I think if your needs are modest and you don't have a lot of bills to pay, you might be able to do it. Might. There are people in my area who make decent money selling at farmer's markets, and some of them don't have huge properties, although the smallest one I know of personally is about 14 acres. Realize that my definition of "decent" may be many people's definition of poverty, lol.

However, that said, I've seen people sell $300 in a half-day at a farmer's market, and they did a few other markets during the week. Well-attended farmer's markets where that volume is possible might be mostly in or near larger cities.

There is a lot to consider besides just putting seeds in the ground, weeding and picking the veggies.

One is what they call value-added produce - jams, jellies, pickles. Not fresh veggies, but stuff that's been processed. You can get about $2 per dozen for farm-fresh eggs, but $5-6 per jar of pickled eggs - or $10-12 per dozen. Just an example. Another thought is cut flowers.

I've heard of people making a decent amount selling directly to fine restaurants. You might ask the head chefs within driving distance what they want that they have difficulty buying, how much they need, negotiate a price, and then grow some of whatever it is for them. And see how that works out. Keep good records.

One starting point should be your local ag center, which ought to be able to point you to applicable laws about processing food for resale, laws regarding organic certification, etc. You may need liability insurance, a business license, and/or form a corporation. You may need to process in a commercial kitchen, depending on local law; I've read that some ag centers have facilities available. There's federal law about what can be termed organically grown, you've got to be certified now.

If I were you, I'd have one of us keep our day job, heh, and try growing all or most of our food for a year or two, keep records, see the amount of time it takes and what it costs, get practice canning and drying, etc., and begin the process of becoming organically certified. Then go from there.

Thanks so much for your thoughtful post--what you say makes a LOT of sense. We'd definitely ease into this, if we end up doing it...one of us would work to provide health insurance and a regular paycheck while the other concentrated on some experimental farming.

This might be a dumb question, but is the "ag center" the same as the county extension office? Or is there a different organization that would serve the purposes you mention in your post--education, etc.?

I have been making my living full time as a formerly certified organic market farmer for the past 9 years. So yes it is possible.

Last year after years of renting bought a 9 acre farm and put in a 2 acre market garden and a lot of perennial crops such as raspberries, grapes, asparagus, a few fruit trees.

start slow. Doing a market garden is a lot different than doing a huge home garden. You will want to have about 3 acres in production on your five acres.

I would not get too much into value adding/processing as the profit is not much more than you will make from selling fresh unprocessed foods due to some hefty overhead costs such as licensing kitchens, buying equipment, buying containers, advertising not to mention your labor.

The direction I would go is growing high value crops such as raspberries, asparagus, fruit trees (though some like apples are porblematic to do organically), cut flowers, specialty greens like arugula. Pastured chickens are a good thing to raise. When I did pastured hens several years ago I got between $3.50 and $4.50 for a dozen eggs. I still do pasture meat chickens and get $5.00 a pound for whole rock cornish hens and can do several small batches a season as they take only 6 weeks to grow to killing size.

The big thing is building your customer base and this will not happen over night. Unless your are a marketing person by trade it will take years to build a decent customer base that will support your farming endeavour. most small farmers are not getting rich but can make a comfortable living/get the bills paid. Being debt free and living simply is key.

Some of the small farmers I know travel some distance to get a good price for their goods. Location, location, location. It helps to have no debt and an operating cash reserve. Also, while things may be profitable, you need to plan for health insurance, illness, retirement, etc.

Yes, ag center = county extension office.

Ohioorganic - great ideas!

For value added goods laws seem to vary by state. Where I live, you're allowed to sell some jams and jellies and pickles without using a licensed commercial kitchen to prepare them. Seems to me, off the top of my head, that there's a limit by dollar amount sold per year. At the farmer's market there seemed to be a big demand for regional specialties, like mayhaw jelly.

Here you're allowed to sell X number of self-butchered birds per year without having a USDA inspected facility. If you want to sell things that must be pressure canned, using a licensed kitchen is required here.

I imagine there may be similar laws in other states, and the extension office should know all of this.

If you're going to grow a lot of your own food on your land also, you may want to consider home canning to preserve some, as no electricity is then required to keep it. I can a lot of our food, and even some from the supermarket if they're having a great sale. It isn't difficult. You might wish you did this if the power goes out for a while, and you don't have a generator to run your freezer or can't buy gas for it.

