How To Make An Income From Your Homestead Successfully

So you are a homesteader now! You have your land, you are growing vegetables and herbs. You have learned some new skills. So, you are well on your way to enjoy your new lifestyle. Now that the foundation is laid it is time to figure out how you will make an income from your homestead.

We all need money. As homesteaders, money seems to be even more important and harder to come by don’t you think? You probably already have some source of income whether it be a spouse or significant other with a full-time job, or a job yourself. You may even currently make an income from your homestead, even if it is minimal. Today I am providing you with a list of possible ways to make even more money with the homestead you already have you may not have thought of.

How To Make An Income From Your Homestead

There are so many ways to make an income from your homestead. Some are obvious and others you may not have thought of. Freelance Typographers often ply their trade from a homestead. Other ideas may not pertain to you, such as selling fresh eggs if you don’t have chickens, for example. I have tried to break this list down by the different “areas” of a typical homestead to help you easily identify ways of making money that relates to you. Shall we dive in?

Making an Income From Animals

There is always a way to make an income when you own animals on your homestead. Everything from cows to chickens and alpacas to puppies includes some way to make money. Let look at some of those money-making options first.

Making an Income From Your Land

Owning or even renting some area of land can also provide an income for your homestead. These ideas are ways to use the actual land as an income, as gardening will be discussed next.

Open Land:

Open pasture can be rented out to other people if it is fenced in for cattle, sheep, goats, or horses. You decide per acre what you will charge for a monthly rental and they, in turn, will pay you to keep their animals on it. Please make sure there is a concise and clear agreement on who is responsible for what. The last thing you need is a coyote or worse coming onto the property and killing someone else’s animal and the owner comes after you for it. Make this clear right from the start.

Open pasture can also be planted for the season and cut to provide hay to local farmers. Besides hay, if you know of an in-demand crop for your area, why not plant that in that open field and sell the harvest!

Lastly, you could consider renting the land for weddings, outdoor festivities, or even for camping. Just make sure you check local zoning ordinances first.

Buildings:

If you have a barn on your property you have an excellent way to make an income from your homestead. Barn weddings or other parties are quite the rage where I live and a lot of homesteaders will rent their barn out for events!

You can also rent stalls in your barn for horses as a good way to make an income. Some people have converted their barns into homes and rent them as a vacation home or an Airbnb.

Do you have a workshop or an empty building? You can make it into a DIY workshop and teach classes for just about anything. I know a few homesteaders who teach candle making, canning and pioneer skills in workshops on their homestead.

Wooded Land: 

Do you have a lot of trees on your land? When you clear out some of the lands why not chop and sell firewood. Maybe you have Maple trees. Start making maple syrup! Both allow you to make an income.

Making an Income From Your Gardens:

You can easily make an income from your gardens! Selling fruit, berries, produce and herbs are all money makers! Instead of planting just what you need for your family why not grow extra and sell them at a produce stand both on and off your property?

Vegetable Gardens: 

Selling your excess of vegetables can provide an income for your homestead. Check out the local produce markets in your area. If grown organically you can even get a better price for your veggies. And once you establish a reputation, customers will buy repeatedly. Also, check your local zoning, you may be able to sell canned vegetables too! Where I live we sell vegetables from a farm stand right at home on our property.

You can also start veggie seedlings and sell the starter plants locally. If you save the seeds from your vegetables, package them up and start a seed catalog. Heirloom, non-GMO and organic seeds are in demand and will be for a long time.

Herb Gardens:

Just as in growing vegetables, herbs are big sellers! Why not increase your herb garden and sell those extras. There are so many ways to sell herbs. A few suggestions are listed here;

• Sell them freshly picked
• Offer dehydrated herbs for longer keeping
• make oils with herbs infused in them, sell at market
• talk to local restaurants, they may buy fresh herbs on a constant flow from local growers
• use the herbs to make soaps, bath products, and other products to sell
• sell starter plants and/or seeds

Orchards and Berry Patches:

Do you grow an orchard with fruit? Or how about a large blueberry patch, for example? Why not start a u-pick during the harvest season? Popular U-picks include oranges, peaches, blueberries, blackberries, and grapes. But any fruit or berry grown in abundance on your property can make an income for your homestead.

We sell blackberries and passion fruit on our property. Even if we don’t make a huge income, every little bit helps!

Make an Income From Your Kitchen:

You have the means to make an income from your kitchen too. Do you bake bread or pastries, or maybe cookies regularly? Why not make extras and sell them locally. At our farmers market, we can buy bread, cookies, pies and more!

Do you preserve by canning? How about jams and jellies? If you make these, there is another way to make an income!

Do you cook from scratch? Maybe you should consider making an e-book and offering it on Amazon Kindle. Or make a printed version and market it to local places. Self-publishing is hip right now so jump in and try it out.

Other options:

• homemade soaps
• bath products
• beauty products
• DIY cleaners
• homemade dog treats

Making An Income From Equipment and Tools:

You may be surprised how many options you have to make an income on your homestead just by using the tools and equipment you already own. Have a tractor? Offer your services with it! Any piece of farm equipment can be used to make money. Start offering your services to others!

Do you own blacksmithing tools? Why not start teaching the trade? Many preppers will buy knives, bows, arrows, even self-made bullets! Offer your services to the elderly, like weeding and planting or mowing and trimming shrubs for example.

Making an Income With Your Voice:

Did you read that right? Yes, you did. You can easily make an income by talking. How about speaking at homesteading events and local events on a topic you know a lot about? You may not get paid from all events but many do especially if they get to know like and trust you. Teach at 4-H, try the local agricultural center.

Another option…start a YouTube channel. Share what you do on your homestead or teach something a few times a month. It takes a while to be able to make an income on YouTube, but it is definitely possible. Do you feel funny being live on a camera? Then record your voice as you record something you are teaching.

Make an Income With The Internet:

My best option for making an income while homesteading is starting a blog! It is super affordable and there are so many ways to monetize your blog to make an income! For less than 20 dollars a month you can start blogging today.

Don’t want to type? Then how about selling pictures? If you have a beautiful piece of property, why not take some pictures and offer them for sale on the internet. There are endless sites that will pay you for your pictures! And trust me, bloggers love real pictures! You can also use the internet to invest in commodities like oil for example – moreover, in recent years online trading platforms like Oil Profit have soared in popularity so do not be afraid to check some of them out if trading sounds like something that interests you – accordingly, you can read some reviews of Oil Profit (erfahrung mit öl profit) on the ETF Nachrichten website.

Final Thoughts:

There are many ways to make an income from your homestead. These listed ideas above are only a small portion of the ideas you can use to get started today. Most don’t require any investment and can even include things you already have or do on your homestead! So take what you have and what you already do and figure out how you can make an income on your homestead right now.