Create money and income on your homestead, which allows you to be profitable while doing something you love. There is never a day that goes by when we do not think of, search for, and ponder on the land that we will buy to make our forever homestead. We think long and hard about where it will be and why. We think about what we will do on this land to create money and income.

Today we share ideas so you can create money and income on your homestead. There are many lists like this and maybe, just maybe our list will have something that will touch your heart and entice your mind to action.

Grow a Market Garden to Create Money and Income

Who has not been enamored with Jean Martin Fortier and Curtis Stone. (JM Fortier’s farm is pictured above.)

Their ability to market garden causes a person to think one of two things.

You realize there is no way you can do what they do.
You realize that if they can do it, you can.

We have gone through both of these thought processes. We decided the first thing to do is put into practice Jean and Curtis’ techniques. We found that 30 inch rows makes gardening easier to manage. Both of these men have books on Amazon to teach you how.

During our first year, grow food you will eat and experiment with what works best. Then, next year, you will know if you are ready for a market garden.

Where to sell your Produce to Create Money and Income:

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
Local restaurants
Local grocery stores
A home route where you take the food to them
A farmer’s stand in your yard
Farmer’s markets – Presentation, Appearance and Abundance of food are imperative for success.

Look up local regulation, city, county and state to avoid any legal concerns.

What to sell:

Sell normal everyday vegetables then add a niche item.
- Garlic
- Mushrooms
- Micro-greens
Vegetable starts
Cut Salad Greens – We had a friend who had the booth with the biggest draw. She had baskets of greens. We mean baskets. Then she would give her customers a paper bag and they would fill the bag with what they wanted and it was sold by the pound. I believe it was sold for $3/lb and that was in 2012.
Sell Herbs at least three different ways: Starts, Fresh, Dried
Medicinal herbs
Spices
- Saffron
- Paprika
- Ginger
- Tumeric
- Cumin
- Mustard
Fresh cut flowers
Honey and other bee products
Poultry Eggs
Fresh berries – Strawberries, Blueberries, Blackberries, Raspberries and if you are from Oregon, Marionberries
Meat from your animals if they were processed in a way the state will allow.
Become a seed savor and sell you heirloom seeds
Trees
Maple Syrup
etc, etc.

Sell Home Baked and Homemade Food to Create Money and Income

In many states Cottage laws allow you to use your home kitchen to make food to sell. There are guidelines and restrictions so check your state’s law.

The laws require that you keep your domestic animals out of your kitchen. (No wild animals in the kitchen either.) These laws will also tell you which products you are allowed to sell in your state. Every state varies in what they allow.

These home baked and homemade items can almost always be sold at the farmer’s markets. Brainstorm and we are sure you can triple the length of this list.

You could also get a route to deliver your products to buyers on a weekly basis. When Rhenda was a young teenager, she and her sister would sell warm donuts door to door. We are sure this is not safe to do now, but people will buy anything well made. Here is a short list of some things to sell.
Gourmet dog biscuits
Jams
Bread, rolls, pastries
Sell a half dozen warm donuts in a paper bag. They sell like crazy as you make them in front of the customers.
Cheese
Salsa and Relishes
Flavored Vinegar
Homemade Aprons
Yarn from Fleece animals
Beeswax candles, lip gloss, and other products
Handmade Soap
Handmade Candles
homemade cleaning products
Maybe you are great at woodworking. Make something. Sell something.
Make crafts out of your nature on your homestead. ie Wreaths at Christmas.
Beehives
Planter boxes
Gift baskets of garden supplies
Essential Oils

Farm Store to Create Money and Income

Have a separate building on your homestead where you sell your items. The items listed above for the farmer’s market and the home baked and homemade section can be sold at your store also.
You can also be a marketplace for other farmers to bring their goods to you to be sold in your store.

Farm Animals to Create Money and Income

Sell poultry eggs. Eggs are so so. So easy to sell and so good to eat.
Sell baby chicks
Sell fertilized eggs
Sell broilers you have raised. We had great success with this. Our customers returned the next year begging us to raise more so we did. People want pastured raised organic fed chickens. Ours were delicious.
Raise and sell lambs and sheep
Breed Heritage sheep for selling.
Raise Heritage pigs for meat or sell piglets.
Keep a goat buck, a bull, a sow, a rabbit buck for breeding and sell your services, rather their services.
Sell your old layers for stewing hens
Raise goats for milk, meat and breeding purposes
Have a milk cow and sell her baby

Poultry Processing to Create Money and Income

You have the equipment – you rent it out
You have the equipment – you process your neighbors poultry
You have the equipment – Make it mobile and go to your neighbors home to process their poultry.

Check your state laws before processing other peoples poultry. For example, in the state of Oregon, we were able to process our own poultry at home. We were also allowed to sell that poultry but people had to come to us. That was a requirement. We could not sell at a farmer’s market or take the poultry to their home.

Our friends had their poultry processed at a state registered processing location so she was able to sell at a farmer’s market. If we had wanted to get our own equipment and make a mobile processing station, we would need to register it with the state and go through inspection and pay a nominal fee. All of that is possible. It just depends what you want to do.

AirBnB to Create Money and Income

AirBnB are all around the world. We stayed in one last year while in Beijng China. This allows anyone to register a dwelling to rent out short term to someone else. Our son had the basement in his home made into an apartment and rented it out through AirBnB. From fancy residents to cabins to tents, AirBnb offers you as a homesteader the opportunity to make additional income through them. See AirBnB for details.

