Restaurants, chefs, grocers, and food marketers are all very well aware of this.  They spend a lot of time and money feeding our craving for novelty.  Although some innovations fall as flat as a peppermint soufflé (remember green ketchup, garlic ice cream, or olestra?), our produce shelves are burgeoning with fruits and veggies that wouldn’t be recognized just a few years ago.  Portobello mushrooms weren’t common until the ’90s, and neither were daikon radishes, fiddleheads, tomatillos, Jamaican yams, or carrots in any other color but orange.  Producers can generally get a premium price for new offerings.  In our region, ground cherries—that common but largely forgotten roadside plant our grandparents foraged for free—now go for $3.50 a pint.

Value-added products using these new crops generate even more purchasing incentive.  Folks may be a little hesitant to buy something if they don’t know how to cook or eat it.  They may not know what to do with Saskatoon berries, but they sure as heck know what to do with Saskatoon Berry Jam.  Seaweed might be a little intimidating to some, but they wouldn’t hesitate to scarf down a plate of sushi.

Produce aisles sometimes offer recipe cards for shoppers beside the produce they want to sell.  Presenting a photo of a tempting dish entices buyers and eases any hesitation to try it.  Once a new food reaches a tipping point of general acceptance the big manufacturers jump on the bandwagon.  They may not present it in a healthy or even truthful manner, but their promotion solidifies the food as a cultural norm and is a benefit to small producers who no longer have to educate their buyers.

But until there is an established demand, there is risk.

The biggest challenge to growers taking a new path is matching up your current resources to what you want to try, understanding your potential market, and your tolerance for risk.  If possible it’s best to launch your new venture without digging too deeply into your own savings.  That said, you need to be careful about going into debt as well.  How to resolve this conundrum?  Begin with what you know or are producing already.  This means you already have some expertise and an established market that may be more likely to accept new offerings.  The greater the cash outlay needed for your product, the truer this is.

For instance, let’s say you’ve fallen in love with Water Buffaloes.  Don’t laugh.  Water buffalo milk is rich, creamy, and is the very best for making mozzarella cheese.  According to the Archer family who runs Fairburn Farms on Vancouver Island, buffalo milk has fifty-eight percent more calcium than cow’s milk, forty percent more protein, forty-three percent less cholesterol, and is a rich source of iron, phosphorus, vitamin A and protein.  Seventeen percent of the world’s milk comes from the water buffalo.  It’s easier to digest than cow’s milk and is good for many people who are lactose sensitive.

But establishing a water-buffalo herd is not for the novice.  During the Mad Cow Disease scare of the 1990s, all ruminants purchased from Denmark were ordered destroyed and their carcasses tested.  Although this disease has never been found in water buffalo, the Archers lost their entire herd of nineteen Danish-born animals.  They were in debt and without income, but with a few Canadian-born calves and never-say-die determination they rebuilt their herd and began producing milk and breeding stock.

Innovation on this scale is not for the timid.  It’s a better option if you already have the land, or a dairy, and a marketing outlet (Fairburn sells all their milk to local artisans, Natural Pastures Cheese Company).  But the opportunity for growth can make the risk worthwhile.  If you search for “water buffalo yogurt” online, you’ll find several North American farms producing it.  The product fits well with America’s trend toward buying healthier, locally-produced, organic meats, and dairy.

But what about we smaller homesteaders who want to try growing something new?  Luckily there are hundreds of options out there, and small local and/or organic farmers are already well-equipped to meet the needs of niche markets.  The trick is to match up what you already have to the opportunities that exist.  The following is a four-step process to find your perfect fit.

Step One:  Brainstorm

Open your minds and imaginations and get set for an adventure.  Gather up paper, pencils, and some intelligent, optimistic people and write down some ideas.  Anything goes.  No holds barred!  Don’t invite any nay-sayers to the table.  This is the time for creativity to flow, and nothing dampens that process as well as someone exercising “caution”.  Make a rule: no negativity.  So what if you live in Arizona and you imagine growing scented purple rice.  Put it out there and worry about the practicality of irrigated rice paddies in the desert later.  Sometimes a great idea overwhelms the obstacles, so don’t put the obstacles first.  This is where the creative types can go wild.  Give them free rein.

Step Two: Qualify

After you have a couple of hundred wonderful ideas, go get a coffee and take a break.  When you return to the table, it’s time to put those erasers to work.  First, remove anything that doesn’t absolutely excite you.  Then make another list, this time of resources.  How much time can you devote to developing something new?  What are you currently growing?  How do you market your output now?  Do you have any excess funds for your new venture?  What about acreage, soil type, water resources, climate, local pests, etc.?  Even if you don’t have your land yet, don’t skip this step.  You probably have a good idea of where you plan to homestead and what you’d like to grow.  This is where the bean-counters in the group can go to town.  Be as detailed and realistic as possible about your assets.

Step Three: Kill Your Darlings

You now have two lists.  One with innovative ideas, another with realistic assets.  Now is the time to match them up.  Now is the time to kill your darlings.  If you live in a hollow in Arizona with an underground aquifer that seeps out to support rice, then keep your purple rice idea.  Otherwise put it on the back burner for now.  If you worry about diseases that transfer from ranched wildlife to their wild cousins, then an elk farm may not be for you.  If you don’t have the funds to build a fish farm or the acreage to support water buffalo, toss those ideas into the bin.  Pare down your list relentlessly.  If it helps, don’t imagine these ideas are gone for good.  File them for later assessment.  Now is the time to listen to the cautious types, the practical ones who’ve been wriggling in their seats until now.

Step Four:  Pick one and go for it

What you will end up with after all of this is a list of qualified options.  This list is gold.  If you’ve done this right you can fly with whatever is left.  Give yourself enough time to learn and create the best quality before you head to market though.  This is especially true of edibles you plan to sell to specialty customers like chefs.  Consistency, reliability, and reputation are essential in niche markets.The following are a few innovations that have succeeded.  Let them inspire you!

Snails

There’s an old joke about a little snail who painted a big “S” on his car.  When asked, he said it was because he wanted people to look at him as he passed and say, “Hey, look at that big S-car go.”  Cute, but in fact the name “escargot” is a French moniker for any kind of snail.  The Helix polmatia is the large, white-bodied snail most commonly associated with French cuisine, but its cousin, Helix aspersa also makes great escargot.  This is the smaller, grey-bodied critter that decimates gardens across North America.  Raising these as food is a kind of poetic justice.

Demand for escargot is far greater than local supply, with most chefs purchasing tinned snails imported from France.  Locally grown escargot has good growth potential as it offers better value and often better quality for restaurant buyers.  You can start small with low cash outlay.  Mary Stewart is a successful snail rancher in California who supplies top chefs all over the country.  According to NY Times writer, Jeff Gordinier, who calls her “The Snail Wrangler”, Mary’s snails are in high demand because she makes the effort to cultivate the best and thoroughly clean them of grit before market.  Mary advises potential snail-farmers to take time to learn the art of heliculture before approaching chefs who are very particular about quality.

Salt

Hurricane Wilma decimated Midge and Tom’s landscape and irrigation business in the Florida Keys in 2012.  Instead of lingering on the devastation, they looked around and focused on the bounty of salt that surrounded them.  Using the battered remains of their decks and pipes they built two salt houses and began to produce solar-evaporated sea salt.  They now successfully sell their salt online, and through local shops and CSAs.

In Canada’s far east, a Newfoundland farmer named Ward George wondered what to do with an unused greenhouse he had in his nursery business.  The idea of farming salt struck him as he reached for the shaker one morning.  Why the heck buy salt when outside his doorstep was a vast briny ocean full of the stuff?  He laid out a twenty-five-by-fifty-foot sheet of rubber liner in his greenhouse to collect sea water siphoned out of Trinity Bay and let the sun and wind evaporate it off.  He now sells online, to restaurants, to the local Rocket Bakery and at the St. John’s Farmer’s Market.

You might check out “White Gold: A Brief History of Salt” for some useful trivia to schmooze customers.

Mushrooms

At one time the perfect snow-white button mushrooms now decorating produce bins were merely a French dream.  But those renowned connoisseurs of gastronomic delights developed a consistently white strain the world fell in love with.  That is, until the eighties when people began to demand more colorful fare.  The Portobello is actually a marketing invention.  When young, the giant fungus is, in fact, a crimini—that brown sister of the common white mushroom.  When older and larger it was considered too tough and strongly flavored for human consumption and was discarded as pig feed.  Then someone had the bright idea to reinvent the cast-off, call it “portobello”, and sell it as a brand new mushroom.

Now mushroom bins may hold shiitakes, oysters, chanterelles, porcinis, enokis, and morels.  Many edible mushrooms are marketed as having health benefits.  Reishi are listed on fitday.com as the “Super Anti-‘Shroom with anti-cancer, anti-oxidant, anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal benefits”.  Maitake, shimeji, turkey-tail (inedible, but makes a powerful medicinal tea) can all be cultivated.  Mushrooms can be marketed fresh, or dried, through Farmer’s Markets, CSAs, to local restaurants and health food stores, or online.

Mud

When Shelly Egbert noticed the odorless, fine-grained mud oozing out of geothermal mud pots on her family’s property in Nevada, she had a brainstorm.  Why not sell it so people could slather it all over themselves?  She partnered with a friend, Summer Powelson, to extract and market the stuff.  They conscripted their children to help harvest and package the mud and Black Rock Mud Company was born.

They sell their mud online and to nearby spas and casinos in Reno.  The company has a strong eco-culture and adds value to their product with packaging that has been imbedded with non-invasive wildflower seeds that you can plant and grow.

Microgreens

In 1983, the Jones family lost everything they had to crop failure, including their land.  Traditional farmers, they’d grown cash crops of soybeans and corn but now had to start from scratch.  They leased land and began to grow new crops.  When a local chef asked them for squash blossoms their entrepreneurial curiosity was peaked.  What other exotic crops might be of interest to chefs?

They began to grow microgreens that elicited intense interest within their new market.  They developed their craft and now provide tiny, baby herbs and lettuces with the flavor and unique shapes and colors demanded by fine chefs around the world.  The Jones’ have now completely abandoned traditional farming.  They focus on healthy soil and working with nature to provide the best produce.

Booze

You can make wine out of just about anything.  But also look at other fermented products such as mead, sake, or hard cider (which can be made from a variety of fruits from apples to plums).  Check your area’s regulations as distilled alcohol is regulated differently than beer and other fermented products.  In our neck of the woods, cottage wineries are becoming more popular.  If you already have an orchard, why not look into boozing it up?  It’s one of the most lucrative value-added markets.  Product can be sold on the farm, at local markets, or online.  Look up local marketing boards for advice.

Poo

Cattle rancher Annie Haven markets her “Haven Natural Brew Tea” on her website.  Looking just like those tea bags you dip in your mug in the morning, these packets of dried manure are steeped to feed your garden plots or potted plants.  Haven even sells gift packs.  Selling manure can create income, but converting it into compost can increase return dramatically.  At Tandem Park Riding Center in Colorado, manager Laura Voshchenko was paying $450 a month to have manure carted away.  In an article written by Rick Kahl for stablemanagement.com, she says she now charges $40 a truckload for compost made from that same manure.

