Making money on the homestead doesn’t have to be hard, or boring.
In addition, you don’t have to do the same things that surrounding homesteads are doing in order to earn an income, either. Why compete, when you can dominate your own market, that’s just as easy to maintain?
Now, I present this list to you for two major reasons:
- Firstly, homesteads are expensive to maintain. Between keeping crops happy and feeding/caring for animals, you’re going to need an extra income. It generally costs much more than what you would think it does- one day your tiller may go kaput, or the next, your entire garden may get hit by a bad freeze, requiring you to replace all of your tender seedlings. You need that extra income!
- Secondly, the lists that are already out there? They all say the same things! While some of the following may be obvious or mentioned elsewhere, I’m presenting you with ideas that aren’t overly saturated. Therefore, you truly do stand a good chance of making an income, rather than competing with other local homesteads. In addition, the “no-brainers” with little to no effort still give you a chance to earn extra income, even in a saturated market. It’s all about connecting with new people and developing an ongoing relationship. You would be surprised at how many new customers you could gain by simply getting the word out there!
If this list is handy for you, please share it and save it for later! You may know a few struggling homesteaders that are caught in a tough spot- and some of these require an incredibly minuscule investment!
I also dare you to give a few a try, and to comment here with your own experience. I would love for our comments to provide some positive motivation for the homesteaders who just feel like giving up when finances run short.
If you have more off-the-wall ideas to add, I’d love to build upon this post with your input. Feel free to comment, email me, or direct message me through our Facebook or Instagram pages.
Selling Aged Mushroom Logs
Mushrooms are always in high demand, and are commonly overlooked by the average homesteader. Rather than trying to sell tomatoes or fresh eggs to the public, try offering some mushroom logs for sale to other homesteaders!
These logs will take a while to fruit after inoculation; 6 to 12 months. However, you can source the logs yourself (or purchase them from someone who cuts and sells firewood at a cheap price), and even create your own inoculation plugs. You can then age the logs for a few months, and sell them for between $5 and $30+ (depending on the variety of mushroom) when it’s almost time for them to begin fruiting. Mushrooms command a high price in grocery stores, and even higher prices at farmers markets. Selling entire logs to homesteaders allows them to get started extremely quickly (rather than waiting 6+ months, much like buying young laying hens versus buying week old pullets), while you’re turning a very handsome profit on little more than time. It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it’s not saturated! If you sold 25 logs at just $10 each within a month, and profited $6 or more per log, you would profit $150.
Here’s a nice little video detailing the process of inoculation:
Hosting Micro-Workshops
Do you have a skill you can teach? Do you have fun hobbies that others are looking to learn? Are you talented with entertaining?
Perhaps a micro-workshop would be good for you!
Now, you may have to look into some local laws and regulations regarding some classes just to be safe (some states may require certifications for different things), but there is a lot of money to be made in this sector. As the movement for real, organic food and herbal remedies continues to grow, people are becoming more and more aware of where their food and personal products are coming from and how they are treated; thus, more and more people continue to fuel the homesteading movement. Many people have never grown an edible plant or interacted with chickens a day in their lives; therefore, they seek classes, reading materials, and experienced friends that can help them to learn.
Classes can even be simple, specific, and fun, such as a Lavender class. In this instance, homesteaders can teach a small group how to start a small lavender bed, how to plant and care for the plants, how to propagate them, how to harvest and store them, speculate on the potential benefits of this herb (I say speculate, as you never want to make medical claims), and teach them how you make your own infused oils, aromatic treats, and even salves or lotions. The students could then take home any products or crafts that they have made. It’s informative, fun, easy to do, and profitable!
If you held enough classes at $20 admission for 30 people, and profited $10+ after material costs (this is assuming that the materials are expensive), you would pocket $300.
Building Cages
Cages are a necessary item on most homesteads. They are used to contain rabbits, quail, chickens, rodents, turkeys, goats, and piglets, whether it be permanently, semi-permanently during infancy, or temporarily for transportation. As a homestead grows, so does the need for available cage space during the spring and summer months.
This constant need for cages has provided a steady demand for those who can supply cages. Many times, homesteaders feel as if they simply don’t have the time to build a cage (and some don’t have the resources), therefore they resort to buying them. In addition, a lot of people don’t enjoy building cages.
This income is not only dependable, it is easy money. It requires labor, but cages don’t require a lot of intensive thought or planning. They are easy to reach a “stopping point” for those who can only dedicate a small amount of time a few times per day. When building cages in bulk, it is also easier to pre-cut and flatten many pieces of fencing, allowing for a quicker assembly process.
