by Moinuddin
Homesteading allows you to cherish nature and reduce your ecological footprint. The soil, plants, livestock, and poultry help you to bond with Mother Earth.
Apart from numerous practical benefits, homesteading showers immense joy.
I don’t know what prompted you to start homesteading; we all need money to survive and live the life that we dream of.
Fortunately, there are many ways to make money from homesteading, irrespective of how many acres of land you own.
You must be creative to try different income streams from the homesteading business.
Whether you’re a full-time homesteader or a modern homesteader looking for a side hustle, with proper plan and continuous work, you can make a living from homesteading.
As an encouragement, let’s start with a real-life example of a farmer who is making 6 figures in income a year with little over an acre of farmland.
Andrew of@indian_summer_farmworks 35 hours a week. He mostly grows veggies on his farm.
Andrew does everything himself, including preparing the soil, sowing seeds, planting seedlings, raising garden beds, watering, inspecting plants, and harvesting.
- He just started with a super small crop you can easily manage, along with his night job.
- Determined to keep production at low cost to get more profit.
- Every year, Andrew upgrades one thing to his farm so that he has to do less work. For instance, adding drip irrigation.
- He has zero debt and is enjoying his time while earning 6 figure income annually.
You can check his videohere.
Before starting your homestead
- Try to keep your production cost low. As you’re into sustainable life, you must try to build crafts to reduce expenses. Commit to having a simple life to have a smooth homesteading journey.
- Saving is very important.
- Try to leverage multiple streams to generate income. For instance, start a dairy farm, raise poultry for meat, grow microgreens, and sell vermicompost.
People with large farms have loads of ways to earn, and so do with small farms.
Even with an acre farm, you can make a sustainable living by homesteading.
101 is a huge list; let me first put forward a few easy and best income ideas that most homesteaders can start.
Best way to make money as a homesteader
- Earn through poultry (sell eggs, meat, and chicks)
- Dairy Business (milk shares)
- Grow veggies and fruits to sell
- Make compost and sell
- Grow ornamental plants, and you can make extra money from cut flowers
- You can turn it into a nursery and sell seedlings
- Fresh and dried herbs can be sold
- Save seeds from your yield and sell them
- Offer homesteading teaching class
- Prepare homemade jams and jellies to earn a few bucks
- Grow and sell mushrooms
- Raise bees to sell organic honey
- Start a YouTube channel to share your homesteading experience
- You can also start a blog journal (like this one) to make decent money
- Take pictures of your farm to sell them online
- Raise worms
- Try different homestead crafts
The above list is more than enough for a new homesteader. Every list has multiple ways in itself, which I’ll explain below.
Make money from livestock
- Sell livestock manure as fertilizer
- Produce and selling milk
- Sell meat to the local market
- Breeding service of high-quality stock
- Sell animal pelts or hides
- Rent out animals for events
Income stream from poultry business
- Offer organic eggs to local markets or consumers
- Sell fresh chicken eggs and duck eggs
- Raise dual-purpose birds for meat
- Sell one-day-old chicks to fellow homesteaders
- Offer special birds for breeding
- Sell cleaned chicken feathers
- Offer manure to fertilize the garden organically
How to make money from sheep or goats?
- Raise them for meat
- Breeding
- Produce dairy products like cheese and yogurt from farm milk
- Raise sheep to sell wool
- Sell sheep manure as fertilizer
Raise rabbits for meat and start your income as a homesteader
- Raise suitable breeds for meat production
- Choose quality breeds to offer breeding service
- Learn to butcher rabbits and sell meat to local market
Beekeeping to earn money
- Raw and organic honey is a demanding product. Harvest and sell raw money.
- You can also sell beeswax candles, honeycomb products, and honey-based soaps
- Offer bee pollination service
- Conduct education workshop on bee farming
- Offer bee removal service in your locality
Grow veggies to make money
- Grow vegetables organically and sell them to consumers directly.
- Create a community where consumers subscribe monthly to get a share of your harvest.
- Rich out to local restaurants and vegetable markets to sell your farm-grown veggies.
- Hold educational classes on growing vegetables successfully.
- Plan for seasonal decorative items like pumpkins or corn stalks.
Mushrooms to make money
- Similar to veggies, you can grow organic mushrooms to sell in the market or to consumers directly.
- You can sell mushroom substrate or spent mushrooms to gardeners.
- Organize an event hosting mushroom-themed culinary dishes.
- Partner with restaurants and consumers every month.
- You have the opportunity to sell mushroom extracts that offer various health benefits.
Prepare Home-based foods
- Make a branded name and package for your homemade foods.
- Consider providing dietary-specific foods like gluten-free or vegan food items.
- For instance, you can choose jams, pickles, candles, baked goods, and jellies.
Making money online with homesteading
- Start a blog sharing your expertise on homesteading and gardening.
- Create how-to videos on homesteading and share your journey.
- Offer online courses or e-books teaching homesteading.
- You can sell handmade homesteading products online.
- Sell your unique photographs of homesteading.
- Create a homestead membership site.
Offer consulting business
- Offer remote gardening services
- Train new homesteaders on building homesteads and sustainable living.
- Share expertise on livestock.
- Conduct paid workshops on homesteading.
- Offer customized homestead plans.
Conduct classes for new homesteaders
- Sell your expertise in homesteading through online courses, e-books, or workshops.
- Start a podcast on homesteading.
Other ways to make money from the garden
- Store and sell seeds and seedlings.
- If you have a large gardening space, rent it out to others.
- Along with seeds, you can sell gardening tools and magazines.
- Provide gardening services like pruning and weeding.
- Host gardening tours.
- Make DIY crafts with items available in the garden.
- Grow ornamental plants to sell cut flowers.
Conclusion
You can turn your homesteading passion into living by diversifying your income streams.
Financial stability is important to continue as a homesteader.
Start with low-cost production, and don’t rush to take loans to do multiple things.
Like Andrew, start slowly and upgrade things every year.
New homesteaders must start with zero debt, as they won’t have the pressure to make profits right from the start.
Prepare to be resilient and mindful.