Chris McLaughlin, a master gardener and writer for vegetablegardener.com, touts the many advantages of rabbit poop.  It’s easy to spread, has all the benefits of animal manure, and doesn’t have to be composted before used.  Doug Knippel keeps rabbits in raised pens and sweeps out rabbit manure frequently.  Once screened, he bags the manure in empty rabbit-feed bags and sells it at $5.00 a bag.  He estimates he takes 33% off the cost of feeding his rabbits this way and money saved flows into profits.  Doug also sells worm poop.  Check out his diverse farm at NWRedworms.com.

Spawn the World Has Never Seen Before

We tend to think of hybrids as GMO-produced Frankenfood, but humans have been developing hybrid strains of fruits, nuts, vegetables, and livestock since farming began.  Familiar veggies common today weren’t around at the dawn of agriculture.  For instance, broccoli, cabbage, kale, cauliflower, and kohlrabi were all cultivated from the wild mustard plant.  Hybridization occurs naturally through the cross-pollination of related species.  Think rutabaga (a cross between turnips and cabbage) or grapefruit (pummelo and sweet oranges).  Recent developments seen in markets are blood limes (lime and mandarin orange), Tayberries (blackberry raspberry cross), tangelos (tangerine and grapefruit) and Jamaican Ugli fruit (grapefruit, orange, tangerine).  If you have a talent for plant breeding you could produce something truly unique.

Weirdos

Less common fare such as Chinese artichokes, chayote, purple sweet potato, hairy cucumbers, Juneberries, seabeans, quince, baby sea-kale, rat-tail radishes, orach, quinoa, turmeric, Halloween radishes, Buddha’s hand citron, blue-berried honeysuckle, birch sugar, tiger nuts, sunchokes, sorghum, and nopales cactus are only a few of the fascinating options out there.  Check out what suits your climate, and resources.  Also, consider medicinal or culinary herbs or growing landscape or ornamental plants.

Good luck and good innovating!

The post Weird Things to Grow and Market on the Homestead appeared first on Homestead.org.

Outside employment is the solution for many, but working a nine-to-five job isn’t for everyone and might not be a viable option if you live in a rural environment where jobs are scarce.  The high price of gas for a long commute can also be a deterrent.  A better option might be to create a business built on a small, yet loyal customer base.  By thinking creatively, you might be able to spend more time enjoying the cozy nest that you’ve built for yourself and eliminate the need to leave the farm in a quest for a paycheck.

If you can market a quality product at a fair price, someone will likely be willing to buy it.  However, identifying a specialty niche product or service for your home-based business can be far more profitable than selling the usual offerings and often require a lot less work.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a niche as:

a: a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted <finally found her niche> b: a habitat supplying the factors necessary for the existence of an organism or species c: the ecological role of an organism in a community especially in regard to food consumption d: a specialized market.

Merriam-Webster aside, let me define a specialty business niche in layman’s terms:  A specialty business niche is a product or service that won’t necessarily appeal to all customers, but it will appeal to enough consumers to enable you to charge more money because the product or service is value-added.  With a really good niche, demand for your product may actually grow as more people hear about it.  This, in turn, can allow you to earn more money for less work.

There is plenty of information available in the library and on the internet about finding your niche in the business world.  On a farm or a homestead, a niche can be a bit more difficult to identify.  Sometimes, you can utilize a skill honed from a prior career such as building websites, providing telephone customer service or performing internet research for a fee, but what happens when your prior career doesn’t translate easily into homestead cash?  Here are a few ideas to get the thought process started to identify and fill a void in the marketplace and the void in your wallet.

1.  Listen to people to capitalize on an overlooked problem:  Growing up, I couldn’t name a single person with a known sensitivity to the chemical fertilizers used on food crops.  We all ate our favorite processed foods, oblivious to origin.  Modern science has allowed physicians to identify people with this issue, including several of my relatives.  Luckily, the internet has made it possible for many of these people to have virtual get-togethers.  They share information in cyberspace forums and email groups about the challenges of finding foods fertilized naturally with manure, rather than petrochemicals.  Swapping sources for organic products, they find that managing their food issues isn’t quite as challenging with the support of a few e-friends.

An enterprising individual might pull together a collection of wheat-free recipes that could be marketed and sold as a cookbook to the members of such a forum.  Another option would be to create an e-newsletter with helpful articles about wheat-free living with targeted advertisements to generate income.  This type of business would probably be best suited to a person with a background in the nursing or dietary field or to someone with firsthand experience in coping with a similar food allergy issue.  Additionally, a bit of technical savvy would be required to bring these ideas to fruition.

2.  Make sure that you have practical, reasonable access to your customers:  In an urban center, a niche bakery business might specialize in cupcakes only.  As a matter of fact, this type of establishment is gaining in popularity in cities across America.  As successful as this idea has been for some entrepreneurs, it would likely fail in the country.  There just aren’t enough people who need heavily frosted confections on a daily basis in a rural area.  Besides, chocolate cupcakes tend to resemble cow patties when they are shipped via the postal service.

3.  Work smarter, not harder:  A former co-worker of mine inherited the family horse farm.  It came complete with a lot of horses that ate a lot of her money in the form of feed, producing an overabundance of manure to shovel. After operating on her own for a few years, she realized that this was also a lot of WORK!  She decided that she wanted to raise smaller animals and acquired some goats instead.  She tried several breeds, but they didn’t quite meet her needs.  She needed to maintain a large herd to be able to sell them for meat and they occasionally needed medical assistance, which ate into the profits.

Eventually, her research led her to Myotonic goats, which are also known as fainting goats.  Fainting goats will freeze up and tip over when they are scared, rendering them unable to move.  Originally bred to be sacrificial animals, they were pastured with sheep to act as bait for wolves, allowing the more expensive sheep to escape unharmed as the wolves would feast on the defenseless goat that had fallen and could no longer get up.

She tried her hand at raising the breed and found them to be easy to get along with and economical to boot!  Although the goats did eat as much feed as any other breed their size and required medical care at about the same rate, Myotonic goats were infinitely more profitable.  You see, other breeds of goats sold for between $50 and $150, but the average Myotonic goat sold in excess of $700 each!  She was able to keep and care for a much smaller herd and yet earn enough income to maintain her farm.  It has only been a few years, but she is gaining notoriety as a top breeder of these animals and she currently has a waiting list for her does and bucks.

4.  Only sell a product or service that you believe in:  A recent trip to the local farmers’ market led to a wonderful discovery for our family…American Buffalo meat also known as bison.  The salesman in the booth did a phenomenal job.  He energetically touted the taste and health benefits of the meat to everyone who passed by and managed to sell numerous packages containing 3 ground buffalo patties to several people in the few minutes that we were at his booth.  Though he retailed a number of buffalo meat products like sausages and various cuts of steaks, the patties were the least expensive item that he carried at around $2.00 for each 1/3 lb burger.  It was rather pricey to people as frugal as we have become, but we bought a pack anyway just to give it a try.

We were sold after the first bite.  For those who haven’t tried buffalo before, the meat is tender and somehow sweeter than regular ground beef.  Since it provides a different dining experience, customers are willing to pay for it.  Though we won’t try to replace ground beef with buffalo in most recipes, we have committed to purchase it again as a special treat.  Incidentally, rather than ground buffalo patties, we had wanted to try buffalo breakfast sausage as our first purchase.  Unfortunately, the sausage was sold out.  His booth had been open for a mere 4 hours before he sold out of everything except a few rib-eye steaks and ground buffalo patties.  Most of his bison products sell at the modest price of $9.50/lb while the steaks sell at a premium $22.00/lb.  Best of all, there is no middleman to take a cut out of the profits.

I’ve never had the opportunity to learn about what led up to him and his family deciding to raise buffalo for meat, but I am quite certain that they probably used to raise animals that weren’t quite as profitable.  The animals graze on the lush green grass that grows on the land and replenish the soil with their excrement.  In the winter, the herd whiles away the hours, munching on organic hay grown on the property.

This farmer actually makes a profit selling an all-natural niche food product and likely has more free time to spend with his family than he would have had if they were raising cattle.  You see, he and his family don’t interact with the bison all that much, allowing them to wander as they would on the prairies out west.  It is very difficult to be a successful, traditional farmer in America and the red tape in New York State makes it even more of an uphill battle.  Though our state’s farmland is beautiful and yields a variety of crops, it appears that most of the meat and produce at the grocery store originates outside of the state. Our buffalo farmer has found a way to beat the odds by taking the meat straight to the consumer, which directly benefits his family.

5.  Consider the size and scope of the venture:  In some cases, the amount of land or a physical limitation determines the type of farm venture you can effectively pursue.  You also have to make an honest assessment about the number of hours that you are willing to devote to a business.  When our urban family decided to try homesteading, we found that we needed to have animals that could easily fit on a ¾ acre city lot and not be in violation of inner-city zoning laws.

It was important that we manage any waste, so as not to generate foul odors which would put us in the crosshairs of the local code enforcement officer.  The lack of acreage also meant that we couldn’t have a large quantity of any particular type of animal.  My husband and I both have some issues with back pain.  Had we more acreage, we still wouldn’t want to wrangle with large livestock like cows and horses.

Quail were our first homestead critters.  We researched the breeds and found that they require very little feed, don’t take up much space and mature to produce eggs far faster than any variety of chicken!  We now have a few raised hutches in our backyard, affectionately known as Quail Jails.  The hutches allow us to care for the birds (and our aching backs!) without much stooping or bending.

Everything that we had been told about these little birds has proven to be true.  Exactly six weeks after they hatched, we began to get organic eggs, eliminating our need for buying chicken eggs at the local farmers market.  With 17 laying hens, we began to be overrun with eggs.  After placing a classified ad on Craigslist, we were in the organic quail egg business.  Ten tiny quail eggs sell for $3 and they are fairly popular in our area for use in Asian cuisine and as appetizers for parties.  Mmmm…There’s nothing like a miniature organic deviled egg!  Though we haven’t ventured into selling fertile quail hatching eggs or chicks, we will be expanding into those areas soon.  In addition to paying for their own feed, the quail have also proven to be capable of paying for the feed for our other livestock, too!

Our other livestock is a bit more traditional.  Armed with an incubator, we hatched our own chickens.  Not just any chickens, though… We chose a breed that is highly sought after by backyard hobbyists: Black Copper Marans.  A French breed that is gaining in popularity in the United States due to their large chocolate brown eggs, Black Copper Marans roosters are beautiful and look like the bird that you’d see on a box of classic corn flakes.

It is very difficult to find quality stock of this breed as day-old chicks, causing many people to pay a premium price to buy bubble-wrapped hatching eggs shipped via the US Postal Service.  We expect our miniature flock of fifteen birds to earn about $200 per week once they begin to lay next month.  Any eggs that don’t sell, will be included on our breakfast plates, making this a win-win situation.

