to offer it so it puts us back to a growers market which again here run from may to october.....

I tried an heirloom cantalope this year called a vine peach, thought it might be the ticket for a quick first of the season melon next spring when folks are looking for fresh, first and locla grown items..... i have not given up on it but they seem to not be to my own taste so i have a hard time thinking of trying to peddle them.... grown in raised beds such a first fruit the size of a sftball would command about a buck each maybe as much as 2 and they were prolific vines from 3 plants as a test planted in a 4x4 area [ok they spread out a bit more and climbed the fence and produced so trellis would be an option too] we pulled off about 40 melons besides what we tossed into the compost that were not gonna ripen.... while this dont seem like a whole lot, i would gear it up to raised rows, trellis fence so the 4x4 could grow at least 12 plants in the same space as 3 grew this year and expand to between 25 and 50 feet runs [depends on my sprouting for transplanting ratio] the problem i can see is not many people wanting these at first and them going to waste, and the other problem i can see is them selling awesomely at first and then tapering off as other items came to market....

Hydroponic is a great idea and we are testing this winter an expensive system from Vertigro [tm] for us inside the house...... the single stack unit for $220..... but it is a test and if such works we might expand to a small greenhouse setup and build out own outfit for a februaryish to novemberish time frame probably later and ending earlier due to excess costs of heating and lighting probably something the lines of Simple sand hydroponics which has information for the naysayers who claim it is not organic, and those who say it costs to much to build a system...... again the drawback to restaurants is that they want it year long before they will buy and offer something unique and niche for some reason.... though there are a couple of seasonal places that are tourista related....

I thought quite a bit about raising snails in a greenhouse atmosphere [controlled environment] a 12 by 20 unit can raise about 10,000 per year but we have no cannery close by to purchase the over run [can be as much as quarter each to cannery but a buck each to local shop] raised in a wooden box, tossed artichokes leaves and other scrap veggies, then purge with cornmeal before selling they are not hard to raise [a copper lip is added to the top of the box at an angle to keep the snails falling to the inside when they try to escape over the edge, which is now a hefty expense].... i dont eat them at all so i dont know if i would enjoy raising them for others when they asked me "how they taste?"......

got a dark basement? or a built a new shop and no electric to it? how bout mushrooms.... they can be a year long crop and once you get going with them the market will increase so you can expand if you want to..... I know nothing of growing them, I rarely eat of them....

buy/sell trade scrap gold and old or junk jewelry My gold recovery thread in the shop forum has a couple links for additional information.... it takes a few bux to get the things you need but at todays prices for precious metals the smallholder [homesteader] can pile up dollars in hurry doing the right trading at the right time..... ok so they can also go broke in heartbeat too.

A friend of mine got into sandblasting rocks when he lived in AZ, started out as a hobby and he got into it nearly full time...... but his day job was sign building [lectric lighted] he said he was making nearly a grand a month after his expenses just a few hours a night and on the weekends [picking up rocks and bring them home] not a big market but it is a niche market like woodworking.

Several folks have made an income from making furniture of some sort.... but that takes special knowledge and sometimes specific tooling that not everyone has or wants to get on a "maybe it will work for me" proposition.

In all a person has to have a lot of ideas to come up with one good idea that will actually work..... many will work to a degree, but most end up either breaking even, or just under, yet if they were to go one more season or month the idea might catch hold [yes might is long shot] and take off big enough to call it a living from the hobby.

Hope my ideas might have sparked someone into thinking outside the box a bit

William
Central Idaho mountains.... on the river under the mountains.....

[Beef11]

Not produce BUT...We ran a dog boarding kennel for years, nice $. Now, in our retirement home we do in-house boarding. A couple of dogs at a time, $12 per night, all bring their own food. Dogs in and out no overhead...Joan

I have a dog boarding kennel not bad scratch, i need another kennel or two. Mine sits on 1.15 acres and i'm trying to figure out what to do with my waste ground.

[pixelphotograph]

I made wild muscadine jelly Im giving most of it away for Christmas Gifts the rest I will sell at a local farmers market.

[CIW]

We have had good luck producing items that are purchased with discressionary money. These items are usually items under $5. Most folks will drop a fiver without any thought at all.
Items for holidays and special occasions. Theme items such as ones based around animals or speciality groups and clubs.
People have want to spend this money.