Hi all, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, I have searched the archives as best as I was able to and am still having questions about home-business and farm-business. There are mushrooms, garlic, honey, worms, etc. listed to sell; but what are the numbers; do these actually have merit. I need hard facts and real numbers to help me understand the viability of this concept. (Maybe this is too personal of nature (numbers and raw data) and will understand if no replies come my way) I am by trade a bookkeeper (hence the need of numbers), a computer builder (hopefully this will work into income, as I am certified etc.), instrument-maker (trying to turn this into income) and occasional poet (am published), and there is a scarcity of good paying jobs here. We have 19 acres with about 7-8 acres usuable for growing, the rest is timber and rock. A small garden is already fenced off, a greenhouse is built and being used (though it is winter); want to plant crops that will make some income. To this regard I need the facts and the numbers. Would like to stop trying to sell myself in the meat market of interviews and make it by selling stuff/things/etc. I made/grew/raised myself. Please email me direct with the numbers and data so that I can run them up against budget, income/expense ratio charts, etc. A good summary is OK. I am grateful and appreciate the help in this regards.

-- jonathan (jonathan_sz@yahoo.com), December 24, 2001

Answers

As far as worms go. worm castings can fetch as much as $4 to $10 for five pounds to gardeners in small quantities depending on your region. Worms can bring $2 per 30 for bait or as much as $40 per 5000 in bulk for composting. You can reference my article in vol 85 No 5 of Countryside (Sept/Oct 2001) for details on how to start an efficient worm ranch for under $15 investment that can mature in about 12 months to a commercial grade operation. When I was researching the article, I used the site www.attra.org and a copernic.com search of vermicomposting to research over 100 commercial sites to get a better feel of market conditions outside my region.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), December 24, 2001.

Jonathan- Where are you located, and how far are you from a town or city?

-- Elizabeth (ekfla@aol.com), December 24, 2001.

Their is a new group over at YahooGroups called smallfarmbiz you might gain some imformation.

-- Mark in N.C. Fla. (deadgoatman@webtv.net), December 24, 2001.

You would be welcome to a free e-book copy of my book, How to Earn Extra Money in the Country. Just send me an e-mail direct requesting it. Offer is open to anyone; however, it cannot be sent to a hotmail.com account.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), December 25, 2001.

Elizabeth, I am in Southern Oregon, live 45 minutes from Medford. With a few small townships in-between.

Ken, I think I did request youe ebook prior to my post here. If you didn't get the request let me know and I will re-request it. Thank you.

-- jonathan (Jonathan_sz@yahoo.com), December 25, 2001.

Hi! Here in north Alabama there is a couple who build old time instruments like dulcimers. They have a deal with a community college about 35 miles or 40 miles from their home and they teach a course every quarter, I think one night a week, where the participants build a simple dulcimer and learn to play easy songs on it! That might be something you could hook up with a college and do or something you could offer direct from your homestead. People will travel from the big city to do this. You might could do something like that on an all day Saturday.

We haven't come up with any way to make money just from our homestead YET but we do both work from our homesteads. I have been a investigative newspaper reporter/photographer for nearly 22 years now and I've always worked from a home office even tho I am the senior staff writer for one of the two newspapers I write for.

My husband started a home-based handyman business in June of 2000 and loves it. He goes all over our county putting in ceiling fans, installing doors, etc.

I have been raising Angora rabbits for a little more than a year but I do not plan to sell any at this time...instead raising them for the fiber as I am learning to spin and knit. I hope to have a breeding pair of Angora goats or some good kind of fiber sheep by this spring.

We have a big garden every year.

I have 25 laying hens and have been selling about $5 worth of eggs each week plus providing eggs for our kids and their families and my mama plus all we need...

best wishes. suzy in north bama

-- Suzy in Bama (slgt@yahoo.com), December 25, 2001.

(Ken, you can't send the e-mail info to a Hotmail account, but you are on AOL????? Interesting.)

Anyhow, the harder you are willing to work, and the more risk you are willing to take, along with your LOCATION makes all the difference on these small acre farms.

You need to love it - just love being out there in the dirt, to the exclution of all else. If you don't love it, it will get away from you & it just won't work out for you.