While all of our birds are willing to work for chicken feed, they are also treated to organic mealworms and scraps from veggies grown using the organic fertilizer that they generously donate to the cause.  We consider ourselves to be quite fortunate to have a small taste of the country while living in the city and planning our future homestead.

6.  Take stock of what develops naturally: Farms and homesteads can be the perfect place to obtain the raw materials for many crafts.  Pine branches, pine cones, feathers, and seedpods can all form the basis for many decorative household crafts.  Certain cut flowers like roses and lavender make a fine base for an all natural potpourri while colorful ears of corn and their stalks make for fabulous autumn decorations.

If you have an artistic leaning, then these items can be used to construct finished handicrafts, such as sachets and wreaths to sell at a farmers market or a country boutique.  Country crafted décor is quite popular among city dwellers and tends to fetch a good price, especially around the holidays.

Check out a few crafting magazines at the local library or subscribe to a good one that piques your interest in order to obtain ideas.  If crafting isn’t your thing, you can always sell those raw materials to crafters. They are usually excited to find a good local source of materials.

7.  One homesteader’s trash is another person’s treasure:  I was rather distressed to read how many times manure has been mentioned in the course of this article. No matter how hard one tries to add variety, there are only so few names for the stuff that seems to occupy a place of prominence in the homesteading lifestyle.  Piles and piles of excrement…  It is generated by all manner of farm critters and shoveled by all manner of critter keepers.  Regardless of its origin, there is usually someone in your community who is eager to dress their petunias in the finest black gold fertilizer.

A well-placed advertisement in a local newspaper or on Craigslist will help you to connect with gardeners.  If you are particularly lucky, they will come with their own shovels and containers to cart it away, leaving you free to sip lemonade and count cash.  Of course, as a value-added service, you could offer delivery for an additional fee.

The ideas that have been presented might not be exactly right for you and your family.  Hopefully, they will help you to start thinking about viable options that will allow you to develop your unique skills and property assets into a money-making venture that still allows you to enjoy the beauty and tranquility of your homestead.  Be sure to keep your mind open to revenue-generating ideas and do your research to determine the pitfalls of each.  Keep in mind the old adage about not putting all of your eggs in one basket.  Instead, design your income streams so that there is always something flowing in to build a nest egg to offset circumstances both seen and unforeseen.  Hope to see you sipping lemonade and counting cash in the very near future!

Marketing Homestead Products

A Backyard Market Garden

The post Your Business Niche: Identifying and Filling a Void in the Marketplace appeared first on Homestead.org.

It’s finally time for homesteaders to start thinking about spring.  Thinking about spring includes garden planning, animal husbandry, new homesteading projects, and income-producing ventures.  The traditional source of income for homesteaders is the farmer’s market.  Regardless of how well you did last year, you can make more money at the farmers’ market with these ideas on how to make your booth stand out.

Be Prepared

Working a booth at the farmers’ market is, in many ways, like a regular job.  The more prepared you are, the easier the work and the more money you will make.  Being prepared includes knowing what you are going to sell, how much of each item you have, income projections for each week and the season as a whole, and having everything you need to make a sale at your fingertips.

Start your season now with a notebook.  Write down every item you would like to sell this season.  Start by thinking about the things you sold last year.  Which items sold well?  Do you want to sell those things again?  Were there items that didn’t sell?  Consider the time and energy you will save by taking those items out of your inventory.

Now think of some new items you would like to offer your customers.  What do you need in order to add those products to your inventory?  Write everything down, including the cost to you.  Make an educated guess regarding the potential income for these items.  Narrow your new inventory down to a manageable list of two or three new products.

When you are setting up your booth, make sure you have the things you need to make an easy sale.  Do you allow your customers to pay with a credit or debit card?  You need a card reader.  A lot of customers pay with cash.  Have a cash bag with plenty of change.  You also need bags and a receipt book for customers who need a receipt.  Don’t forget business cards and sign-up sheets for upcoming homestead events.

Specialize in Variety

Successful markets have a variety of vendors, each with different products.  Successful booths are a microcosm of successful markets.  To have a terrific income-producing booth, specialize in offering a variety of products.  You can make your booth stand out at the farmers’ market by focusing on seasonal products and by including one new and interesting item each week.

Even if you are a specialized homesteader, this is an important consideration that can help you make more money at the farmers’ market.  Simply include an item that matches your specialty item.  For example, let’s imagine you are a goat farmer.  Your main product is goat milk, and you have a regular customer base.  But, as we all know, it is difficult to convince people who have never tried goat milk to buy a pint.

To expand your customer base and make more money at the farmers’ market, you need to offer new products but it does not make financial sense to start over from scratch.  The things you can think about including are goat cheese, goat milk soap, goat poo for gardeners, and fiber crafts made with goat fibers.  You might also want to include a sign-up sheet for goat husbandry classes, a goat share, or goat meat when you have kids.  Offering to renting your herd to clear brush or allow homeschool groups to come to your “petting zoo” can really make your booth stand out at the farmers’ market.

Tell a Story

People shop at farmers’ markets for fresh farm food, but they also want to support local farmers and artisans.  Your main job is to make it easy for people to support your work.  To do this, they need to know about the work you do.  Spend time creating your narrative – a positive, fun, and uplifting story about what you do and why you do it.  Yes, it is hard work but this is not what your story should focus on.  Make it fun and inspirational.

Take pictures of your farm and display these pictures to make your booth stand out.  Direct people to your homestead’s website so they can learn more.  Provide recipes and how-to-craft tutorials.  Never be afraid of losing a customer because you gave them your secrets!  The opposite is true – the more value you give away for free, the more willing people are to trust you and buy your products.

Looks Do Matter

It would be a wonderful world if looks didn’t matter, but they do.  Especially when you are trying to convince people to part with their money.  You don’t have to wear a tuxedo or ball gown, but you do need to care about your personal appearance.  Everyone working your booth should be identifiable.  This doesn’t necessarily mean you need branded tee shirts, but everyone can wear the same-colored shirt or apron.

Special attention should be paid to the appearance of your booth.  Throwing everything out on a table and hoping people will sort through it all until they find something they want is not your best bet.  The hardest part of making a sale is getting people to walk up to your booth.  Once they do this, your chances of selling something are extremely good.  You can entice people to your booth with an organized, neat display.

You do not need professionally-made signage, but you should invest in a bright, solid-colored tablecloth and some bins or baskets to keep products organized.  Your name, and the name of your farm, should be available, as should the price of each item.

Vertical Space

Make good use of all the space you have available.  Buy hooks for your tent poles and hang plants, flowers, or miscellaneous crafts.  Place blocks of wood under your tablecloth so your bins of items are staggered, drawing attention to unusual and higher-priced items.  Bags of compost or leaf mold can be stacked attractively on the ground, as can large potted plants.

Up-sell and Down-sell

If you have ever bought anything, someone has tried to up-sell to you.  After a meal at a restaurant, your server will ask if you are ready to order dessert and coffee.  When you buy your toddler a winter coat, the smart salesperson will point out winter boots, scarves, and mittens.  Even Amazon gives suggestions based on what you place in your virtual cart.  You can, and should, do the same thing.  Don’t worry – you should never be pushy or try to make a hard sell.  Your only goal is to make sure your customer has everything they want before they leave your booth.  If you sell herbal teas, for example, you should also sell honey or flavored sugars, tea breads, and hand-glazed teacups.

Down-selling works much the same way, only in reverse.  Imagine a customer buys a bag of your herbal tea.  She makes an offhand comment about how she wishes she had her own herb garden.  This is a perfect time to sell her a couple of potted herbs, along with a bag of compost.  Let her know you have growing information on your blog.  While she may not need to buy herbal tea from you anymore, she will buy anything else you have at your booth or on your blog because you gave her what she really wanted.

All Five Senses

The more senses you are able to engage, the easier selling becomes.  First, your booth should be attractive.  Bright, cheerful colors draw the eye, and an organized display with the names and prices of products turn an intimidated passerby into a confident customer.  Second, provide items customers can touch.  If you do not want them to handle your products, provide recipe cards or a newsletter for them to hold.  Third, engage their sense of taste by providing samples.  Mini cups of fresh berries, cubes of goat cheese on a toothpick or smeared on a cracker, and bites of homemade cake do more for closing a sale than you could ever do by just talking.  People love freebies and will reward you with a purchase more often than not.  Fourth, make good use of our sense of smell.  Smells have the unique ability to trigger memories of the past and transport us to our ideal future at the same time.  Fresh-cut flowers are a great addition, as are herbs.  If your booth has no smell, consider using a comforting essential oil in a diffuser. Finally, pay attention to the sounds of your booth.  You can play music at a low level if you want, but the most welcoming thing a customer can hear is friendly and knowledgeable chatter and plenty of laughter.

Give Something Away

This works especially well to make your booth stand out when you are introducing a new product or when you are having a slow market day.  Decide what you can give away for free and wrap them up.  Attach a small gift card with the name of the product, the name of your homestead, and your contact information.  Give one to everyone who stops by your booth.  Word will spread like wildfire and most people will buy something after receiving a gift.  Even if they don’t, you can’t buy the goodwill a gift creates!

Incentivize

This is such an easy idea to implement to make more money at the farmers’ market.  When you have an abundance of one item, hold a BOGO sale.  Buy one (pound), get one free, or half off.  You can incentivize based on your goals.  If you want to expand your customer base, offer a deal based on bringing a friend, such as “Bring a friend, get 20% off entire purchase!”  Because you are your own boss, you can customize the deals.  If you want to support a local charity, you can announce a portion of each purchase on a certain day will go to them.  If you are planning your first teaching event, allow a customer to bring a friend for free.

Start a Club

Human nature makes us want to be part of something other people aren’t part of.  Whether this is good or bad is up for debate, but it can be good for your farmers’ market business.  Punch a purchase card every time a customer buys from your booth for 20% off their fifth purchase.  Start a members-only club and hold a contest on your blog or social media for members.  Randomly select a member to win a box of produce to be picked up at the farmer’s market. Give your farm members a canvas produce bag stamped with your homestead’s name. Others will want to know how they can become a member.

Homesteading can be hard, dirty work but the more you can do to stand out at the farmers’ market and to make buying from local producers fun, the more clients you will have and the more income you will make. Let your personality shine, be generous with your time, knowledge, and products, and show how grateful you are to be living the life of your dreams and you cannot fail.

The post Ten Ways to Stand Out at the Farmers’ Market (and Make More Money) appeared first on Homestead.org.

In fact, your creamery can utilize a small herd of cows, sheep, goats, water buffalo or even camels.  For the purpose of this article, we are going to focus on goats.  Water buffalo and camels are not very practical for the average homestead in North America.  Because goats require less space and care than cattle, and produce double the amount of milk as sheep, they are the focus of this article.  However, much of the information can be applied to other dairy animals.

Before you build, market, or milk, you need to decide what your creamery is going to offer.  The best way to do this is with a homestead business plan.  Start with your desired end result and work your way backward to figure out where you need to begin, and the logical steps you will need to take to grow.  Once you decide what your end result will look like, you can research the legal requirements you will have to meet.