Cages can be expensive to build, but pricing on fencing is much better in bulk. You may spend $20 in materials to build a large rabbit cage, but you should be able to sell the cage for $45 to $50. If it is a series of holes, you should reach $40+ per hole. These longer hutch style cages are easier and more cost efficient to build than several single hole cages. If you craft and sell 10 single cages per month for $45, you will profit $250.
Hatching Chicks
Do you have a small incubator at home that you can hatch your extra eggs from? Even for a barnyard mix chick, a chicken keeper could earn $1.50 to $2 per chick. Purebred chicks will bring in double that! This is an excellent income generating opportunity because many people are willing to buy mixed chicks just to get started with an egg laying flock; sometimes, paying $5 per purebred chick is too expensive when putting together a coop and run the first year.
If you have an incubator that holds 48 eggs, and you hatch 40 chicks, that’s an extra $60 to $80 (or over $120 for purebred) per month that you could earn, for nothing more than putting excess eggs into an incubator and turning it on! Or, you could allow your broody hens to hatch eggs- here, you will trade electricity costs for losing a layer for roughly 2 or 3 months.
Leasing for Photographers/Offering Family Portraits
If you have the picturesque farm that many people swoon over, you have an insanely easy stream of income: photographers! Photographers are always in need of beautiful backdrops and scenes for their clients’ images. You could easily “rent” your farm for photography usage for $100 or more per day; It’s not uncommon to charge $300 for this service. With a steady influx of traffic throughout the day, excessive noise, and restricted use of the farm for the owner, these rates are perfectly reasonable.
If you have an established flower field, hay barn, several bottle calves or goats, old farm trucks or tractors, wooded areas, creeks, or even kid-friendly ponies, you have a very desirable spot for photographers to utilize. Try testing the waters and reach out to some local photographers to see if they would be interested; or, post advertisements for booking the farm.
Flower Farming
Flower farming is becoming increasingly popular, as many households are once again keeping fresh cut flowers in their homes. However, this isn’t your traditional flower farming, with roses, tulips, baby’s breath, or peonies. Instead, consider some of the varieties that aren’t frequently grown by commercial farms. These might include sunflowers, phlox, zinnias, bachelor’s buttons, snapdragons, dahlias, and more. Fresh cut, locally sourced flowers command a high price at market, especially flowers that cannot be easily (or inexpensively) purchased at local florists or department store floral departments.
A flower farm could also be used in the instance above, doubling its income. Combine a flower farm with photography, and you’ll see a significant return on your investment! Since cut flower prices vary so widely, I will go for the lowest hanging fruit that many homesteaders could already reach for: roses! A dozen roses sells for $20+ even in grocery stores. If you have a couple of beautiful rose bushes in your front garden, this could be quick cash. Gathering 36 roses could earn you $45+ quite easily, all from your existing bushes.
Selling Rare Seedlings
Do you have the space in your greenhouse or window sill to start extra seedlings? If you commonly grow odd or rare fruits, vegetables, or flowers, it might be worth your time to start twice as many, and sell them! Many people love to enjoy unique varieties in their gardens, however, they may not shop outside of their local nursery or home improvement store. Some people rather buy transplants than start their plants from seed, which makes it hard for them to find unique varieties.
For those people who love unique varieties but cannot find them locally, they are more than willing to pay a premium price for these rare plants. You might consider growing exotic melons (check out my post and experience about Sakata’s Sweet Melon, this is an excellent one to try) , yellow watermelons, purple peppers, the world’s hottest peppers, alpine strawberries, and other beautiful varieties. You could easily earn $3.50 per transplant-sized plant, making 100 extra plants well worth your time to grow at $350. This may only be a seasonal income, but it is a lucrative one. Be sure to take advantage of spring, summer, and fall transplant dates, tripling your potential sales.
Pet Sitting/Farm Sitting
Pet sitting and farm sitting are two very, very important services. Without them, it would be impossible for a family to go on vacation if they have pets or farm animals. People expect to pay handsomely for this service, in an effort to ensure that their animals receive the best care possible when they are gone.
You could either keep the animals at your home or barn, and care for them at home; for this, I recommend asking for proof of health, reducing the risk of an animal bringing disease into your home. Otherwise, you could pet and farm sit at their home. This will require visiting the individual’s home twice daily, at a minimum. Animals will need to be fed, watered, turned out or walked, and checked on in the morning. In the evening, they will need to be placed in their stalls/cages or walked, fed and watered, and checked on. This ensures all animals have their basic needs met, and are safe and sound. Some farms may require that you collect eggs, milk goats or cattle, or keep a close eye on mothers who are due to give birth.
