[ozarkyehti]

I just recieved my Country & Small Stock Journal ( Nov-Dec. 2004) and the question of the month was.....

" How to Make Extra Income On One Acre?"

Some Ideas were really good and some didn't intrest me.

Renate Haeckler of West Chester, Pennsylvania had an intresting idea with a subscription garden.

Renate, if you are reading this you mentioned several books you purchased on how you can make up to $40,000 on one acre raising veggies. I cannot find any books on Amazon that deals with this subject, could you share titles/authors/etc. with us on these books?

I did see a book called...
"The Growing and Marketing of Fall Mums: How You Can Turn Your Backyard into a Money-Making, Growing Machine!"
by Don Langevin

I have thought about growing mums on my property for re-sale.
Has anybody read or know anything about this book?

Anyway, would anybody like to share their ideas, books or actual things they did or do now to make extra money on one acre?

I'm sure there are plenty of intrested people wanting any info. on this subject they can get!!!!

 

[cloverfarm]

We have Old Order Mennonite neighbors (similar to Amish) and they do a lot with produce and flowers. So many got into it, and have farm stands and green houses, taht they all got together and started a produce auction. They grow all kinds of things -- veggies, flowers, melons, straw berries -- some have farm stands, some take wagon loads to various shopping centers, some go to the farmer's markets ...

Another family has U-pick blueberries. More than one acre, though.

Depending on where you are, produce and flowers could be a winner.

Good luck!
Ann

 

[Oilpatch197]

I don't get the old worlders, what is wrong with driving a car, as long as you do good, "Just because the hypocrites pray, does that mean you can't pray?" You pray right, just Because you got Liars out here Mocking God, doesn't mean you have to stop praying, just pray right.

We got Mennonites around here, they can have autos/tractors/radios, but NO T.V. and Women must wear Dresses and their heads are covered, married men where wide brim hats.

Like the show "little house on the prarie"

and we couldn't have better neighbors.

 

[jackie c]

I have been investigating ideas on how to make my land profitable, currently I'm planning to starting a small CSA (community supported agriculture), worm farming, subscription chicken, turkey, rabbit and pig meat sales, eggs off farm, beekeeping, maybe some value added stuff as well. I think the best way to make money on acres is to diversify, spread the work out so that it is manageable. I don't intend on getting rich, just enough to live on. Its hard work, but better to work hard for yourself and put the profit in your own pocket instead of someones elses. The most important thing to consider when hoping to make money is to plan, plan, plan, research and plan some more. The business planning will help you come up with your own ideas, plus all the info you'll need to get started and keep going.
Check this forum for some good book suggestions.

 

[3girls]

Jackie C. has the right idea, only I would add: Just Start!! You can divvie up one acre into little sections and do an incredible amount. Flowers, produce, eggs are certainly where I would start. Check out www.freeplants.com to see how one guy paid off his mortgage! I'm doing the small backyard nursery right now, and will be adding flowers as I go along.

Best wishes,

Sandi

 

[sisterpine]

Just read my Countryside also! I really liked the idea of growing flower and vegetable starts to sell in the spring for gardens. If I did this I could make a few bucks and still have my own veg and flower starts ready in time for spring planting. Just got to figure out an ecconomical way to heat my greenhouse so I can have them ready to go in time.

 

[Mid Tn Mama]

Try this:

http://www.pathtofreedom.com/pathproject/index.shtml

 

[sdrew]

This is a post from BRUCE IN NE on 05/18/2004 in another forum discussion:

"A couple acres of asparagus would almost get you to what you want to earn IF you are fairly close to a fair sized town (15-20K pop.)

You can get 10,000 Jersey hybrid asparagus roots on an acre at approx. 15 cents per root. You can get your initial expenses paid back after the first harvest year and thereafter the field is like a growing bank account for 20 or more years at least.

Work hard for 2 months a year then just keep the weeds down the rest of the summer. Sure beats raising and slaughtering animals...and you don't have to train people to eat asparagus, most of us are already trained."

 

[goatlady]

Just remember with asparagus you don't cut the first year, then cut frugally the second year in order to get the roots set well to produce for years after the first 2. The third year is your profit year, maybe if you don't have asparagus beetles.

 

[DrippingSprings]

What kind of demand is their for asparagus? Is it a regional thing maybe? I cant think of anyone I have ever known that likes it. But it does sound like a good thing if I could find a market for it.

 

[grasshopper]

I think one of the best ways to make money from an acre is to find a niche market, or a very small and specialized business. I know a few families in Montana that make money by growing a highly desirable 'fad' product and change their produce as demand changes, for example, lama fur to ginseng to organic produce. On Vancouver Island there has grown a huge demand for packaged organic produce for chain grocery stores switching entirely to organic. I think the big ticket is to produce something and then take an extra step to make it 'special'. For instance you could produce heirloom seeds and then put together a cute little garden kit for kids. If you go into Borders they have tons of kits for sale from organic first aid to homemade wine labeling all originally started by little people like us. My all-time favorite is Burt's Bees. Go to burtsbees.com and read about it: http://www1.burtsbees.com/webapp/wc...yView?langId=-1&catalogId=10001&storeId=10001

 

[cloverfarm]

I don't get the old worlders, what is wrong with driving a car, as long as you do good, "Just because the hypocrites pray, does that mean you can't pray?" You pray right, just Because you got Liars out here Mocking God, doesn't mean you have to stop praying, just pray right.