Know the Laws for Dairy in Your State

It is important to understand the legal requirements regarding dairy and dairy products are not merely suggestions.  It is imperative that you adhere to the laws of your state. Because each state is different, it is difficult to find all you need to know online.  The best way to make sure you are in compliance is to make an appointment at your local USDA office or farm bureau.  The people who work in those offices are there to support small producers and are always very excited when they are able to help a small farm succeed in a new farming venture.

Have in mind a list of questions to ask your ag department at your appointment.  First, ask if your state allows the sale of raw milk.  Currently, thirty-two states allow raw milk sales, but they differ in the way in which you can sell the milk.  That is your second question: How can you sell your milk?  Some states allow you to sell raw milk directly from the farm, at farmers markets and through a CSA or by delivery.  Some farmers offer a goat-share program, where customers purchase a “share” of the herd and receive raw milk in return.

You also need to find out what type of container you are permitted to sell the milk in and what the labeling requirements are.

Getting Licensed as a Grade A Dairy

If your end goal is to sell dairy products such as cheese, yogurt, kefir, and ice cream, or pasteurized milk, your facility needs to be licensed as a Grade A dairy.

Getting licensed as a Grade A dairy requires even stricter adherence to state and federal legal requirements.  There are building codes and equipment standards, as well as paperwork and fees that must be filed correctly and paid in a timely manner.  Inspectors will need access to your facility for both scheduled and unannounced inspections.  Your local Department of Agriculture is an invaluable resource when you are navigating the licensing regulations.  Before meeting with them to discuss the steps you need to take become familiar with the minimum standards and regulations by downloading a copy of Grade A Pasteurized Milk Ordinance.

Bringing Home Your Dairy Goats

Once you believe you can adhere to your legal obligations, it is time to think about purchasing your dairy animals.  Goats are friendly creatures to have on the homestead and are a good choice for homesteaders with children.  As long as they are handled regularly, they remain gentle and relatively easy to train to come when you call.  Contrary to popular belief, they will not eat tin cans, yard art, or clothes hanging on the line, but they are curious and they do need an enclosed area.  The best fencing for goats is a portable, electrified woven-wire.  Because the fencing is portable, you are able to save time and money with rotational grazing on pasture.

Other than adequate fencing, goats—like every other grazing animal—need fresh air, sunlight, adequate forage, fresh water and shelter from the elements.  Goats are a herd animal, so you need more than one.  One person can manage, milk, and make cheese from ten goats, leaving enough time for all of the other responsibilities of running a homestead.

There are four things to consider when you are contemplating the type of shelter you will provide your herd.  First, the shelter needs to be adequately ventilated.  Proper ventilation will decrease the smell, flies, and illnesses that occur in a tightly closed area.  Goats are not fussy about their housing.  They mainly need a structure that will allow them a place to come in out of the rain or snow.

The second thing their shelter should provide is a bedded area that is dry and clean.  The deep-bedding system works well and is easily composted when you muck the bedded area.  If you smell ammonia when you walk into their shelter, you need to add more bedding.  A dry, clean area also cuts down on certain illnesses, including mastitis for lactating does.

Third, make sure your feeders and waterers are located in an area that is easy for you to service and does not allow for the possibility of contamination from animal wastes.

Finally, the shelter should be arranged with your needs in mind.  An efficient arrangement will minimize the amount of labor and time you will expend caring for your herd and keeping the facility clean.

Your milking area should be separate from the stable area.  You can milk the goats at ground level, but it is much more efficient and easier on you if you build a milking platform that is 15-18” higher than the ground.

Ensuring High-Quality Milk Production

Of course, does do not lactate until they have had kids.  That makes your breeding program an integral part of developing a successful micro-creamery.  Although does are able to breed as early as five months of age, it is best for the health of the doe and the lifelong milk- and meat-production of the herd, if you manage young does, to breed around seven months of age.  Goats have a gestation period of approximately five months, so you should stagger pregnancies over as wide a time span as possible in order to have a year-round supply of milk.

The success of kidding greatly affects the amount and quality of the milk produced.  To learn more about preparing for kidding season, see Goat Kidding Season — It’s No Joke.

Allow the does to nurse their kids on demand for three weeks.  After the third week, milk the does in the morning and allow the kids to nurse the remaining of the day.  At six weeks, milk the does twice a day.  Kids should be completely weaned at eight weeks and the does will continue to produce milk as long as you maintain a milking schedule.  To maintain high milk-production does need quality forages and supplemental grain at a rate of one pound feed per 3 pounds of milk.   The dietary energy provided by supplemental grains positively affects the yield, while the protein and fiber found in forages positively affect the quality of the milk.

Milking Your Goats

Thoroughly clean your hands, the milking area, and milking equipment before milking.  Prepare your goats before each milking with the dip, strip, and wipe technique to prevent high bacteria counts in your milk.  This begins with a teat dip, followed by squirting the initial stream of milk into a strip cup, and then wiping the udder to make sure it is clean.  Check the strip cup for any clumping, curdling, or off-smelling milk.

The milk must be chilled to 50 degrees Fahrenheit immediately upon milking.  The best way to do this is to pour the milk in a sterile container and place that container into a container of ice-water in the refrigerator.  Bacteria present in the milk multiplies rapidly unless chilled, so this step is extremely important for your creamery.

Not Ready to Start a Micro-Creamery?

If you are interested in working with dairy goats, but are not sure you want to start a full-fledged creamery at this point, there are other products you can make with goat milk that are under no legal vendor requirements.  These include soaps, lotions, caramel preserves, and candies. (Learn how to make milk soap here.)

If you are searching for ways to diversify your homestead and add to your bottom line, all while contributing to your local, sustainable food system, a micro-creamery might be for you.

The post Starting a Micro-Creamery on the Homestead appeared first on Homestead.org.

Plan

1. Review the previous year. What worked well last year? When you review, consider not only what grew well, but what was popular with customers. The opposite also applies. What did you struggle to grow?  Remember, time is the most important resource we have and if you spent the majority of it babying a crop, it may not be worth planting again. If something grew well but was not popular at the market, there are a few options to consider. First, you can decide not to grow it again. Second, you can turn it into a value-added product, or, third, you can donate the crop to a community food bank.

2. Start a new market journal. Record your garden plans now, and your successes and problems throughout the year. Keep track of miscellaneous market inventory, as well as sales when the market opens. If you are operating a virtual homestead, this journal is where you will jot down your username and password, as well as your editorial calendar. Writing down contact information for fellow homesteaders, clients, and local markets may seem unusual and unnecessary in the computer age, but it is a good habit to re-establish.

3. Pick one new product. There are so many varieties of fruits and vegetables, yet most market booths sell the same items. An easy way to stand out at the market is to offer something no one else does. Attracting people to your booth with a new item means more money. Even if they don’t buy the new item, they will almost assuredly buy something else on your table.

4. Think outside the box. Adding unique produce to your booth is important, but that’s just the beginning. Most people who shop at farmers’ markets are interested in the homesteading lifestyle, especially the gardening and cooking aspects. Create one or two products for this interest. Keep in mind that people who are interested in, but not dependent on, homesteading as a lifestyle are attracted to products that you may consider nice but unnecessary. Personalized garden tools are popular, as are stamped metal garden markers. Potted herb gardens and container salad gardens are also big sellers. If you sew, tea towels and potholders do well at markets, as do aprons. Homemade essential oils and bath products are always a hit. The key to making these items a profitable addition is to choose something you are already skilled at making and create an inventory during the winter. Spring and summer are always busy. If these types of craft items are not your main draw, you do not want to spend too much time working on them during the main market months.

5. Plan your booth. Marketing matters and even if you have the most beautiful veggies in town, you will lose customers if they are simply thrown on a table. When considering your display, think about height, colors, and textures. An interesting table will draw the eye and an organized table makes it easy for customers to shop. Every item should be labeled with the name and the price. Fun signage also includes little-known facts about the produce, and recipe cards are always a hit. Readability is key. If your penmanship looks like chicken scratch, print your signs and recipes from your computer and laminate them for continual usage.

Prepare

6. Walk your beds. Once you have a plan, spend time in the garden. Remembering the importance of rotating crops, decide where you will plant each item. For a more productive market garden, companion planting is the way to go, especially if you are in an urban setting and space is at a premium. Companion planting increases the variety of produce you can offer while protecting crops from common insects and diseases. Now that you have a plan for your garden beds, you can test the soil and add any necessary amendments. This is also a good time to rid the beds of weeds and lay down a layer of black plastic, which will not only prevent early spring weeds but will allow your soil to warm more quickly in the spring.

7. Care for your garden tools and containers. Although you don’t necessarily need to bleach out every garden container, it is a good idea to dump the soil and any plant material into your compost heap and wash the container with hot, soapy water. Set them in the sun to dry before stacking them to prevent mildew. Garden tools can be cleaned, sharpened, and repaired before using them again in the spring. Another important garden tool is your compost, which can be added to throughout winter. Make sure it is getting enough circulating air and, if you have worms in your bin, add extra brown compost material such as shredded straw or hay occasionally.

8. Prune brambles and fruit trees. Pruning back your fruit producers ensures a healthier and more productive harvest. This gives you a good opportunity to check the health of each bush and tree. Do any need to be replaced?  Is it time to add to your orchard?  Are you ready to add another variety?  If yes, where will that new variety go?

9. Winter is the time to build and repair. Raised beds make gardening so much easier – especially if you are gardening with a disability or in a small area. You can build your own beds from scrap lumber or purchase a kit from your local home and garden center. Repair any damaged trellises and construct cages for your tomato and pepper plants.

10. Seed inventory and selection. This is everyone’s favorite chore. Go through the seeds you have, throwing out any old seeds and making a list of the seeds you need. If you haven’t ordered your seed catalogs yet, do it now! Nothing makes spring seem closer than circling items in the seed catalog.

11. Make a garden timeline. Planting artichokes and eggplants? You are going to want to start them ten to twelve weeks before you put them out. Grab your calendar and find your hardiness zone and start counting backward from your last frost. You also want to note which of your plants are succession crops, and how many times you can sow them. Even if you have an excellent memory, I suggest marking the sowing dates on your calendar. Why not make things as easy on yourself as possible?

12. Build a growing shed. This can be a true outdoor shed, your garage, or a closet that has been emptied out. You can get as fancy as you want but your seeds basically need a light and heat source, as well as shelves that can accommodate your seed trays.

Plant

13. Using your garden calendar, start your seeds as appropriate. For example: start celery seeds 12 weeks before your last anticipated frost, pepper seeds four weeks after celery seeds, and eggplant two weeks after your pepper seeds. Label your trays, and be sure to give adequate moisture, heat, and light. When your plants have sprouted their true leaves, allow a fan to blow on them for a couple of hours each day to strengthen their stalks.

14. As soon as the temperature allows, repot your seedlings and harden them off in a protected area outside. It may seem like an unnecessary effort to repot seedlings into larger pots instead of simply putting them in the ground, but the success of each plant increases if the shock of transplant can be avoided.

15. These plants should be left to grow in their larger pots for a few weeks, then added to a greenhouse, or transplanted into your high tunnel. They can stay in their larger pots until you – and the frozen ground – are ready for spring planting.

