What do you grow?

equinecpa · #1 03/05/12, 08:53 AM

Besides vegetables, herbs and grains that you use for your own consumption, what do you find is most economically beneficial to grow as in what gives you the best return for the space/effort it takes in the garden? Herbs? If so any specific ones? Vegetables? Grains? Berries?

I know the responses will vary dependent on where you live and how much acreage you have but since I'm a newbie homesteader I'm curious to find what other peoples experiences have been.

I'm planning a garden for my own use but was wondering if there is anything I should be considering establishing as soon as possible?

Vickie44 · #2 03/05/12, 08:57 AM

I find herbs and berries are great to grow as they are so expensive to buy and fragile to transport. Raspberries for me , and for herbs Rosemary , sage , thyme ,basil.

FarmboyBill · #3 03/05/12, 09:01 AM

corn oats hay

hiddensprings · #4 03/05/12, 09:03 AM

I grow garlic, shallots, and herbs that I sell at the farmer's market. All easy to grow and give me the greatest profit at the market. Plus, no one else grows that in my area (at least not yet), so I am the only game in town

wes917 · #5 03/05/12, 09:05 AM

Blueberries. I'm still in a city lot so don't have a ton of room in the garden for watermelon or cantelope. I also get a great return from my strawberries that I use for ground cover. This should be my first year getting fruit from my bush cherries also. They don't take up a ton of room so if the yeilds are close to what I've heard they'll be great to.

equinecpa · #6 03/05/12, 09:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hiddensprings

I grow garlic, shallots, and herbs that I sell at the farmer's market. All easy to grow and give me the greatest profit at the market. Plus, no one else grows that in my area (at least not yet), so I am the only game in town

What herbs do sell? How do you package them?

Quote:

Originally Posted by wes917

This should be my first year getting fruit from my bush cherries also. They don't take up a ton of room so if the yeilds are close to what I've heard they'll be great to.

What do the bush cherries taste like?

uncle Will in In. · #7 03/05/12, 09:38 AM

OLDER <> Been growing older since 1934. I should warn you that it's not very profitable.

fatrat · #8 03/05/12, 10:30 AM

Evil tobacco, better than store bought and only cost a few pennies, literally.

sammyd · #9 03/05/12, 10:49 AM

We have had great success with our raspberries. The canes were free from my folks' patch and we have had an abundance every year. Made a few bucks selling them too.

The bush cherries are great although the pie type (Nanking) did a lot better than the sweet type (think they are called Hansen). The sweet type never had a good flavor at all, even the birds left them alone. The Nankings produce great quantities and we usually boil the whole cherry down and make jelly rather than try to pit them for pie making.

wes917 · #10 03/05/12, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by equinecpa

What herbs do sell? How do you package them?

What do the bush cherries taste like?

I'm not sure, I haven't had a yield yet but do have the pie type sammyd speaks of. I hear they are on the sour side.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sammyd

We have had great success with our raspberries. The canes were free from my folks' patch and we have had an abundance every year. Made a few bucks selling them too.

The bush cherries are great although the pie type (Nanking) did a lot better than the sweet type (think they are called Hansen). The sweet type never had a good flavor at all, even the birds left them alone. The Nankings produce great quantities and we usually boil the whole cherry down and make jelly rather than try to pit them for pie making.

Coloneldad5 · #11 03/05/12, 12:22 PM

equinecpa, we had a bush when I was growing up. They are rather tart/sour and on the small size thus not very good for pitting. The only real use would be juicing or eating plain.

I am lucky enough to have a few acres so I will eventually be able to establish a fairly comprehensive planting. Although I am just starting out and I don't have anything on the land yet (just an open field with the house on it)

This year I am planting 30 fruit trees (Apricots, Peaches, Apples, Pears, Plums, Elderberry, Cherries), 4 nut trees (Almonds, Walnuts). I also have 10 grape vines going in (that's just the start) and hope to put in some Raspberries, Blackberries, Blueberries, Strawberries, Cranberries as well.

Herbs will be a definite and we'll be planting the full array of herbs for cooking as well as medicinal purposes (legal of course).

The garden will have the full assortment of vegetables as well as watermelons, cantaloups, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, pumpkin and legumes.