That is what happens to most. They like the idea, but not always the work.

You need to plant exactly when it is time to plant, and harvest the hour it is time to harvest. Exactly. Pick pickles a day too late, and they are worth 20% of their value a day earlier, plus you lose a day's production - you're done for. Plant sweetcorn at the right time & be the first with sales in spring & you make big bucks. Plant 2 days later, don't catch the bugs when they appear, and you have a worthless mush to late, no regular customers all season....

So, asking what is profitable and wanting to see the numbers is really the wrong way to go about this. You probably don't have the dedication to dirt to make it work. It's all about making a better, earlier, fresher, more wholesome product than the next guy down the road. With your questions, you ain't gonna make it...

(If you find these fighting words, and wish to prove me wrong - good for you. That's a good start. :)

All the things you mentioned can work. What is your market? What do people near you want to buy? Are they people that have lots of disposable income & want 'in fashion' or trendy stuff? Are they cooped up all winter & want to get out into your field and pick their own? Is it a turist area where 'home-town nic-naks' will sell to out-of-towners? Do you dislike people & personal marketing, then go to mushrooms or ginsing, etc & wholesale.

1. Look at your location and your market. Sell to that market. This is where your numbers background should help you.

2. Then grow what you love to grow that fits that market. Anything else will fail. If you don't love the product, you won't make it.

3. Understand that is is quite common to fail totally, no income at all for a couple of years, and the big pay-off year only comes along once in a long while. Figuring bugets on these operations is quite nerveracking to a numbers person...

--->Paul

-- paul (ramblerplm@hotmail.com), December 25, 2001.

Paul, Love dirt to the exclusion of all else? One can love something to distraction, but that doesn't guarantee success in anything. True one needs to love what one does, but without proper planning, records, and hard work the effort is a hobby and can become a burden. My question is/was geared towards the business end of farming. The almanac is a good start for a planting guide, knowledge of the moon and it's phases is too. But without careful cost analysis, how do you know if you breakeven or lose your shirt, house, barn cars, etc. Having a healthy love for dirt is OK, a good sense of timing is too, but banks needs figures, wife needs figures, I need to know whether or not I need to buy more or buy less, plant more or plant less, a good love for dirt doesn't buy equipment sir. I don't argue the need to love the dirt, but as you said "You need to plant exactly when it is time to plant, and harvest the hour it is time to harvest. Exactly. Pick pickles a day too late, and they are worth 20% of their value a day earlier, plus you lose a day's production - you're done for. Plant sweetcorn at the right time & be the first with sales in spring & you make big bucks. Plant 2 days later, don't catch the bugs when they appear, and you have a worthless mush to late, no regular customers all season.... " requires numbers and data. I don't think that my line of query is wrong, it is needed to formulate a business plan, marketing plan, and all those things that one could do by the seat of one's pants and by the skin of your teeth, but a good set of goals and direction is needed as well as you pointed out in your advice. True most fail, usually due to underplanning I'm told. True as well that there is overplanning where nothing gets done. A balance is required. Love of dirt with a good knowledge of business is required sir. It isn't about a love of money either, one simply must pay those damn bills and taxes. But I do take your advice and I thank you and everyone who has given it. Regards to all,

-- jonathan (jonathan_sz@yahoo.com), December 25, 2001.

Jonathan- I agree wholeheartedly with your analytical approach. I also have an accountant's heart/mind and appreciate the need to conduct a financial analysis BEFORE throwing a bunch of money at a new undertaking. Most of my ventures have yielded a profit as a result, even though they start out as hobbies. Interestingly, MOST (cannot remember the exact figure) small businesses fail in the first couple of years because although the proprieters may be engaging in a pursuit about which they are passionate, they often lack the business acumen needed to manage a business successfully. Unfortunately I have only done this on a small scale and so cannot provide the data you are looking for. A really good reference is a book titled "The Small- Scale Commercial Garden" if you can find it. Good luck with your venture and please keep us posted as to your progress.

-- Elizabeth (ekfla@aol.com), December 25, 2001.