The good news, as I said, is that spring is right around the corner. When you think about how quickly it will be here and how much work there is for you to do to prepare for it, the excitement of getting a jump-start on your market garden should replace the winter doldrums.

The post 15 Ways to Jump-start Your Market Garden appeared first on Homestead.org.

Boredom in adults is also very contrary to the boredom of which children complain.  When I was a young girl, complaining of boredom got me extra chores and the simple solution was to stay outside and try to conquer all the trees in the yard by climbing higher than I climbed the last time.  As a grown-up, chores can sometimes fill the whole day and steal away any opportunity for tree-climbing or even sitting in the tree-swing, and still, boredom can settle in the mind.  To me, there are few things worse than crawling under the covers at the end of a long, productive day and feeling restless.  When this has happened in the past, my typical solution was to pack up and move.  Extreme, yes, but we can all agree that moving and settling into a new place is anything but boring!

I have lived in almost all settings.  Small town, inner-city, suburbs, mountains, plains… you get the picture.  No place has been as satisfying as my current ultra-rural-deep-backwoods farm.  The work is hands-on and hard, everything we do requires planning and care, the animals and food crops need constant tending, the housework is a monster in and of itself.  There is always something to do.  If, for a moment, there is nothing to feed, water, weed, or clean, then surely something needs fixing.  Who could be bored in a lifestyle like this?  The same person that got bored living in a condo in downtown Atlanta, surrounded by culture, shopping, theater, and a million people, that’s who.  That’s because of what Webster says.  Boredom isn’t caused by a lack of to-do’s.  It’s the condition of being weary and restless because of dullness.  Having a clean kitchen is gratifying, but washing and drying the dishes three times a day is the epitome of dullness.

The antidote to boredom: fun.  The key is that you have to have fun, which means you make the excitement yourself, as opposed to entertainment, which means you sit idle and watch other people have fun.  This is my argument against watching television from the same perch on the sofa every evening.  As a remedy to my own restless nature and to prevent myself from experiencing the expression of boredom on the faces of my loved ones, I have educated myself on all types of homespun recreational activities.  An added bonus to some of these hobbies is that they produce something useful and can be used at home or sold off for extra cash.

Pressed Flowers

Scarlet O’Hara Morning Glories climb the steel posts that support my chicken-wire tomato trellises.  There are stalks of Gladiolus at opposite corners of the garden, and in one of the other sunnier corners is a bed of Snapdragon.  On my porch are paint pails full of Moss Roses, Cosmos, Petunias, and African Violets.  Dozens of flower species grow wild in the woods behind the house as well as honeysuckle, ferns, and of course, weeds, which sometimes can be rather pretty.  Delicate leaves can be pressed as well, and brilliant fall foliage makes a beautiful bouquet of muted warmth when dried and framed on the wall.

The correct way to press flowers involves purchasing blotting paper from a hobby store.  I refuse to do this since every time I go to the hobby store I find hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise that I believe I truly need, which I truly don’t.  Another good reason to avoid blotting paper is that I’ve found success without it.

My method is simple, taught to me by my grandma.  First step is to go outside and pick flowers.  Second, lay them flat between the pages of a newspaper or phone book.  Lastly, set some bricks, cinder blocks, or heavy rocks on top of the top layer of paper or books.  Forget about them for at least a couple of weeks and when you come back, they will be perfectly dry and flat and gorgeous.

Grandma used her dried flowers to beautify her home.  She would arrange her pressed bouquet on a piece of card stock bordered with ribbon, using a small dot of plain Elmer’s glue to hold her petals in place.  She would then pin her card to a scrap of the loveliest, most elegant fabric and place the whole ensemble under glass and in a frame for the wall.  Your flowers can also be used to decorate boxes, stationery, bookmarks, or albums.  I have used mine to embellish photo albums, candles and candle holders, and homemade paper.

Making Paper

This is one of the easiest tricks up my homemade sleeve.  It is easy and offers instant gratification, plus the country craft-store in town buys bundles at a time which puts a little money in the savings account as well.  My other favorite feature is that paper-making costs me nothing thanks to the free newspaper my community delivers to my mailbox every week.  If you don’t get a free paper delivered, check your local grocery store.  Most publishers put out at least one publication offered for free which is supported by advertising dollars.  The only items that may need to be purchased are rust-resistant screen material and two square feet of felt cut in half to make two one square foot pieces.

Making your own rustic and charming paper is probably easier than you would expect, and you probably have the supplies laying around the house right now.

I used the screen that was discarded out of an old screen-door because it was torn in its old age.  I didn’t have felt, so I cut up an old, heavy knit sweater that I wouldn’t wear anymore and that sort of reminded me of the texture of felt; it works fine.  The other equipment I use is my blender, a 9×13 glass baking dish, measuring cup, a rolling pin, a sauce-pan, and various natural dyes and pressed flowers.  I would advise gathering all the ingredients and equipment before you begin the process.  You don’t want to have to slop paper-pulp all around the kitchen while searching for your rolling pin.  Set your baking dish next to your blender, and then set a few layers of newspaper next to that.  On top of the newspaper goes one of the sheets of felt or felt-like fabric.  You’ll need another pile of newspaper and fabric just like that one.

I cut the screen into the size of the paper products I wanted to make because I like the rough look of the edge of the homemade paper and didn’t want to have to cut the bigger pieces into smaller sizes for cards and labels.  I used a business card as a stencil for one so that I can make small cards for labeling soap, baskets, and the bundles of paper that go to the country craft store.  I also cut 3×5 and 4×6 screen rectangles to make cards and invitations.  Also, I made a couple standard 9×11 sheets of screen for making writing paper.

You can cut screens to make various-sized pieces for cards, gift tags, invitations, or whatever your heart desires.

To begin, you’ll need to set a cup of water on the stove-top to simmer, or warm it in the microwave to almost boiling.  In the blender, you’ll add about a half a cup of newspaper, ripped up into small pieces or shreds.  I think the newspaper is easier to measure when it’s ripped into pieces rather than shredded.  Add the hot water to the blender and hold the lid on tight while you blend.  You’ll continue blending on whichever speed you like until the material is the consistency of very thick, pulpy orange juice.  Pour the paper pulp into the baking dish and wash the blender right away.  You don’t want to let the pulp dry in the nooks and crannies of the blending mechanism.

When the pulp is cool enough to touch, set your screen cut-outs on top of it, then sort of fiddle with the screen until they’re covered by pulp in an even layer.  The next step is the only one that requires some delicacy.  You want to lift the screen straight up out of the pulp without disturbing the thin, even layer of pulp.  To do this you want to get your fingers under the screen and lift up.  The first few times you do this, you may find bare spots on the screen where pulp slid off.  Just re-immerse the screen and fiddle with it a little more to re-distribute the pulp.  Pretty soon you’ll have it down pat.  When you lift your screen and find a pretty even layer of pulp, (small holes can be fixed by sort of rearranging the pulp with the tip of your finger) you want to hold it still over the baking dish to let as much of the excess water drip away from the screen.  Next, you’ll gently lay the screen, pulp side up, on the first pile of newspaper and felt.  You then layer the next piece of felt directly onto the top of the pile and add the second pile of newspaper on that.  Roll the whole mound with the rolling pin to roll out the excess water.

At this point you have some options.  You can leave the whole damp heap there to dry on its own; you’ll want to check on it in about twenty-four hours.  I don’t like to leave it on the counter that long, so when I make paper I remove the top layer of newspaper and fabric at this point and shoot it for a few minutes with my hair-dryer.  Then I set it in the sun for about an hour.  The sun also bleaches the paper to a lighter shade of gray.

Handmade paper is easy enough to dye if pale gray doesn’t suit your style.  Natural dyes can be made from onions, tea, coffee, acorns, Queen Anne’s Lace, Lily of The Valley, and various other plants and nuts.  Food coloring can be used as well, sparingly.  You can also use your pressed flowers in the pulp to decorate your paper.  As a special gift, a pressed flower and homemade paper bookmark can be made to include hardy flower seeds.  Sprinkle the seeds onto the pulp at the beginning of the speedier drying process and include instructions to plant the whole sheet when the book is finished.

Making Soap

There are as many variations on soapmaking as there are soap makers.  The trick to being successful in making your own is to be very careful and very patient until you find a method that works for you.  Understanding the best way to make your own system—in all areas of life as well as crafting soap—is to understand the fundamental components required of you, and to decide on how simple or complicated you like things.  Entire books have been written on soapmaking, so for our intents and purposes, I will plainly explain my approach.

The colors, scents, and shapes of your homemade soaps can be limited only by your imagination.

Soap is comprised of lye, fat, and water.  I’m a bit of a purist, and I love making useful things out of seemingly useless items, so I gather these things for free as best I can.  Keeping in mind that nothing is ever truly free, of course.

My lye is potash lye, made from the wood ashes that I collect from the fireplace that heats our entire home.  Lye produced this way creates a softer substance than commercial lye, which in turn makes a softer soap, which I like.  I also like that potash lye is a bit less caustic than commercial lye.  It’s still dangerous stuff though.

To make lye, you need a wooden barrel, cinder blocks or something to set the barrel up on, some dry straw and of course, the wood ashes.  You set the barrel up on blocks and drill a hole near the bottom so the lye can drain out into a container.  Because lye is caustic, it will react with plastic, aluminum, and tin.  It is important for your own safety to not use containers or utensils made with these materials.  The lye in the wooden barrel can safely seep into a jug made of glass, enamel, stainless steel, ceramic, or, of course, wood.

Once your barrel is properly set up so that the lye has a safe place to trickle into, you put a couple of inches worth of straw in the bottom of the barrel to act as a filter, and then add the wood ash on top.  Try to get as much ash into the barrel as you can, it makes for a higher concentration of lye.  Next, you add boiling water.  It is imperative that you use soft water.  I use a rainwater catchment system, but in a drought, you can use tap water with a bit of borax added to it.  The process will take some time.  Freely add more water to the top of the wood ashes when it is all gone.  You can also add more wood ashes on top of the old to continue lye production.

Next, you need fat.  We roast at least one pig every year, so I use pig fat.  The kind of fat you use is ultimately what gives your soap its quality.  This should be experimented with; different combinations of various fats and oils will give you different textures and lathering capacity.  The important thing to remember is that the fat must be properly treated; rendered and clarified; to make the purest soaps.

Embed herbs or dried flowers into your soap for something really special.

To render fat, simply cut it into small pieces and melt it over low heat.  Then strain it into a container, it can be refrigerated.  To clarify, place the fat and an equal amount of water in your pot over heat.  Add 2 tablespoons of salt and bring the mixture to a boil, then immediately remove from the fire.  Cool to a simmer, and then add cold water.  You want about a quart of cold water per gallon of the fat/water mixture.  You will witness a separation of the components.  Pure fat will rise to the top of the liquid; this is what you will spoon off for your soap.