There are folks down the road from me who supplement their income with very little trouble by putting a box near the road with a sign of whatever they're selling (greens, root vegs, etc.), have it bagged in portions or priced per piece, and a box to collect the money, and they use the honor system. They got ripped off only once, so unusual it made the paper, heh.

Edible flowers and herbs is another idea, and one to sell to fine restaurants, possibly.

Alas, our prices are much lower here for eggs. No big city, just a small poor town.

For a while, I sold live chickens to a fellow who took them to an Asian farmer's market about 40 miles away, so that's another possibility. They preferred red chickens, not white ones. They also bought live geese, which I made a nice profit on. Very little trouble for me, with no processing required.

Funny you should mention that about marketing, as that has been my professional career for many years.

I have gotten very sound advice thus far--it looks like one of the most important things to keep in mind is "start small" and "know what you're getting into."

I can promise that I do not have an overly romanticized view of farming, which I think probably puts me ahead of the game in some respects. I definitely realize it is much more than just having a big home garden.

Thanks for the advice from someone who's been there, ohioorganic. It's been very helpful.

Be aware that this is a growing trend too, there are small producers crawling out of the wood work so to speak. Some are willing to sell at very low costs, too low to profit from, and they may be your compeition?
You must enjoy the enterprise you undertake, if you dont like being out in cold, damp,nasty weather, dont start any crops which need pruning/tending in that weather. ( I really dont like tending the blackberries).
I feel the best way to begin is by growing a large garden to supply your needs and some exta. sell the overproduction and see what is going to be profitable. I do grow some low return items, just to have on my table as they do attract some buyers to the stand. Recipe handouts and educational leaflets which apply to the various crops does help, I always research all there is to find on any crop. Vending nearer to a college is good, the shoppers are better read and willing to spend up for quality. I take old issues of the wifes, "Cooking Light", "Cuisine", and other rags to market with me. I find the consumer really desires to be educated on produce. Winter squash(6 varieties) and potatoes(6 varieties) were/are my big money makers.
Dont be afraid to take damaged produce to market, priced accordingly, as it is all that some can afford and allows for a sale. I do not place it near the best quality stuff.
Consumers also like to read about your operation and see some photos, a small leaflet or hand out is good, as is the encouragement to visit your farm.

I think it can be done with the right location a lot of effort & flexability. We don't have enough land, but I dream of having it. Lately I've read a few terrific books you may want to try. All real life people making a go at ditching the rat race. I'll just post titles & I know amazon.com has all of them, but I borrowed them from my library.
"its a long road to a tomato"
"better off"
"Rural Renissance"
other titles that are inspiring & worth the read
"newmans Own"
"got sun, got solar?"
"still life with chickens"
"this common ground"
"country matters"

Maybe a little overload, but some of these are written from the inside without the sugar coating. Good luck!

I see you list two states as your residence. If you haven't grown in the one you'll be doing this venture, make sure that cherries produce there every year. Where I am cherries, peaches and plums sometimes only produce about one in three years, due to spring frosts, poor conditions during pollination time, or other reasons. It is not profitable to do those under the three year plan!
Good luck if you quit your day jobs.
Ann

Is it possible to make money growing high-value medicinal crops like ginseng ? I've daydreamed about using our 5 acres for something like that.

We did what you're talking about and didn't break into the black until year 4 so be sure you have money to live on and set up your business. We have 5 acres and used 3 of them. We were certified organic before the feds took that over and then we dropped. Organic is sold by everyone and in some regions offers no advantage. Wal Mart and Fred Myers sell organic. Plus once you are selling over $5000 in organic you have to let the government into your life. Fresh and local may work very well. Depending on your state's laws getting set up for processed value added food can present a nightmare in burocracy and a check book drain. My advice is stick to the stuff that are high value with the least processing (not neccessarily the least work though). We have 1000 asparagus crowns and if we were still selling I'd plant 1000 more. Keeping the weeds and grass down is a lot of work but that stuff brings in money here. Chickens from chicken tractors were very successful even though here you need a $75 license now. No matter how great a cuke you can grow you are never going to pay the mortgage with them. Our rule of thumb was that any product that didn't make $1000/yr was dropped. Do your market analysis before starting any big project. Just because you want a cherry orchard doesn't mean there are customers out there to buy them. My wife hates beets but grew them because there was a never ending demand for them. The person who has worked hard to get to success is Ohioganic who posted above. She has advice the comes from experience. The only reason we stopped was a farm accident that ended my field working days.

