Income for the Agrarian

Agrarian living encompasses all of many related topics we cover here at The Naturalist. This could mean being a market farmer, a forager, a homesteader, a permaculture designer, a gardener, a hunter, a fisher, an herbalist, or all of the above.

For many people it’s enough to just practice some of these as hobbies for themselves, but some of you are so passionate about it (as I am) that you want to earn a living doing it!

Today we’ll discuss some of many ways to monetize your farm, homestead, or permaculture site and some factors to consider.

Farm Vs Homestead?

As with many agrarian lifestyles, there are not necessarily any strict definitions for these terms, but we will work with some basic (though flexible) definitions of each:

Farm: A piece of land primarily dedicated to the maximum production of food, fuel, fiber, medicine, or materials for sale.

Homestead: A piece of land primarily dedicated to filling the basic everyday needs of the people who live on the land (food, clothing, shelter, water, energy).

Farmstead: A piece of land that is used as a homestead and a farm but is supported by one or more enterprises from each.

Permaculture Site: A piece of land dedicated to the holistic practice of permaculture principles and good stewardship for the production of food, fuel, fiber, medicine, or materials.

Obviously, some pieces of land will fall into multiple categories, but let’s use these working definitions going forward.

Calculating profitability

In order to actually make money doing something, you have to calculate whether an idea will even be profitable.

In order to calculate that for land-based enterprises, you have to think in terms of profit per year, per square foot (or meter for my non-US friends). If the number is around $3/sqft ($9/sq meter) then it’s worth looking further into for me. If it’s less, I tend to be skeptical that it will be profitable enough on a small scale like my garden.

Let’s run through a simplified example:

You have 1 acre of usable land, and the soil is good enough for alliums. You want to grow garlic and can reasonably plant at least 4 bulbs per square foot.

Each of those bulbs can sell for $2-3 per bulb if they’re a decent size (that’s what they sell for in my area, let’s take the lower number).

You get 1 harvest per year bringing your income before expenses to around $8 per square foot!

To put it in perspective if you were to plant the whole acre of garlic allowing about half of the space for pathways, that’d be $348k per acre!

Now that’s all before you calculate expenses, losses, and waste which can dramatically lower the final number, but that method serves as a quick way to see if it’s even worth looking into. If it doesn’t even meet that threshold, I don’t usually look into it.

With some things you might have a low number per square foot, but you can get multiple harvests in a year which will bring your profitability way up (radishes for example can get at least 4 good harvests in my climate when it isn’t too hot or cold).

Pricing

Pricing is tricky.

Mostly you’ll have to look at your local market for whatever your product is and price accordingly, but you also want to avoid a commodity price if you can avoid it.

Typically, what should go into your product price is your labor, costs, and whatever you need to earn as profit on top of that. If the prices are way higher than anyone else in the area, then maybe that can’t be a profitable enterprise for you.

Diversify Streams of Income

One of the best tips for a small-scale agrarian business is to diversify what you produce!

Growing only corn or only wheat might be fine for some years, but your income will take a hefty hit on a bad year if the crop fails! By planting more than one kind of thing you save yourself a lot of headaches and make your income more resilient.

The other reason to grow more than one thing is to be able to sell it.

You could grow an entire acre of basil profitably but selling an entire acre’s worth of basil is a challenge! However, if you took that acre and sold basil, radishes, garlic, lavender, beets, and greens, then you’re more likely to sell everything and people will be more likely to buy since you have a lot more to offer!

Markets

The easy part is producing something, the real challenge is actually selling it.

You have to know that your enterprise is not only going to be profitable, but also that it will sell to people in the area!

Microgreens might sound like a great idea (speaking from experience here) but they are NOT in demand in most places! They are more suited to larger urban areas.

Likewise, goat meat might be profitable but if you don’t live near a community that wants it, then you’ll want to consider something else.

Rule of Thirds

In the book The Permaculture Market Garden by Zach Loeks (which I highly recommend, no I don’t earn commissions from this, I just love the book) he talks about how the maximum diversity with the lowest effort is usually to start with 3 main enterprises that complement each other and move in thirds out from there as needed.

For example, you might be interested in berries. Your three enterprises could be:

• A berry U-Pick

• A farm store

• A berry plant nursery

And your sub-enterprises could be:

• A class on raising berries (U-pick)

• A farm tour (U-pick)

• A scenic venue in the fields (U-pick)

• Berry kombucha (Farm store)

• Fresh berries (Farm store)

• Freeze-dried berries (Farm store)

• Elderberry plants (Nursery)

• Strawberry plants (Nursery)

• Raspberry/blackberry plants (Nursery)

See how all of those enterprises are different, but all complement each other?

Cashflow Ideas

Here are a handful of ideas to start you off. These can be big ideas for farms, or hobbies to pay for a homestead, or anything in between. They will each require you to do research on each one to figure out if it will make you money, but they should get you started:

Agritourism

Agritourism is essentially any kind of event that is offered on a land-based business. Some farms are fully funded via agritourism which isn’t necessarily a bad thing as long as they’re honest about it.

This includes hosting festivals, campgrounds, farm dinners, tours, catering events, wedding venues, photography venues, hayrides, workshops, or classes.

These might be good enterprises to consider if you have a skill to teach, are limited on space, want to supplement another enterprise, or are good with event planning!

Crafts

This is a general category that I put artsy or artisan products into.

I think in general you will have a hard time making a full-time income from this, but it can be a nice supplemental way to diversify your income streams.

This could include woodworking goods, handwoven baskets, sewn goods, knitted/crocheted products, soaps, candles, skincare products, bat houses, or wreaths.

I would encourage you to think about how you can make one of these products completely unique since the craft space is highly competitive these days! Is there something special about the wood you use? Is there some history behind the design you’ve chosen? Is there a reason someone should buy your soap over other people’s?

Services

Services are a little more hands-on, but if you have the knowledge and experience, they can be a nice addition to your other income streams.

If you’re a homesteader and want to do something on the side, things like excavating, tree trimming, lumber milling, or some kind of trade, but if you want something more agrarian than that consider services like garden building (helping people design and build functional gardens), livestock consulting, or garden maintenance if you enjoy working on other people’s gardens.

Look for something you already enjoy doing on the land and ask how you can provide the same thing for others!

Maybe it’s just something simple and scrappy like chopping firewood for someone or sharpening knives. Anything helps when you’re trying to get ahead and have the hobby (or business) pay for itself!

Fresh Produce

You probably know where I’m going with this, but I think most people only scratch the surface with what you can do with fresh produce!

On a larger scale it might make sense to do animals like pigs, sheep, cattle, chickens, or regeneratively grown grains, and on a smaller scale think herbs, microgreens, mushrooms, fruits, market vegetables, honey, quail, rabbits etc.

There is a lot of potential (and I suspect future demand) for perennial vegetables and fruits as well as more obscure medicinal plants, and highly sought gourmet ingredients!

On our small garden plot, we grow garlic, tomatoes, leafy greens, perennial onions, and herbs for sale.

There are also plenty of wild vegetables to sell as food, largely untapped markets like algae, and perennial staples such as nuts!

I would encourage you to look for a way to build your enterprises around a theme. For example, do you sell perennial vegetables exclusively? Do you sell only the produce required for salsa or pizza? Do you sell to gourmet chefs only?

These themes can help you determine what kinds of things to grow and sell!

Inedible/Ornamental Product

This category is great for when you have a surplus of a particular resource and need to make it productive.

Sometimes there is space that you won’t use for anything else on your farm but that would be good for a non-food product or something less intensive. Maybe you already have an established process and want to get rid of extra stock, and that’s where these come in as income streams!

Examples include having a plant nursery, selling coppiced wood, live bees, heritage breeding stock, flower farming, balms and skincare products, bonsai, firewood, or compost.

Some of these can be a whole ordeal on their own depending on how into it you want to get, so don’t expect passive income, that’s not what I’m claiming here!

What you can expect are an additional way to sell higher profit items to a different market than you might otherwise sell to.

Value-Added Products

This is one category that in my opinion everyone regardless of land size should be getting into.

Most of the time, you will already have a product, and it will either create a byproduct or with one extra step could become a much more profitable product on its own!

Examples would be things like jams, premade meal kits, supplements, yogurt, butter, dried and cured meats, tea, kombucha, syrups, fermented foods, alcohol, cocktail mixers, oxymels, fruit leather, granola, freeze-dried fruits, flavored coffee, and powdered honey just to name a few.

The main reason these do so well is that in the US most people are willing to pay extra for convenience, so making your healthy foods as easy to eat as possible is almost certainly going to be profitable. This still requires that you do market research, but this is one I’m almost always optimistic about!

Business Models

Business models are important.

You can keep them simple or focus on a more complex but higher earning model. You might even have a couple different models depending on who you’re selling different products to.

Here are some cool examples I’ve seen of potential business models (there are obviously as many as you can think up):

CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture): This is essentially a seasonal subscription to the farm that allows you to get boxes of produce on a regular basis. This has pros and cons, so it’s up to the individual to see if it’s right for them. I see a lot of variants and twists on this like customizable CSA boxes, U-Pick CSAs, Delivery CSAs etc. so you can really do a lot with the basic idea!

PMAs (Private Membership Associations): Similar to a CSA, members of the farm pay an annual or monthly membership fee to take produce from a farm (often most items are free with the membership, and some items require an extra “donation”). This is ideal for farms that need to get around overbearing local regulations or who want the right to serve whatever members want. One caveat though, you DO need to fill out paperwork for this so that you can legally have bases covered.

U-Pick: This is a model where the customer comes to the farm and picks their own produce. Not only is this an absolutely awesome experience for customers who want to connect to the farm in deeper way, but it cuts out a lot of otherwise wasted product and saves the farmer headache about quality control since customers select their own produce! Orchards traditionally use this model around here, and recently vegetable farms have started doing the same thing!

Pop-Ups: This is a concept where farms create a food truck, a mobile cafe, or a booth that they set up at different locations to serve their food or sell their produce. I don’t personally have much experience with this, but I know a lot of people do well with it in the right markets, especially near urban centers where lots of people are often looking for a quick bite to eat. This may also be subject to some local regulations that you may have to sign paperwork for.

Sponsorship: This model is interesting. Basically, you get people to pay an annual fee in order to sponsor one particular small plot or tree and get all of the produce from it. It’s sort of like a CSA and a community garden combo! I like this idea, but I haven’t heard of many people doing it, so this is something to consider. The pro is that you are only growing the stuff that people are paying you to grow which cuts down initial investment and waste. Some people will allow customers to actually grow their own produce on a sponsored plot like rented community garden space which can be good depending on the situation.

Some of these models can be combined or altered to create something cool and new, and for some it might be best to just go to the farmer’s market and sell there. It really depends on your local demand and personal needs!

There are also simpler models that I won’t talk about in detail, but you should absolutely consider combining with any of the above!

• Farm stores

• 501-C3

• Buying Clubs

• Grown-to-Order

Lastly, I have made a spreadsheet for you guys with over 130 ideas (some realistic, some pretty niche and creative) with some brief explanations and notes for you to copy or download for FREE!

I update it periodically too so feel free to reference it throughout the year and let me know if it’s helpful and if it gets the creative ideas flowing!

Follow me on social media for behind-the-scenes videos and seasonal photos!

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