We got Mennonites around here, they can have autos/tractors/radios, but NO T.V. and Women must wear Dresses and their heads are covered, married men where wide brim hats.

Like the show "little house on the prarie"

and we couldn't have better neighbors.

We have excellent Mennonite neighbors, too. Always willing to help, swap equipment and so on. When DH's dad had a massive seizure this summer, my first thought was that I was so glad we had sold the cows ... my next thought was we could have counted on those neighbors for help if need be, if we were still milking.

The Old Order Mennonites and others came out of the Anabaptist movement, meaning to "re-baptize ..." They baptized adults who made conscious decisions to follow Jesus Christ. they didn't baptize infants who could not decide for themselves. They also base a lot of their reasoning on Christians being special people to God ... there's a Bible verse about "come out from among them [the world] and be ye separate ..." (Which, I'm sorry, I should know this chapter and verse but can't remember it now.)

But the various groups disagree on how to carry that out.

We are Christians and the church we go to split off from the Mennonites about 100 years ago. One branch turned into the "black car" Mennonites, and the other group turned into us, First Church of the SUV (just kiddign!) Actually the BIG difference was whether the church should teach in GErman or English. Our branch opted for English in order to reach more people with the Gospel.

I know that's more than y'all want to know about the Mennonites. But ... as full-tiem farmers on small acreage a lot of them do all right with intensive produce. A few have dairies and a few raise free-range poultry and eggs. They tend to be diversified and willing to work very, very hard, just like any of us who want to make a go of it farming or homesteading.

 

[Ken Scharabok]

Same offer as usual. If you want a free e-book copy of my book, "How to Earn Extra Money in the Country" you can request it direct from me at [email protected] (no private mail requests please). It will be sent as a large (about 1 meg) attachment. Cannot be sent to hotmail.com or webtv.net due to file size. Those with those providers need to find another provider to have it sent to. (And it comes with a money back guarantee.)

Ken Scharabok

 

[Paul O]

Small fruits like Raspberries don't need much land. Just lots of labor. Demand always exceeds supply. Different varieties can be grown to spread out the season.

 

[Haecklers]

The whole title is "Backyard Market Gardening: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Selling What You Grow" by Andrew W. Lee It was $19.95 and worth every penny if you're thinking of trying to sell from your garden.

- Renate

I just recieved my Country & Small Stock Journal ( Nov-Dec. 2004) and the question of the month was.....

" How to Make Extra Income On One Acre?"

Some Ideas were really good and some didn't intrest me.

Renate Haeckler of West Chester, Pennsylvania had an intresting idea with a subscription garden.

Renate, if you are reading this you mentioned several books you purchased on how you can make up to $40,000 on one acre raising veggies. I cannot find any books on Amazon that deals with this subject, could you share titles/authors/etc. with us on these books?

I did see a book called...
"The Growing and Marketing of Fall Mums: How You Can Turn Your Backyard into a Money-Making, Growing Machine!"
by Don Langevin

I have thought about growing mums on my property for re-sale.
Has anybody read or know anything about this book?

Anyway, would anybody like to share their ideas, books or actual things they did or do now to make extra money on one acre?

I'm sure there are plenty of intrested people wanting any info. on this subject they can get!!!!

 

[Haecklers]

One more tip: Use www.localharvest.org to find customers. It's totally free to list whatever you grow or make yourself. I found almost all of my customers from them.

 

[moonwolf]

If you are talking about using only one acre of the land, market vegetables of the high profit margin variety that take less space would be the way to go. This probably would involve herbs or cut flowers, but it's seasonal depending on where you live. I would also check into specialty birds that don't require lots of pen space, maybe something for the fancy restaurant trade like white jumbo pheasants.

 

[littlebitfarm]

You probably aren't going to like this idea. Let them put up a communictions tower! They stuffed mailboxes up and down my road looking for a site. I decided I could look at it for free or get paid to look at it. Pays my mortgage and then some!

Kathie

 

[Quint]

We have excellent Mennonite neighbors, too.

I've got Mennonite neighbors too and they are nice folks. Their kids are polite and respectful and the whole family is friendly as can be.

A few weeks back I seen a real juxtaposition of the differences between Mennonites and the "world". I was standing in line at a store and seen a Mennonite woman and her daughter who was in her late teens. Next to them was a girl of about the same age but she was all...well...there is no nice way to put it..."whored up". Now it is undeniable that to me as a male that the "worldly" girl looked quite good but I also found myself thinking "were I choosing between the two for a wife I know which one I'd pick".

Like all folks you do come across a few bad apples among the Mennonites. My cousin has Mennonite neighbors that are quite trashy folks. Really difficult neighbors for a number of reasons.

 

[patarini]

try Backyard cash crops -- great book lots of ideas -- but no detail!