You might consider checking out a couple of markets to see what there is a demand for before doing a profitability work sheet. The local chamber of commerce should have a contact person for the local farmers market. When I was deciding on a product, I asked the local marketmaster what she didn't currently have and thought might sell. She already had 2 bakers, but no jellymakers, so I made jelly and was placed in the booth next to the bread baker. She also made sure I met a man who bought local vegetables AND she bought blackberries from me at a slightly discounted price for the pies that she sold at her own booth! Out here, there are more people growing vegetables than there are people wanting to buy them, but she was able to steer me to some markets that I would NOT have thought of!

-- Terri (hooperterri@prodigy.net), December 26, 2001.

I have struggled with this as well. I can tell you what didn't work for us; this past summer we milked 40 Jersey cows using managed intensive rotational grazing. We thought it would provide a steady income and keep me at home. We have sold the cows and I am back in a factory. Enough said. Prior to this we had a flock of chickens (about 60 or so), 3 dairy goats and 1 acre of organic produce. I also worked out 15 days/month. We sold produce one day per week at a farmers market. Most times we brought home right at $100.00. We were always home by 1:00 p.m. Almost all of our veggies sold for $1.50/lb., usually what would fit in a pint basket. This might be 2 large tomatoes or a big double handful of green beans. I did not put a price on my time but I also didn't deduct what we ate. Seeds were free because we grow all airloom vegatables and save our seed. We sold eggs for $1.00/doz. out the back door, or $1.50/doz at the farmers market. I figure it cost us roughly .40/doz in feed. Goats were a big profit for us. Our does all had twins or triplets. In our area Doe kids will bring $35.00/hd. and wethers bring $40.00 (4H kids). Any that didn't sell in the spring were sold at auction for $40.00 - $60.00. Cost for the kids - $0.00, again I didn't figure my time but I also didn't discount the milk we consumed. At any rate the kids got absolutly no feed. We raised our own hay and put it up loose with our team of Haflinger ponies. I guess my point (if I have one) is "something to sell every day", as the Amish say. I have never thought much of here today gone tommorrow agriculture fads such as shrimp, Boar goats, hedghogs, emus or the like. Maybe this is just because I lack the vision or courage, I don't know. I like sure things that I know I can sell to the average person (green beans, a loaf of bread, soap, a goat etc.) One end note; raw cow milk, while illegal to sell, will fetch $2.00/gal. A Jersey cow will easily give 30 lb/day @ 8.6 lb./gal. I DO NOT RECOMEND THIS, but...Do the math. Hope this helps a little.

-- David (daoelker@seidata.com), December 26, 2001.

I thank you for your input as to what didn't work for you. It is just as valuable as what did or might. I am saddened that you couldn't make it to stay home. Hopefully it will become an option for you once more. I am not interested in the here today gone tomoorow stuff either. I am looking into making the instruments (put this takes time and money to get into (like everything else), As new tax laws come in a flood of numbers it is hard to keep up with them to be more than an data entry bookkeeper anymore, taxes have become too complicated for me (somehow the k.i.s.s. concept has slipped past the taxman) I want/to augment the music with foodcrops that will sell to those who would like fresh nauturally grown veg. (a term that is organic these days)who don't have the time or space to do so themselves, fresh meat with out the hormones etc. My need for this post is to hear what works and don't work. I know that one's time is not a counted factor, because after the run of figures you end up making $.25 an hour. Yes you have to love what you do to make this kind of money; evenstill, the value of the working for one self is greater than working for someone else. I have dreamed of the day when I could do so. I have failed at a lot of businesses because of unmindful planning. I might fail at this as well. But this time I want to do it differently, plan and implement plan, change plan as needed and stick to the plan. Flying by the seat if one's pants was great when I was a single guy. Still, the efforts involved are greater, no reward until later if ever, and hopefully you only lose your shirt and not your place if it fails. I guess in my very bad use of terms and query I lost the intent of wanting to know the facts of success if any in homesteading. I thank you all for your kind woirds and efforts to educate me in this area of which I know little and need to learn more about. Be at peace with God, yourself and the world around you.

-- jonathan (jonathan_sz@yahoo.com), December 26, 2001.