The wife is also looking at putting in some small plots of grains (Spelt, Rye, Oats, etc.) to see if we can economically grow and process enough to supply our needs.

thequeensblessing · #12 03/05/12, 12:31 PM

We've got an orchard, with pears, apples, cherries, and plums. We've got primarily heirloom apples, like Mother, Pink Pearl, and King o' the Pippins, with a few newer varieties thrown in, like honeycrisp and Sechai Itchi. We have bartlett, keifer, and honey pears (ayers), several different plum varieties and both sweet and pie cherries. Fresh fruits are so expensive, and if you graft your own trees, learn to prune them each year and use horticultural oil on them, your return can be nice if you sell, plus getting all the fruit YOU can use virtually free is an added bonus. We graft our own fruits for about $3.00 a tree, buy horticultural oil in bulk, and it only takes 1 full day to prune all the trees in our orchard. We have about 30 apples, 5 pears, 4 plums, and 6 cherries. We plan on adding more pears and cherries over the next couple of years. We have all this on about 1/2 an acre. We've grafted onto semi-dwarf rootstock.

unregistered168043 · #13 03/05/12, 12:31 PM

For ease and most return for space/effort I go with potatoes everytime.

Next I go with green beans ( kentucky pole ), although setting up a trellis can be a pain, I usually grows them on my fence which I have up any way. Those beans are great because they grow like crazy and give a constant supply of beans until first frost.

Basil is a nice easy herb that 'grows itself' as my grandmother says. I have had trouble with blue berries, I think my soil isn't acid enough. Apple trees are always under attack by bugs, or deer. I'm going to try rasberries this year because I heard they are very hardy. If they don't wirk I'm giving up on fruit.

Peggy · #14 03/05/12, 12:35 PM

blackberries, strawberries. would like to start raspberies this year. grow and dry all my herbs. planted garlic bulbs last fall. planted carrots last year and had enough to last over winter. I planted the carrots up against the house, so they where protected. I am going to plant onions in the flower beds this year. that will free up more of the garden for something else. fruit trees- blueberries, apples, peaches, pears. started a fig tree last year. peas, green beans, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, catalope and what ever else I can fit in my raised beds.

nc_mtn · #15 03/05/12, 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fatrat

Evil tobacco, better than store bought and only cost a few pennies, literally.

I've thought about this before. I don't smoke, never have but I've wondered if one could (without legal headaches) sell cured tobacco. Is "processed" tobacco the regulated thing that minors can't buy? I'm assuming that since I've never seen it sold like that, it's not worth it or possible

chester5731 · #16 03/05/12, 02:53 PM

Corn, oats soybeans, black beans, and I should plant some alfalfa.

Raven12 · #17 03/05/12, 03:09 PM

I concentrate on warm weather veggies. The cost is ridiculous around here for the quantity and quality since it is all shipped in.

fatrat · #18 03/05/12, 03:29 PM

nc_mtn,

The answer to your question is yes you can sell cured tobacco. The tobacco program ended 2005 with the government buying out the tobacco base from the farmers. Now anyone, anywhere in the U.S.A. can grow and sell any type of tobacco.

However there are two problems. The first problem, there are assessments charged to the grower at the time of sale which pays for the transition to a purely marked driven system. I think those assessments may be ending sometime in the near future as the transition is nearing completion. Most tobacco now is farmed and sold on contract.

The second problem, tobacco is a very labor intensive and finicky crop to properly manage. You can have a great crop in the field and lose it in the curing barn. The buyers want it handled just a certain way and if you don't have experience in it or live in a region where you can get proper training from the locals then you risk losing a lot of money and labor.

Where you get into trouble is with the processed tobacco such as, smoking and chewing products. Then you got the ATF and state governments wanting to regulate for the purpose of collecting whatever taxes on it. It's all about tax money, LOTS AND LOTS OF TAX MONEY. The dirty little truth is government does not want to get rid of tobacco or for people to stop smoking because there's just so much tax money in it for them. I even seriously doubt that many of people working in the anti tobacco programs truly want people to quit. Some volunteers may but for most it's a well paying job. Anti tobacco programs in schools, media and advertising has become a big money business in America. There is just so much money to be made from the law suites and taxes. Everybody knows of the health risks now and so now it really is just all about money.

THEY DON'T WANT TO KILL THE GOOSE THAT LAYS THE GOLDEN EGG.

What type of evil tobacco were you thinking of growing for sale?

nc_mtn · #19 03/05/12, 05:12 PM

Not sure fatrat, I grew up 30 or so minutes from Winston-Salem. I remember seeing nothing but Tobacco in the fields that are now houses. I've got family that grew it "back in the day".
I've got no experience with it except ridding my bike next to a field of it and walking into an old barn with it curing. I just thought it could be a good "novelty" item here near a college town. Plus the whole "natural food" movement.
It's in one of those "wonder if" categories of my $$$ ideas

fatrat · #20 03/05/12, 05:25 PM

nc_mtn,

Is that burley or flue cured your talking about?