Can you make a living? The answer is yes but you'll have to live to your income. You'll work far more hours than any full time job in the corporate world. Set up a life you enjoy and it willl have to be your work and vacation for some time. And the processed foods you want to make can be enjoyed by you and your family. The life style is part of the reward although there will be plenty of days when you think it is your punishment. It's always easy to give advice but if you want to do this, plan ahead and then quit talking and do it. Good Luck, Tom

We have 20 acres and both of us work full time, so our animals and garden are at the hobby farm level. We'd love to cut back on jobs and work here more too! If one of you works (or even works part-time) to keep health insurance, could you use your five acres to become totally self-sufficient and sell or barter what is extra? Have you read JohnÂs Seymour's The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live it: Independence on Five Acres? Seymour died a couple of years in his 90ÂsÂat one time his place (I think in Whales) was a place for aspiring back-to-the-landers to go for training. His books are invaluable. If possible get the one I recommended in the 1971 edition. Seymour has instructions for making baskets, draining fields, making a wattle fence, butchering pigs, raising every fruit and vegetable imaginable, you name it. He also has a great book on The Forgotten Crafts. I would strongly recommend these books as much for Seymour's spirit as for his practical advice.
Good luck to you!

We have no experience with a profitable farm as we've just begun our own hobby farm (on the size square of land), but do share your dream of leaving corporate life behind...can deeply relate since I'm a marketeer, too!

A while back a young chap of 18 wrote in inquring about starting an operation. Some good advice there - I think the thread header was "Starting a Farm". I offered him this article I stumbled upon. You may find it an interesting read too:

http://www.cog.ca/documents/Winter04Arnold.pdf

Please keep us posted! and all the best of luck.

LF (RJ)

I have always wanted to have a nice little money making side business, and am trying to get something going here on our 5 acre croft/farmlette.

This is our second year, and I haven't gotten anything going yet that will make steady cash. Sold ducks the first year, with some success, was able to build the horse stalls with the duck money. Sold brown eggs this year, which paid for some scratch grain. Learned how to hatch eggs in an incubator, and lost a bunch of ducks to preditors, include my own dogs.

So we have high hopes for next year. If I can get the ducks settled in enough to lay like they have in the past. I miss those clutches of 20 to 25 eggs that ALL hatch out. My breeding duck hens are getting old, they don't lay like they used to.

Also will get some (easier to live with) heirloom chickens in spring which should bring in egg money, and I can breed and sell chicks to go with the ducks. The Rhode Island Reds were a little TOO agressive. We will need a chicken yard to keep the flock in.

While I doubt we will every be able to quit our day jobs, I think we will certainly eat better, and make some money on the side.

However, I've seen quite a bit of small scale chicken breeding that seems to be doing pretty well. There are heirloom breeds that sell for a good buck. There is a huge market for meat goats. Any area with a farmers market close by would have a chance to make a living at marketing a mix of veggies, fruit and meat.

I'll tell your from my experiance, there is a heck of a lot of work involved with getting set up in a farm, even one as tiny as ours! I keep hoping that I can stop building and start maintaining, but in two years, there is no end to the work in sight. We have 3 horses, ducks, chickens and the work load is dautnting! I'm working on the farm right now, and I'm busy all day long.

I like what I'm doing. That is the main thing. Good luck, and like everyone has said: Start small and grow slowly!

There is a great book out there called "Back to Basics" published by Readers Digest. I found it on Ebay last year and found it very insightful. I also grew up on a small farm and being self sufficient was the only way to make ends meet for my family. I enjoy the lifestyle still, and although we live on only about 1 3/4 acres we keep a garden, some fruit trees, berries, and bees and I enjoy putting up the fruits of our harvest.
Another thing you could consider is opening your farm to the public. Check out Quiet Creek Herb Farm on the net. It is located a few miles from where I live.

IMHO most books of the 5 acre and independence type are useful only as TP for someone wanting to start a profitable farm venture. They may be fine for people who just want to be self sufficient but not have a business. Most are from a different era with don't fit today's markets. I'd suggest books as Metro Farm and Salatin's books. These are based on marketing and profit. Most people we met at farmer's markets don't know the difference between money in their pocket at the end of the market day and profit. If the $100 you take home cost your $120 then it's not money made but money lost. You could be the most successful breeder of fancy chickens but end up losing money on the enterprise. Since your question is about making a real go of it then you have to look at your bank account's bottom line as the measure of success. Now we've dropped our market business and now grow just for ourselves and those old books really come in handy and make sense for us. But if we would have followed them in the business days we would have gone broke. Decide what it is you really want to do and then just go in that direction. Tom