Our plans for our homestead.

We plan to use an extra building on our property as an AirB&B.
We also plan to build 3 cabins similar to those pictured above. They will have electricity with a small refrigerator inside and a BBQ on the deck. We will build one central bathroom for the guests to share. There will be showers and stalls for him and her.
Camp Sites on our property can also be set up with just an outhouse. We will make sure they have access to water and put their camp site in a secluded area of our property.

Bed and Breakfast to Create Money and Income

Turn one or two of your extra bedrooms into a bed and breakfast. Choose the days you want people to stay there. Feed them a fantastic country breakfast of real food.

Workshops and Training to Create Money and Income

You have a wealth of knowledge. Teach. You can train at your homestead. We plan to set up a yurt or large tent to teach workshops and training.

The definition of a workshop is an intense class where you teach a specific skill or curriculum. It is a one time event lasting from 1 hour
to a day long workshop. Example. We would put together a workshop on how to make cheese, fermented vegetables, kefir. Those would just be 1-2 hours long. We plan to ha
ve a workshop teaching how to choose and prepare real food. These will probably last 5-6 hours and be divided into difference sections.
Invite people to come for a day when you are processing chickens. They can pay a workshop fee or purchase some of the chickens to take home.
Invite people to a workshop on setting up a garden with 30 inch rows and show them how to use a broadfork.
A Training or Course would be an intense training over a couple days to a week long. We plan to train people over several days how to live the Heartiness Approach Lifestyle. With a series of 12 lessons we will teach healthy eating, fitness, emotional wellness, and growing food. This would be a major kick-start for someone trying to change their lifestyle.
Online course – The above training course can be taught online with one lesson each week for 12 weeks. This course will cost considerably less than the in-person training.

Writing and Photography to Create Money and Income

Write an e-book about a needed subject from the homestead.
Write a book on a subject you know about. We are working on 3 different books right now. Rhenda wrote, Voices From My Heart which is for everyone who is a our age now or has a parent whom they are concerned about.
Write a cookbook on the wonderful food you have learned how to make out of real food.
Make videos (vlog) from your homestead and share them with the world on your own YouTube Channel. Ours is Heartiness Approach.
Write a blog to gain an audience. When you do have something to sell, your audience will want to buy it. Both blogs and vlogs build an audience. Probably the best example of this was Justin Rhodes when he did a live kick-starter to earn $10,000 for the Great American Farm Tour. We, his subscribers asked him to stay on live until he had reached his goal. Within two hours he had reached far beyond and by the end of the 7 days had earned $82,000. That is because he had a audience who trusted in him.
Write articles for country magazines.
Take photographs and sell them to magazines and places that curate stock photos.
Become a Guest Blog writer

Agritourism to Create Money and Income

Make a petting area for families to visit. This is something we are very excited about. One of our subscribers and now dear friend has Petting Farm and Katie Lake Cottages in Manitoba Canada (pictured above). They have inspired us so much we are visiting them this summer to see their operation and learn from them.
Agritourism is such a great side business because you are sharing your homestead with those who cannot or do not have one of their own. U-Pick fruits, summer picnics, hayrides, pumpkin festivals, and much, much more.
Oregon has many wonderful farms to visit. You don’t pay an entrance fee but there are places to wander around, animals to pet, food to purchase, plants to buy and flowers to buy. Some farms have you pay an entrance fee. The creativity can go anywhere your imagination can go.
If you have some small cabins like shown above and a tent or yurt your can rent out the area for family reunions and events.
Rent your big red barn out for community events.
Prepare a place on your farm where a wedding could take place, then advertise for that venue.
If you have a pond, have a fishing derby day.
Do you need your fence painted. Make it a community event and turn it into a paid event with picnic, relays, and music around a campfire to end the day.
Advertise “A Day on the Farm” and families can come and spend the day doing chores, learning, eating amazing food.
Grandparent/Grandchild day
Chili Cook-Off
Pie baking contest
Block party – We did this on our property the summer after we moved in. We went to every home in our area and invited them to a pot luck on our front lawn. Every single household came. They had been going to do something for 16 years but never had. It took an outsider to bring them together. It was a delightful evening.

Not all of these activities bring money in such as an entrance fee but the community will know you are here. They will know where to get their food

Summer Farm Camp to Create Money and Income

This is a really fun idea. From doing daily chores to making nature crafts, and cooking real food, the week is filled with farm activities. The fees differ across the country from $145 in Georgia to $700 a week in Michigan where the kids spend the night. The average is about $300 a week for 5 days 9 AM to 3 PM. Each week has a different theme and the activities are endless.

You will need lots of help, permission slips, permission from your state to run a camp on your property. However, if you look at the different camps on the web you will see that most of them sell out and more sessions have to be added.

Running a summer camp would take away from some of your normal homestead chores but you can also incorporate some of the older children in your chores.

In conclusion:

A permaculture principle is, “The core of the problem is the seed of the solution”.

Your homestead costs you money. Maybe you’re able to provide most of your food from your homestead. Traditional farmers call what we do hobby farming. That implies we spend a lot of money to have a good time on our rural property. Also, many of us can not afford to buy a small farm because it is expensive.

There is the core of the problem. We cannot afford an expensive hobby nor can we afford an expensive home. Transforming this problem to a seed requires imagination and creativity. Use these suggestions to create income and transform your homestead into the seed of your solution.