Now you’ve got your ingredients ready, the process speeds up some, but not much.  Lye is naturally hot, and the fat will be cold, and you need to bring them both to between 95 and 98 degrees.  The best way to do this is by setting their containers in separate basins and adding either hot or cold water to their baths.  Begin stirring the fat with a wooden spoon, then add the lye in an even stream while stirring.  The lye will heat the fat.  The concoction will change color from opaque to a brown, then it will lighten.  You’re looking for the texture of sour cream.  It will be ready when the brew can support a dollop from the spoon for a moment.  At this point you can add dyes or essential oils for scents if you like, then you will pour the brew into a prepared mold.

Let your environment inspire you.  This chamomile-bergamot soap has colors as vibrant as it’s smell.  Use a skewer or a toothpick to swirl small pools of different colored soap to make a tie-dyed look.

Anything will work as a mold as long as it can hold its shape.  To make things easier on yourself in the future, you may want to line the mold with Vaseline or plastic.  You can also suspend your dried flowers in the liquid at this point for color.  Cover the mold with an insulating material such as newspaper, cardboard, and blankets for 24 hours.  You will then remove the soap from the mold wearing rubber gloves and place it on a wooden surface to air for about a month.

Now all you need is a piece of twine and a handmade paper card to label that bar of soap!

Rhonda Piatt of Hermann, MO owns and operates Theodora Soaps.  She sells her soap online and at her local farmers market.  The method I’ve given you is not as fancy as hers, and the beautiful photos of soap are provided by her.

~~~~~~~~~~

https://www.homestead.org/fruits/homemade-applesauce-accept-no-substitutes/

The post Avoiding Homestead Burnout appeared first on Homestead.org.

Before you choose a platform for your virtual homestead, you need to decide what you will sell.  The items you will sell and ship nationally – even internationally – should be consistent with your core values as a homesteader.  For example, if you believe in the health and environmental benefits of local food, shipping food across the country is not consistent with your values.  Although homemade food is the first thing that comes to mind when we think of homesteading, there are plenty of other things you can sell to create a livable income.

Although you may eventually expand your virtual homestead to multiple platforms, when getting started it is best to pick one platform and no more than three social media sites for marketing.  The goal is to make life easier, not more difficult, and managing multiple sites while managing a homestead is going to be difficult.  Pick your platform and commit to it for at least six months.  In six months, you will have a good idea of what is working and what isn’t.

If you decide to sell a physical product, such as knitted winterwear, quilts, or candles, make sure you enjoy the work.  You will be doing quite a lot of it.  You can also create one-and-done products.  These are items you create once and they continue to sell without any further work on your part, giving you passive income.

Imagine you have sheep on your homestead and you already sell cheese and knitted scarves and gloves at the local farmers market.  To increase your reach, you can sell your knitted items in a virtual storefront, as well as raw wool and knitting patterns.  Later, you can create a monthly subscription box filled with project instructions and enough fiber to complete the project.  You could also create an ebook of multiple patterns.  The physical items take more time but act to draw customers who will purchase your digital items.

The same idea can work for a small homestead.  Even apartment homesteaders can create a small but beautifully designed cookbook or write a field guide on wild edibles.  Candles can be made in small spaces, as can bath and body products.  Any physical product can become a monthly subscription package or a digital DIY instruction booklet.

Once you decide on your inventory, pick a platform.  There are so many virtual storefronts that it would be impossible for me to review each one here.  There are some general considerations, however, that will help you choose the best platform for your situation.  The main considerations fall into three main categories: cost, customer service, and competition.

Cost considerations include both upfront and hidden fees, the amount the site receives for each sale, and whether they have special mailing rates.  Customer service is important, especially when you are just getting started and may need help navigating the site.  Do not rely on what the site says regarding customer service.  They are always going to say their service is wonderful.  Read the reviews posted by other users.  Of course, there will always be disgruntled users.  A true issue will be repeated in multiple reviews.  Finally, competition is fierce.  It isn’t easy to get noticed on sites like Amazon.  Even Etsy has grown so much that you really need to find a way to stand out from the crowd.  With a terrific product and consistent marketing, it is not impossible, but it will take a fair amount of work.

Marketing is where you will spend the majority of your time and resources.  To earn a living, it is not enough to slap an announcement up on Facebook and try to sell to your friends and family.  You must find a way to reach people outside your circle.  There are plenty of marketing books that will give you a solid foundation to start from.

Marketing gets a bad rap because so many people are trying to sell things that offer no value.  Selling worthless products or recycled ideas requires a lot of hype and many homesteaders are reluctant to do this.  Marketing doesn’t have to make you cringe.  In fact, it shouldn’t.  Stop thinking about marketing as a way to make money and start thinking about it as a way to build relationships.  In the same way that you relate to your family, friends, and farm animals, you should relate to your potential customers.  Go back to your business goals and rework them until you find the relational aspect.  Do you want to spread the values of the homesteading lifestyle to as many people as possible? Or do you want to inspire a certain demographic, such as women or young people?  Having a goal based on building relationships and providing value is much more effective than a goal to simply make money.

One of the best ways to build relationships is through a blog.  People want to get to know you.  If blogging about your entire homestead seems overwhelming, blog specifically about the products you are selling.  You can write about the inspiration for your product, the materials, the creative process, and the DIY instructions.  While you will follow a template for a cohesive and reader-friendly blog, the key to success is to be yourself.  It’s irritating to read the same advice, written in the same tone, on every homesteading blog.  Remember, you do not want to sell to everyone in the world.  This is not feasible, and even if it were, it would not be sustainable.  Your goal is to find a core group of people who truly like you and appreciate the work you do.  This can only be accomplished through authenticity.  Be yourself.  Your people will find you.

Returning to the earlier examples, if you are the sheep farmer who has started selling physical and digital products online, now you can blog about it.  Include lots of photos of your sheep and of you caring for your animals and creating your products.  Consider creating the occasional video or a funny post about a day in the life of a sheep farmer.  At the end of each new blog post, engage your readers by asking a question.  Include a link to your storefront. Once you publish your post, don’t forget to post it to your social media pages.  Remember, you are building relationships with people.  Your storefront is where you sell items.  Your blog is where you add value to the lives of your readers.

Adding a virtual component to your homestead is something anyone can do, regardless of where they live or what type of homesteading activities they do.  The time required is greatly outweighed by the increase in exposure, new friends, increased knowledge, potential opportunities, and higher income.  The low risk and high reward make this a perfect homesteading project.

The post Your Virtual Homestead appeared first on Homestead.org.

Most people have heard of their local farmers’ markets and many have even visited them relatively often.  These are great places to buy fresh produce; because of this, they are also the most obvious place for a homesteader to market some of their excess products.  Farmers’ markets are known for vegetables and produce.  Many also sell fresh eggs, cheese, even homemade soaps.

Many of these products do not require refrigeration, however, some do.  If the items being sold require refrigeration, then the seller needs to find a way to keep these products in the cold while at the market.  Be sure to check your state’s regulations concerning the packing of refrigerated items such as eggs and cheese.

If you don’t know the location of a farmers’ market in your area, check with your local town hall, chamber of commerce, or state extension office, they should have this information available.

Many producers will sell through multiple farmers’ markets by finding markets within a 50-mile area that meet on different days and in various locations.  This allows the producer to decide what product sells best in which areas and provide items according to the best results at each market.  In turn, this increases their selling potential.

A modern variation of the farmers’ market has become available in some areas, aiding the savvy producer looking for ways to market produce without ever leaving their homesteads.

CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) are becoming very popular among those trying to make a go at selling their produce. CSAs offer the producer a relationship with the buyer; in short, it is a small-scale closed market.  The producer offers a type of subscription service to buyers, where the buyer pays an upfront fee or contracts for a weekly or monthly group of products produced on the farm.  The buyer makes a financial commitment to the homestead producer for the season.  Usually, the fee is paid upfront, although on occasion it can be arranged in a payment form.  The producer has a list of what products he plans to have available, how much he expects to have, and how often he will have them.

The CSA season is basically the same time frame as that of the farmer’s markets: from spring through the early fall.  CSAs offer a great benefit to both the producer and the buyer: the producer knows how much and what kind of products he needs to produce to meet the agreement and he also knows what his income from it will be, while the buyer gets fresh produce and the opportunity to get it at a better price than he would if he were paying a middleman on top of the producer’s price.  There are even a few CSAs where the buyer is required to invest actual work hours on the homestead working with the producer.  In recent years the popularity of CSAs has grown astronomically, becoming one of the preferred ways of marketing and obtaining freshly produced products.

Another way for the energetic homesteader to market his products is through the use of food co-ops.  A food co-op is simply a grocery-store-type organization arranged as a cooperative to bring fresh locally grown produce to the buyer’s front door.  Most food co-ops are organized by state or region.  Food co-ops require that producers join the co-op and usually require them to spend a few hours in volunteer service once a month to make sure the products are put together properly and ready for delivery to the buyers.  The co-op often has a website and newsletter system that lists each product available through the co-op and the price that each producer requires for the purchase of their product.  The buyer selects the product he wants and which buyer he wishes to purchase it from.

Basically, they turn in their grocery list and the co-op sends out a statement to the producers of what they have sold that month.  The producers then must have their products packaged and delivered to the co-op location on a scheduled date.  The co-op then puts the order together from each buyer and meets the buyer on that date to deliver the items ordered.

This particular option allows the producer the same type of options open to him as a farmers’ market but allows for a wider area of market coverage.  It is also a little easier to market meat products in this fashion because meat products are much harder to maintain at a farmers’ market than when kept in storage at the homestead and delivered once a month to a predestined location.

Food co-ops are most often listed through agriculture services and other types of local cooperative newsletters.  You can also do a search for a food cooperative in your area.

As a producer, the food co-op will have a list of requirements and laws that they must meet in order to market their products through the co-op.  These are most often the same rules and regulations that are needed to sell through a farmers’ market.  An example of these regulations would be only marketing meat products that are packaged by a state-inspected or USDA-inspected facility.  Many states require producers selling eggs to apply for an egg license; there are labeling requirements made by states and the USDA for all products produced by even the smallest homesteader.  Don’t fear these requirements—most are easy to attain and often only require weight, producing farm name and address information printed on the product’s label.

In recent years, a desire for fresh and organically grown produce has encouraged the start of small old-time grocers that only market local, organic products in their stores.  Often, some types of health and vitamin stores will also offer a small selection of these organic products as well.  Many of these stores have such a demand for free-range chicken eggs that they will purchase all that local producers can supply.  These particular markets have many return customers that develop preferences for particular products grown by certain local growers and will ask the stores to keep a good supply of those favorite products.