A farm should expect to pay at least $50 per day for minimal farm sitting, while pet sitting a dog in your home may cost as little as $25 per day for the client. For farms with more extensive requests (milking and egg collection), they may expect to pay upwards of $75 per day, unless a deal is arranged with regards to collected harvests (milk, eggs, produce, etc). This will widely vary in earnings as well- from $25 for a single day, into the $100’s for a week-long gig at a farm or neighboring homestead.
Selling Rabbit Manure
If you raise rabbits, you know they create tons of manure! We even posted about this in the past! Rabbits eat lots of roughage and drink plenty of water; like other grazing animals, such as cattle and horses, you’re going to come across more poop than you’ll know what to do with.
Until you realize that rabbit manure is a gardener’s dream come true, and that it is an incredible cold manure! If you have a rabbitry operation, you’re probably capable of filling a feed sack’s worth of manure per day. This manure can be sold for $5 once it is screened to remove excessive hay, which will earn you an extra $150 per month reliably. This could be reinvested into your rabbits in the form of feed, scoring you a nearly free source of meat!
Selling Eggs
Sorry about this, but this was an obligation. We all know that we can sell eggs- and we all know it can be very, very hard to do so. However, you should still ask people that you see on a daily basis if they would be interested in buying your fresh eggs; these people might be neighbors, coworkers, your kids’ parents, or other parents that you chat with in the “pickup line” at school. If you can sell one carton of eggs every day (assuming you have 20+ hens to meet this demand), you stand to make $3 a day, or $90 a month. Not bad, considering you’re already collecting eggs, and already visiting these places daily!
I’m not saying that you should put serious effort into selling, packaging, or advertising your eggs; the market is saturated in most areas. But by selling to those you know and see regularly, it truly is the easiest way to make additional cash.
Hosting Yard Sales/Flea Markets
Do you have Sufficient land and parking in a highly trafficked or populated area? Then you should look into offering yard sale space or a booths within a small flea market!
A flea market may not be the most feasible choice for some (whether it boils down to available space or laws/regulations and liabilities), but it can be very profitable in the right situation with all homework done. There is also work involved with cleanup, vendor management, and parking attendants to ensure traffic moves smoothly and parks in designated areas.
By renting yard sale space, homesteaders can charge a few families $40 each to set up shop on their property. Now, you’re going to want to ensure that you are not liable in case of injuries or broken equipment; this normally isn’t an issue, but as you all know, anything can happen at any time. You can limit this to only those you trust. If you host two families per month, you could earn $80 per month; the more families that attend, the more you could make! People love visiting large yard sales, so I recommend hosting all families on a single weekend to increase interest in the yard sale.
U-Pick Berry or Nut Farm
Now, we come to our beloved berry bushes and nut trees! Berry bushes are incredibly easy to propagate, and many (like blackberries) will spread like wildfire whether you want them to or not. Why not allow these berries more space, transplant them, and significantly increase your yield? Maintaining these beds will be the most difficult part, as you will need to maintain paths and suppress weeds. However, they can bring in an extra income for years to come- even if it is only for a few months of the year!
If you want a longer lasting income from your berry plots, choose multiple varieties in order to extend your homestead’s harvest season. Choose both June bearing and ever bearing varieties of berries, as well as different types of berries. You could have a harvest season that’s over 7 months long, depending on your growing zone. With strawberries ripening earlier in the growing season, blackberries in early or mid-summer, and raspberries during fall (excluding ever bearing varieties in this scenario), you could have a lucrative, small berry farm that will generate revenue throughout the spring, summer, and fall. Most farms sell their berries for between $4 and $10/lb, depending on the type of berry and the way it is grown and harvested. Yields will vary from homestead to homestead, so we’ll go with one 100′ row for example’s sake; with a 100′ row, an average strawberry harvest will be around 170 lb. If you sold these berries for $4/lb, you would bring in $680.
In addition to your berry farm, you can also sell daughter plants, suckers, cuttings, and seedlings, too! Berry plants are always hot sellers during the spring and fall, so be sure to cash in on this opportunity if you decide to pursue a berry farm.
Interesting article. Thanks for the new suggestions. Some of them I had thought about, but haven’t done them yet. Maybe I will give them a try.