What would you do with an acre?

I think I'd put in some fruit trees, fruit bushes, bee hives, chickens, muscovies, and a milk goat (with a wether for a friend).

I'd get banty chickens cause they don't destroy a garden like full size chickens do. They will keep the weeds scratched out and the bugs off the produce without damaging it once the plants are well established. They will eat tomatoes, so 'mators need to be grown in a greenhouse or screenhouse.

I'd choose muscovies instead of ducks cause they are quiet and they don't require a pond. They are much like chickens as they can survive on puddles instead of a large body of water. They aren't greasy like ducks are. Very good eating and very prolific.

The bees will ensure good pollination of the fruit and veggies as well as provide you with honey.

The goat will produce milk for a year or two from one breeding (some produce much longer than that, I think the record is around 20 years!), and at least one kid for the freezer, more likely 2 or 3 kids for the freezer or for sale/trade. You'd have to find someone nearby with a buck to breed her to. You most likely wouldn't want a buck on 1 acre with a single doe.

I'd put up a greenhouse to have fresh veggies year round. Maybe dig a root cellar for winter storage of all the bounty you'll be producing.

Plant several small gardens. One for annual produce, one for permanent plants, a kitchen garden, and a herb garden. Herbs can be grown among flowers for decoration as well as use. Flowers sell well as farmers markets and can produce an income.

I'd build a solar dehydrator to dry fruits, veggies, & herbs for storage.

If your in a good location, I'd think about adding on instead of selling when you start a family. A small home that's paid for is much more important in today economy than a larger home with a mortgage.

That's what I would do... but you aren't me so you'll have to decide what YOU want to do.

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On an acre I kept bees, free ranging chickens and ducks, geese, a good sized orchard (semi dwarf and dwarf root stalks as well as large cherries. A large veggie garden and good sized section devoted to berries of all types. Grapes.
Don't be tempted to bring home larger livestock, you'd be buying their feed making them an expensive proposition.

I'm so excited for you. I second the book have more plan. They do not waste an inch and have everything laid out to save you time and steps. First feed yourself but if you are only one, you can sell a lot. We have 25 barred rocks and love them. We get a dozen and half eggs a day on little feed. We also do cornish cross each year and in 6 weeks, 100 chicks become over 400 pounds of meat in the freezer. Or better yet, sell most of them. They bring a pretty price. Anything that doesn't ship well will sell well like the berries, pawpaw, etc. Around here, fresh black berries sell like gold and they are so easy to raise. Start with a sign out front for eggs and as your regular customers build, start selling them other things. When you kill chickens, give them one to try. I promise you they will be back to buy. When your berries start getting ripe, give them a cup or two and let them know you'll have more next week if they know anyone that might be interested. Raise some midget white turkeys for Thanksgiving (we love ours) and presell them to your customers. Try bees and sell honey along with the flowers the bees love. Who knows, Mr. right may stop by some day to buy eggs and strick up a conversation about all you are doing there on your little acre. He may be so intrigued that he comes back and stays longer next time. I can see Mr. Right picking up a hoe to help out on occasion before realizing you two have fallen in love with each other and homesteading! Stranger things have happened.

I raise fish bait, produce vermicompost amendment , run a porch side produce stand and a decorative plant micro nursery on the one acre of my place that I use for agrinomics .

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"I didn't have time to slay the dragon. It's on my To Do list!"

Setup a rotation around the acre dividing it up into say ten paddocks each about 3,000 sq-ft. (Not knowing how big your house and other things take up I'm just guessing.) Put a few pigs and chickens in the paddocks rotating them. Chickens follow pigs. Then for the winter keep them in one or two sacrificial paddocks. Those paddocks will get completely rooted up, fertilized, smoothed, weeded and debugged. Then plant those paddocks as gardens the following year. Adjust the rotation as needed.

Ducks, turkeys, sheep, goats and even small cattle like dexters are possibilities. You will need to buy in hay for the winter and that will help build up the quality of your soil as the animals process it and deposit the manure.

By rotating the paddocks between grazing, regrowth and gardens you let the soil get fertilized and revitalized. Pests and parasites are naturally controlled as well.

There are some plants that you will want to grow permanently like fruit trees (plant some right away), asparagus, horseradishes, berries, etc. Place double fences between some or all paddocks and then grow the perennials in those spaces or dedicate some paddocks.

Bees, compost area and a small greenhouse are all good other things to have.

Skip the lawn.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids