I’m lucky to own/operate a small farm I live on. It doesn’t produce almost any real money for me but it serves as a good collection of hobbies/food. My primary income is industrial and doesn’t scratch that itch. But, it pays the bills and affords me a schedule that let’s me maintain the farm. So, what would your ideal small farm setup look like?
Goats, pigs, your mom. But I’d need a few hectares for the latter. 😁
Fuck you got me
What a coincidence! That’s also what your mom said.
Ok, I will see myself out now.
Strawberries. They are the best taste to effort and cost of what little grows here in the north.
Potato is an option but they are cheap at the store.
Peppers and chili is an option but they require a greenhouse to stand a chance.
I’d not bother keeping animals unless I intended to make it a bigger part of my income. Can’t just fuck off for a week and do something else. Chickens would be the first contender if I did though
Strawberries are fantastic. I planted some last year and was really bummed that I didn’t get to eat a single one. Then this summer, we had wild strawberries ALL over thanks to the greedy critters pooping seeds all over. This year I finally got a handful of delicious, perfectly ripe berries and the critters ate the wild ones. Perennial, self-propagating, and delicious. What else could you want?
Goats (milk, cheese, lawn care), alpacas (wool), and maybe a few bee hives for honey to make mead. But I don’t know how to properly care for any of these creatures so it’s best I leave it to those who do.
cannabis
So much of it. Also shrooms. But eh, all of that can be done in a closet these days.
But honestly, just eke out an existence as a cannabis grower is my dream life.
Dank, beans and chilis.
Apples and Bees. Although where I live there’s plenty of orchards and they produce some stunning Honey. So it would be more of a personal thing where I’d produce apple cider and meads for the long winter nights.
You could open a whole restaurant chain with those.
How far apart do you need to plant the bees?
3 bumblebums wide ?
Figs. Straight figs. They’re delicious, they sell for a decent price because finding ripe figs at the supermarket is practically impossible, and they’re easily propagated by cuttings, which sell for a decent amount of money.
I love figs so much.
Next is corn, but not sweet corn. Field corn , what’s used to make corn flour, masa, grits, etc. there are many varieties, like Blue corn, purple corn, and red corn, all of which are healthy and taste fantastic. You can use purple corn to make chicha morada, a Peruvian drink. Just keep in mind the kernels are seeds and therefore representative of the two parent plants. If you plant different types together, like blue and red, and they cross pollinate, the resultant corn kernels will be a variety of blue, red, and hybrid blue/red.
The last few days I’ve been craving cloudberry and fantasising about growing them at home, so…
Probably what I’m gardening now, but more? Tomatoes. Strawberries. Pickling cucumbers. Jalapeños.
Grow: fat
Keep: to myselfI would add sugarcane to the list. Its juice is pretty good and it’s a “plant and forget it” type of crop. Just don’t overdo it. The seedlings from one single sugarcane are more than enough.
- pine nuts
- ostriches
- bees
irish wolfhounds
They are beautiful but such short lifespan that I couldn’t deal with it. I’d have a kennel of borzoi to guard my alpacas and maybe a couple of sheep dogs to keep all said in check.
A small plot for my own use, maybe in a greenhouse, and the rest solar panels connected to the grid.
You could buy old solar panels when people upgrade, they aren’t efficient but very cheap.
I’d love to be able to grow what I eat every day:
Onions
Carrots
Broccoli
Spinach
Brussel Sprouts
TomatoesChickens
I have no idea how to do this, and I don’t think I’d be very good at it.
Chickens are pretty easy as long as they have access to the outdoors. Keep topping up the chickfeed, keep any foxes and cats away, and they’ll be OK as long as the climate is on your (their) side.
