How can i start a hobby farm aimed at self sustainability?

Question

How can i start a hobby farm aimed at self sustainability?

Answer 1

A hobby farm is usually considered a farm (often a small one) that people buy and farm to a limited extent but make their living from regular jobs or carers.  I think starting a farm in this way and working it so that you can eventually leave your jobs and make it entirely on your farm is a great idea.  A couple of ideals: after you get your land you have a good opportunity to plant something like trees for an orchard.  This will not start paying off for about seven or eight years but you will not be depending on the farm for your income for a living so you are in a good position to wait.   When the trees come into production they will pay you well, maybe enough that you could leave your outside jobs ans depend on your farm.  You can do the same thing thing with planting Christmas trees.  Plant a small acreage of Christmas trees each year for seven years.  On the seventh year you will have a good income coming in.  Harvest the trees from plot one to sell. Replant the trees and you will have a good continuous income each year and retire to your farm to make your living.  In the mean time you can grow a good part of your food and get used to living on the farm and find out if you like the life style.

For information the best source is your County Extension Service.  They can give you information on any subject you are looking for and tell you if it is a good ideal or not.  It is also free.  I've got that reader's digest book, Back to Basics, and it is pretty good but the Foxfire books are much better, especially the first ones.  Best of luck to you and your family.

Answer 2

Read as much as you can. Good books to start are Yeoman's Keyline Plan, Water For Every Farm, anything about Permaculture. Also see youtube links below. Do a skills check, get any training you think you need before you start to look. Don't forget book/keeping or accounting if you are going to run it as a business.

Start on your own garden. It is amazing how much food can be produced in a garden. See the Youtube link for how 600lb of organic food is produced a year in a back yard.

Look at keyline plan for order of permanence when selecting land. Look at local planning laws, ability to sell from property.   Check into restrictions placed on land, can you keep livestock/poultry. Farmers' markets are thriving. Consider selling excesses at one of these, or contributing to a local box scheme. There is a growing market for homegrown honey, home made pickles, preserves and jams. Particularly if you grow  without chemical additives. Think local for everything. All that you buy and anything that you sell. It is about repeat custom even if it is once a year rather than looking for markets further afield.

Use permaculture and plant mixed native woodland, fruit trees and perennial plants first. It will give them time to grown. Don't ruin your land by growing cash crops. Build the soil up by adding organic material to it instead of chemical additions.

The biggest question you should ask yourself is What do I want from this investment? What is the easiest way to achieve it? If you just want to grown your own food. A back garden may be enough. Good luck.

Answer 3

The first step is not to wait for that farm.  Urban homesteading is a way of life for many of us.  Begin by learning skills that you would need if you ever do find that perfect farm.  

Sustaining your self begins with food.  Try buying your foods in season from local farmers markets.  Learn to can and preserve those foods to last you throughout the year.  I can everything from your basic vegetables to making my own soups, catchup, spaghetti, bbq, picante and other sauces.   Buying locally grown produce in season is VERY cost effective and helps your local farm economy.  

Next while at those same markets ask around about locally grown meats.  I got several friends at work together and we regularly buy a grass fed beef.  The farmer hauls it to the butcher shop for us and we pick up frozen wrapped meat for about $2.99 a pound.  This is everything from hamburger to inch thick T bones!  Buying meat bulk in this way keeps me in WONDERFUL meat for about a year.  My family also buys 1/2 a pig, and two sheep this way each year.  

Herbs are a good way to start gardening in a small space.  With a good dehydrator (MUST HAVE -well worth the money)  

you can raise fresh herbs enough for your family and evento sell in a few flowerpots.  I also dehydrate onions (purchased from the shriners), mushrooms and celery (on sale at the grocery store), and (fruit from a local u pick ).  

I live in a SMALL yard (40x120).  I raise as part of a very decorative landscape:  grapes (enough to eat fresh, freeze, and make jelly), Peaches (my dwarf tree produced 60 pounds of peaches last year!).  I also have bush cherries for jam and a grafted dwarf tree that can produce apricots, plumbs, nectarines and peaches on the same tree.  There are also apple and cherry trees available that produce several different kinds.  

I have a small garden plot.  I grow tomatoes, peppers, climbing beans and I have two half barrels (recycled Pepsi syrup containers) that I grow salad in.  

In my area chickens are legal.  I keep three hens in my backyard as pets.  They provide all of the fresh eggs my family of three can eat and part of the year I have eggs enough to give away.   Broilers are also relatively easy to raise  I lease a space at a friends farm to raise my own chickens to eat each year.  I can raise enough chickens for my family to eat as well as the person who leases me the farm spot's family.  It takes less than 4 months from start to freezer to raise broilers.  

I make my own soap and laundry detergent, I compost my grass clippings for the garden (with the litter from my hens it is nice indeed!), I drive paid off older vehicles, I buy clothing on sale or recycled (thrift stores).  This is how I urban homestead and I am not alone!    

Some day I hope to own a small farm - until then I learn!

Answer 4

don't forget crop insurance- or if crop not insurable in your county- get NAP from Farm service Office (local USDA office)

Answer 5

land seems to be the biggest thing to get to that goal,

but then I have no land, so that is what i think about.

most people that I know that have done that start with land and water,

then they try lots of things till they find what grows well in the area,

then they expand what they grow till they have enough to feed themselves.

my favorite book on the topic is Back to Basics by Reader's Digest (link in source)

it has a wide range of topics, nothing in detail, but it does not skip anything either.

this type of information is usually not in the internet, it is usually in books, or with people that have done it before.

I know exactly how to do this if you have specific questions, just message me.