This does open up a market using a middleman between the producer and the buyer, however, while the producer may get a little less for the individual products, the need for more products often makes up for this loss in initial profit.  These markets can offer the producer a better deal than you might expect.  Because they purchase so many of the producer’s products they are often a considerable source of steady income.  Most of these markets have such a loyal customer base that they use mailing lists and email alerts to inform their regular customers when products come in.  This can help the producer when selling products through the market; it means if the producer has some products that are rare or very seasonal the store will alert their customers as soon as these items have come in and the results will be quick sales.

These markets are gaining in popularity and springing up in many locations.  You can search for these stores in your area just by looking through the telephone book and making a few calls.  It might surprise you how many of these markets would be interested in your products.  Some of these markets are also interested in marketing homemade farm crafts as well.  There are even a few that might have an interest in the tops of pines you cut out at Christmas time.  Remember, these markets value the relationships that they form with producers and can develop an interest in other types of products from familiar producers over time.

Possibly the largest, newest and easiest way to market homestead products is the most unused by producers: the internet.  The internet has opened the possibility to even the smallest homesteader of a worldwide market for their products.  Many start out simply: they put a few items up on auction sites such as eBay.  However, eBay is just the tip of the internet iceberg for the enterprising homestead producer.  All eBay patrons have the option to open an online store selling items through eBay.  This would not necessarily cover fresh produce, but to some extent, it does apply.  Pecans, walnuts, and seeds are fresh products that can be sold through that particular framework.  However, crafts and similar items are the products most easily offered in this manner.

The internet is large enough that it offers many more opportunities to the opportunistic homesteader.  There are several sites on the internet devoted to fresh, organic producers.  Localharvest.org is one such site.  These sites can be a shot in the arm for the small producer trying to make a go at self-sufficiency on the homestead.  They list many of the local CSA growers and farmers’ market locations, but the biggest and best thing they offer is free advertising for each producer.  They provide a list that is free for you to register your farm and the products that you raise and produce.  They have search engines that allow the buyer to search for producers close to their home areas.  They also have a large supply of information available concerning ways to grow and market products.

Localharvest.org offers special support to producers that opens the market to a greater degree.  They have an online store for producers to list products they have available for online purchase.  The website currently lists over 5,000 products available in this manner.  It is possible to market wool, soap, dairy, meats, seeds, specialty herbs, teas, preserves, fruits, nuts, processed foods, tinctures, cut flowers, syrups, crafts, and even pet needs here.  This can be a great service to all producers, but through this website, even the smallest producer gets a chance to market products of all kinds produced on the family homestead.

The last marketing area can be managed by the homesteader himself.  Many homesteads develop their own website on the internet for the sole purpose of marketing their products to a worldwide market all by themselves.  Whether you design a website yourself or use a pre-formed template, a little general computer knowledge is all that is needed to accomplish this.  Many producers use pictures as well as words to help market their products.  Pictures allow the seller to showcase their many products available for purchase at different stages.  If a homesteader wants to market free-range chicken eggs, for example, they can use photos as a tool.  When buyers see photos of chickens moving around a homestead, free from cages and eating any insects they find, they know that the producing hens are not caged and eating processed arsenic.  Next, the producer shows the eggs for sale in a basket or carton.  This makes the personal website a dual marketing tool; not only is it offering products that the producer has for sale, but it also allows the buyer to feel a real connection to that producer.

Selling products in this manner makes it very easy to collect from buyers via electronic payments.  Entities like PayPal make it easy for producers to collect upfront payments for the sold products much faster than the traditional postal system.  As far as delivery goes, the producers will need to offer mail service for goods sold over a great distance or arrange a monthly meeting place for buyers to collect their purchases.  Websites are a smart option for a producer, even if he does not make items available for purchase through the site itself.  Customers that purchase items from producers in the ways previously listed still enjoy making a personal connection with the producer through the website photos and statements.

The key to selling homestead products is to check into each of the marketing options previously discussed.  Find the one or more that best fits you and your homestead, then plan on marketing the products you have through these options.  Inspecting the items that other producers have for sale in these areas can also sometimes help to jump-start an idea of a new product to market that is available on your homestead – one that you might not have thought of before.  The truly enterprising homesteader is not only always looking for a way to market the products they produce, but also looking for new and better items to market.  Becoming self-sufficient usually means being diverse in not only production but in marketing as well.  Give it a try—you might be surprised at just how well you do.

The post Marketing Homestead Products appeared first on Homestead.org.

It was June, almost ten bee seasons ago, and Steve and a friend were moving an established hive of bees into my backyard.  The bees were amassed against the screened-in front of the hive.  Having been confined overnight, the buzzing ball of fury was eager to get out.  My heart was pounding!  What had I gotten myself into now?  Would I ever be able to go into my own backyard again without being stung to death?

I had just traded a summer’s worth of Saturdays in beekeeping labor for this hive.  However, I’d assumed the hive would come at the end of the summer, when I was a little more experienced, instead of the day after we made the deal!  Steve later told me that he’d wanted to get that hive into my backyard before I could change my mind about helping him all summer.

When he’d settled the hive into place, Steve looked around my backyard and smiled.  “You’ve got yourself a little farm here!” he said with obvious admiration.  At the time, I lived in town on less than 1/4 acre.  I’d established tall hedges and plantings around the perimeter of the backyard so the neighbors couldn’t tell what shenanigans I was up to.  (The picture above is of this backyard in early spring. You are looking at a beehive, a chicken coop, and a fenced garden area.)

I was taking Joel Salatin’s advice literally.  In his book, You Can Farm, he said, “Don’t worry about the zoning ordinances—they’re just there for when people complain.”  I had a large garden, a small chicken coop with six laying hens, and now a hive of bees all crammed into my backyard!  It would still be three more years and three more beehives before I moved my growing menagerie out into the country on the twelve acres I have now, but even back then, I was already a homesteader.

You can be too!  Today, right now, you can begin to realize and grow into your dream.  You don’t have to wait until you have the money or the land.  You can begin now to fill up whatever pot you’re currently planted in and bloom furiously until that pot is overflowing and you move on to a bigger pot.  You can begin producing things now to meet your own needs and to reduce the amount of money going out of your household.  Reducing the amount of money going out is critical to increasing the amount of time you have to put into your endeavor and minimizing the amount of time you spend working elsewhere.

To ensure that you’re successful, you’ll want to treat homesteading like starting a small business and follow some sound financial principals, including paying yourself first in the goods and services you produce and avoiding the pitfalls of new business startups.  The U.S. Small Business Administration reports these reasons why small businesses fail:

• Lack of experience
• Insufficient capital (money)
• Poor location
• Poor inventory management
• Over-investment in fixed assets
• Poor credit arrangement management
• Personal use of business funds
• Unexpected growth

By starting out small, right where you are, and growing into your homestead, you can avoid these pitfalls.  Let’s discuss how.

Lack of experience, the first pitfall, can be a blessing in disguise.  Lack of experience means that you have lots to learn and lots to keep you busy while you pine away and save for that little piece of eden in the countryside.  Start by planting a garden, either in your own small yard, a community garden, or any place nearby that you can talk someone into letting you use.  It’s amazing how little space it actually takes to produce a fair amount of food, and it’s a good training ground.

Some of the skills you will acquire while learning to garden include growing food; canning, freezing, dehydrating, and cooking food; building a rainwater catch-system; fencing; and maybe even marketing your excess vegetables.

You have lots of resources to help you learn.  This site, Homestead.org, is a wealth of information and inspiration.  Another great site is Tendingmygarden.com by Theresa Martz.  Out of necessity, Theresa has fed herself and her artist husband their whole lives from her garden.  She is a master at keeping costs down—a recurring theme in all her advice.  Theresa has broken gardening down into three key steps: loosening the soil deeply, adding organic materials, and keeping the soil mulched.

Visit successful gardens, apprentice yourself out as I did with beekeeping, and start gaining practical experience.  Your vegetables will taste like nothing you’ve ever bought in a grocery store.

With gardening under your belt, if you are a true homesteader, you will soon find yourself thinking of other types of food production: perhaps half a dozen laying hens, rabbits, or a couple of beehives in the backyard or next to the community garden.  Again, Homestead.org has lots of information to get you headed in the right direction.  So does a great and practical life-long farmer named Gene Logsdon.  He has a weekly well-indexed blog and has written multiple books on all aspects of homesteading.  Your research will turn up many more resources.

Beyond food production, homesteading involves learning to provide or barter for many of your own goods and services.  Use this time to gain new skills to first provide for your own needs, thus keeping money in the household.  As you become more accomplished, you can then use these skills to also provide income by selling or trading your goods, services, or know-how to others.

Making Your Homestead Pay… with Skills

If you’re right for homesteading, you will find joy in the time you spend learning new skills.  In the years before I moved to the country, here are just a few of the skills, other than gardening and producing honey, that I learned and how they are now paying off, either in savings or in income:

Fencing.  Setting my own fence posts and stretching garden fencing saved me a lot of money.  I also learned how to add a hot-wire along the bottom to discourage raccoons and possums from climbing the fence to eat my produce or from slipping into my chicken coop at night.  Later I used these skills to fence the goats out of my garden and to do my own cross-fencing in the pastures.  Fence repair and maintenance is now a recurring January chore.

Using both hand and power tools for basic carpentry.  I have since used those skills to build a chicken coop, two three-sided goat sheds, and put together countless beehives, a goat stanchion, and sleeping platforms for the goats.

Providing my own firewood.  I learned to safely use a chainsaw, maul, axe, and hatchet to cut and split firewood, at first by helping a friend prepare his woodpile for winter.  Now I have a wood splitter and wood provides all my heating, saving hundreds of dollars every winter.

Simple plumbing and home repairs.  Knowing how to fix a leaky toilet or faucet saves a lot of money in not having to call a plumber or repair person.

Soapmaking.  It’s a fun thing to do on a winter’s day.  With all the competition in my area, I haven’t tried to sell my soap, but it does save me money in providing for my own needs and in gift giving on birthdays and holidays.  Everyone loves handmade soap.

Mead making.  Of course, selling this would land me in jail, but providing for my own needs is legal and saves a lot of money!

Beeswax rendering.  I sell beeswax candles at my farm booth and also one-ounce beeswax bars to local crafters.

Marketing.  I have learned how to attract customers to a farm stand and a booth at local farmers markets where I sell honey, beeswax products, garlic, and pumpkins.

Learning new skills is never-ending and no doubt you can add many more things that you want to learn to this list.  The list continues to grow since I have moved to my land.  I am still learning about growing and marketing my goat herd and am just beginning to educate myself in using solar energy.  Recently I installed a solar panel to energize my electric fencing.  I can think of many more uses for solar in the future.

Making Your Homestead Pay… by Saving

Insufficient capital (money) is one pitfall that can also be a blessing.  You can’t be tempted to spend money you don’t have before you know what you’re doing or whether you even really want to do it.  Your projects will have to pay for themselves as you go.  In the beginning, this means the savings you will realize in producing rather than buying to meet your needs.  This is a version of the “pay yourself first” principle.

The most obvious way to make your homestead pay you first is by producing most of your own food.  Planting a garden will produce food that tastes good and is good for you.  In time, it will save you money at the grocery store.  You will learn what to produce in your area, to eat in season, and how to preserve food for winter.  You will discover whether you have what it takes or even want to have what it takes before you make the leap into buying land or moving to the country.  In time, if you enjoy it and are persistent, your garden will grow and most of what you eat will come from the garden.  If you really love it, you may expand into market gardening and produce enough to sell.

If you’ve outgrown your pot, but still don’t have the capital to buy your own land, renting land for livestock or a market garden is a lot cheaper, the cost can be covered by what you produce, and you may be able to make money.  I have more people who have offered me space on their land for beehives than I can keep up with.

Poor location.  Gaining experience where you are will take care of this pitfall when looking for land.  You will have time to learn what good soil and pastures look like, what kind of water sources you have for your gardens and livestock, how far you are from potential markets, and whether there are problems in the neighborhood.

Poor inventory management is less of a problem with homesteading; however, letting vegetables rot in the field because you don’t have a market for them or time to tend them can be a problem.  Likewise buying a herd of livestock in the fall and having to buy feed all winter is also a waste of money.  Growing slowly, whether from a small garden to a bigger garden or in growing your own herd slowly, starting with a handful of healthy animals, will ensure that your ability to deal with what you produce grows with your production.

Over-investment in fixed assets means land payments, houses, barns, or big equipment that you can’t afford and that your homestead income will never cover.

Poor credit arrangement or management.  Stay out of debt!  Yes you have to live somewhere and most people have to have a mortgage or pay rent, but beyond that do not borrow money to pay for any farming or homesteading enterprise.  Grow into it and pay as you go.

Personal use of business funds.  In the beginning, the money you make on your homestead will most likely go into your next project and to growth.  But if you are staying out of debt, what you make is yours to do with as you please.  Homesteading is about quality of life as much as it is making an income.

Making Your Homestead Pay… By Taking It Slow

Unexpected growth can be a big problem in homesteading.  Every year, I produce a little more honey than the year before, but every year I have more and more demand.  I can’t keep up.  In the beginning, I had to go to three local farmers markets to sell it all.  I have pared my markets down to one, but this year I already have a waiting list of customers and may sell it all from the farm.  Others who produce quality products have the same problem when the word gets out.  At one farmer’s market, I met a couple who sells pasture-raised, non-GMO beef from Red Devons and are slowly growing their herd.  The meat is the best I’ve ever tasted.  After only five years, they cannot keep up with demand for this delicious product.

This is where many who have been successful make a big mistake.  They try to grow too fast, to meet the demand at all costs, cut corners, buy for resale, or over-invest in the next level before they are ready.  The quality of the product slips, and quality, along with your good name, is what you really have going for you as a homesteader.  Quality is why your customers want what you have and are willing to pay a little more for it.  If you can grow without going into debt or letting quality slip, do it.  Otherwise, start a waiting list of customers.

OK, you’ve grown slowly and you’ve avoided the pitfalls.  Now you have several options.  Maybe you’ve decided the work is too much and that homesteading is not for you.  In that case, you’ve eaten some really good food, learned a ton of useful skills, and learned something valuable about yourself without going broke or investing all of your savings in an enterprise doomed to failure.  A win.  Or maybe you’re content where you are and decide to stay put.  You like your life, enjoy good food, know how to do things for yourself, and have some extra money to spend on other things you might enjoy.  Another win.

Or, like me, you may find yourself still enthusiastic, bursting at the seams, and chomping at the bit to make the move to the country and a few acres where you can spread out further.  You’re finally ready to make the move.  If you have arrived at this point by outgrowing each previous step and by growing into each next step, you already know you will be successful.  You know you are doing exactly what is right for you!

Go for it!  After the move, continue growing slowly and paying yourself first.  The food and goods you produce on your homestead are of the highest quality and you deserve the first fruits of your hard labor.  Savor them.  Take the long view and enjoy the journey.  You’ve earned it.  If you continue in this slow, deliberate way, in a few short years, you will look back in amazement at what you have accomplished and better still, you will be living the life you love.

The post Making Your Homestead Pay… You First! appeared first on Homestead.org.

Before you decide which homestead hustle is right for you, it is important to take inventory of your farm, your lifestyle, and your needs. A vegetable CSA does not make sense if you only have an interest in growing a small herb garden. What would make sense is a line of herbal products priced at a premium and sold to customers interested in herbal health. If your lifestyle is filled with off-the-farm obligations, raising livestock is probably not feasible for you. You can take time out to create an online homesteading course teaching any skill you are proficient at and create a passive income stream. The less you need material-wise, the less income you need to generate. Take inventory and plan accordingly.

The easiest way to be successful at product creation and marketing is to stick with a theme. For example, if you have a small goat-farm, sell as many goat-related products as possible and avoid adding random items to your product line. Selling items that are naturally related makes sense to your customer, costs less for you to produce, and lends itself to meaningful marketing and branding.

Once you decide how you are going to make money from your homestead, you need to create a pricing plan. It is so easy to undercharge for your products that I find it best to follow a pricing formula and stick with it. Of course, there are people who will say you charge too much and not buy your products. Understand that is a fact of life—don’t take it personally and make a living wage. No other business is as consistently undervalued and I think it is because we undervalue ourselves.

With the basics out of the way, maybe you are still at a loss at what homestead hustle you should start. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of options. The following list is just a jumping-off point. As you read through these ideas, you are sure to come up with more.

Farm Birds

All-Natural Chicken: Organic, all-natural meat is in demand and everyone eats chicken. In order to make money from this enterprise, you need a fairly large flock of birds and an incubator. Incubate eggs regularly so you always have birds at butchering age. Once people start expecting chicken from you, you don’t want to disappoint them.

Smaller Birds: Pigeon and quail are smaller, but highly desirable, birds. This means they require less space, reach butchering size in six to eight weeks, and command more money from the market. Simple coops and a flying enclosure is enough to get you started. While your regular customers will occasionally buy quail or squab, restaurants are where you will get the most bang for your buck with these birds.

Water Fowl: Ducks and geese are popular and profitable around the holidays. Free-range foragers command a premium price. Because they are big sellers around holidays, it is more successful to market them months before they are ready and take orders—and deposits.

Heritage Turkeys: Another holiday option. Again, take orders for Thanksgiving turkeys well before the holiday. You can increase profits by smoking the turkey and delivering it ready to eat, or by creating an entire Thanksgiving CSA box around the heritage turkey.

Eggs: If you have birds on your farmstead but are not ready or willing to butcher them, eggs are a viable source of income. Farm-fresh chicken eggs are popular at farmers’ markets while quail eggs are sought after by chefs. Because duck eggs are excellent for baking, market them to local bakeries.

Feathers: Another no-kill option for your farm birds are their feathers. Birds molt and you can make money by turning their most beautiful feathers into earrings and keychains. I was dubious, but earrings made with quail feathers sell extremely well at my local farmers’ and craft markets. Everyone is looking for unique items, and this one fits the bill perfectly.

Small Livestock

Rabbit Meat: Starting your own rabbitry is a relatively inexpensive venture any size homestead can support—even urban homesteads. Rabbits are small and quiet. They reproduce quickly which makes them an efficient money maker. Rabbit meat is popular with traditional customers as well as with chefs who are looking for an organic, farm to table meat to feature on their menus. Double your income with rabbits by tanning the skins and selling their pelts. Double that by turning those pelts into gloves or lap blankets. Rabbit poo is a popular product with gardeners.

Goat Meat: Goat meat is becoming more popular in the United States but it hasn’t quite found a place on everyone’s dinner table yet. I’ve found the most profitable way to sell goat meat is to the local ethnic market. The Hispanic and Muslim population celebrate several holidays with goat meat. Make some inquiries, adjust your breeding practices so that the goat kidding season will come at the right time, and be sure to ask the buyers’ requirements for purchase. Many cultures like to butcher their animals themselves, and some do not like the kids to be debudded.

Sheep Meat (Mutton): Sheep meat, or mutton, is a specialty item that can be sold through traditional means in the spring and year-round to restaurants. As with goats, increase your income from meat sheep by tanning and selling their pelts.

Dairy Products: If you want goats or sheep but are operating a no-kill homestead, they can still be a profitable side hustle. Goat milk is delicious and much easier for many people to digest. If you have ever had to purchase any at the grocery store you know it sells for a pretty penny. Goat milk and sheep milk can be made into cheese, and goat milk makes a traditional Mexican caramel called cajeta that is simple to make at home. Milk can also be used to make milk soaps and lotions which are wildly popular at farmers’ markets, craft fairs, and online.

Fiber: Start your homestead with sheep, goats, or rabbits that are specifically bred for fiber production. You can sell the fiber raw, processed, or go the whole nine yards and create a product with it. Just because you don’t know any spinners or fiber artists in your area doesn’t mean you can’t sell your fiber. The internet has made it possible to find people who want to buy what you have to sell.

Gardens, Greenhouses, & Kitchens

Vegetables: It’s hard to think about a small farm without picturing a farmstand at the end of the drive or a booth at the local outdoor market. The reason for this is that homegrown vegetables are very easy to sell. Logical add-ons include plant starts, heirloom seeds, and value-added products such as pickles and relishes.

Fruit: All seasonal fruit sells well but delicate fruits, such as berries, command a premium price. Increase your income and reduce food waste with homemade jams and baked goods. If your farm can physically support visitors, consider a seasonal u-pick. Fruit trees you have propagated from thinning your homestead orchard are another good money maker.

Herbs: A small herb garden can make money in the form of fresh and dried herbs, as well as propagated herb starts. If you find you want to grow more herbs, great! A large herb garden can support a standing order from a local restaurant. Expand your herb product line with teas, medicinal syrups, herbal salts, and herbal crafts.

Baked Goods: If you use specialty products from your farm—milk, eggs, fruit—you will decrease your expenses and increase your unique selling point. Individual-sized baked goods sell quicker and make more money than large cakes and pies.

Cut Flowers: The booth selling cut flowers at my local farmers market sells out within an hour. There are many great resources online and in bookstores that can help you get started. Cut flowers would make a terrific addition to an herb business.

Specialty Plants: There are all types of specialty plants to consider but I have seen the most interest in “holiday” plants. Poinsettias, Easter and Christmas cacti, pineapples, and prayer plants are especially sought after where I live. You can get a substantial amount of potted plants started in a simple hoop tunnel. Hoop tunnels are cheap and simple to construct and can be used for veggie starts as well.

Education & Experiences

Teach What You Know: Undervaluing ourselves doesn’t just come in the form of underpricing our goods. We tend to assume either we have no marketable skills or that no one else wants to learn them. Wrong! Make a list of the homesteading skills you know and pick one. Then teach a class. Once you are comfortable teaching, create an online homesteading course. Once your class is online, you are making passive income every time someone signs up for your class.

Farm-to-Table Dinners: Host dinners at your homestead. Highlight produce and products from your farm, feature a local chef, and advertise in your local paper and on your local radio station. You can also sell tickets on your Facebook page and post pictures of the event to your Instagram account.

Start a CSA: Vegetable CSAs are common but that isn’t the only option. What do you like to do? Sell subscriptions to your specialty CSA—cheese & caramel, baked goods, seasonal jams, fruit pickles… the options for starting a CSA are endless as long as you only sell as many subscriptions as you can fill.

As you can see, there are plenty of homestead hustles to make money from your homestead. Relax and enjoy what you do. Get better at it every day. The money will come.

The post Twenty Homestead Hustles: Make Money from Your Homestead appeared first on Homestead.org.