Make money homesteading and start enjoying more time doing what you love. No matter the size of your property or the season that you too can join the growing trend of homesteaders making an extra income.
In this post I’ll show you the little known ways you can make money homesteading, and how to actually get started! Let’s do this!
I’ve compiled a list of ways to make money from our homestead over our beginning years to share with you. Some of these things I’ve learned from either experience, others I’ve heard from fellow neighbours and through other homesteaders online.
Okay, so you have a need to make more money, you have a love for gardening, or acerage you want to take adavantage of. I get it! When we bought our 10 acre farm 5 years ago we wanted to retire early with the amount of ideas and opportunities out there!
MAKE MONEY HOMESTEADING
YES! It’s totally possible, let me help you turn that money sucking hobby into a profitable side hustle you’ll be proud to talk about.
Then somehow you get burnout, overwhelmed and exhausted before you even start. Yup, I’ve been there and it’s the very last thing I want for you!
Far to often, opportunity and excitement turns into a lost cause without guidance. It’s horrible to see, especially when young people like us want to go back to our roots and the land to farm.
The older generation time and time again tells us that there is no money in farming, and on the news and in the paper we see farms being sold off to developments or going under to larger corporations. You’ve seen this, its happening everywhere and tell me if I’m wrong you may have shed a tear over it.
But we aren’t going to let that happen.
Today I’m going to show you specifically how you can make money homesteading.
HOW TO MAKE MONEY HOMESTEADING
Start today and take 10 minutes of your time to reflect and set goals for the year to bring in more of an income from your home using our Homestead Business Planning Workbook. Access yours below.
By mastering your productivity, anything is possible!
Including earning a real income from your homestead.
47 Ways to Make A Living Homesteading
SELL SEEDLINGS
Make money from the garden by starting with a plan. One simple way to make money from seedlings in the early spring is to plant extra seeds and sell excess. Options to sell are endless, try hosting a plant sale or simply posting online.
They supplied their heirloom vegetable starters and dahlias to most of the neighbourhood from their very small backyard greenhouse. Now I start most of my plants by seed and save a ton of money with my vegetable garden.
HOST A PLANT SALE
With the extra seedlings I have I plan on hosting a plant sale like the couple up the road I mentioned above. Stephanie Rose from Garden Therapy write s a simple how to get started guide for hosting a plant sale.
SELL GARLIC
A huge cash crop- We just planted 50 bulbs of garlic this fall. I know we will have excess to sell and seed garlic to plant a larger crop next year.
HEIRLOOM SEEDS
Save your seeds at the end of the growing season. Use them for the next year and market them to sell at farmers markets or on Etsy. Lindsay from PNW Heirloom Seed runs a profitable business this way, and her instagram photos are drool worthy to say the least. Postage is cheap on tiny little seeds.
Start a seed savings bank, organize seeds for your family garden or start selling seeds as a side hustle with these super helpful seed saving tips for beginners.
HERB AND MEDICINAL GARDENING
Medicinal and culinary herbs are easy to grow as they are perennials and quite profitable. For examples, we have an endless supply of lemon balm behind our chicken coop. There is a market for perrennial herbs as they are used to make herbal remedies, infuse oil, honey and soaps.
That’s why I’m highly considering taking The Herbal Academy of New England has great online courses for herbal entrepreneurs. The Academy offers courses designed for students with little or no herbal experience along with botany and wildcrafting courses.
TAKE THE COURSE
The Herbal Academy of New England has great online courses for herbal entrepreneurs. The Academy offers courses designed for students with little or no herbal experience along with botany and wildcrafting courses
SELL AT A FARMERS MARKET
It’s possible to make ALOT of money from a market garden. Grow and sell vegetables at your local farmers market or sell produce boxes. The Market Garden Book is widely popular right now as many people want to learn how the author managed to make $100,000 for 1.5 acres.
RELATED: SELLING AT A FARMERS MARKET
CUT FLOWERS
Rustic farm weddings are all the rage right now. One idea for making money is to supply flowers for events such as weddings. Another idea is to offer bouquet subscriptions or sell the flowers at farmers markets. Theres a big market for flowers right now. The Cut Flower Garden by Floret Farm’s is a huge best seller at the moment for a good reason!
THIS FLOWER IS BEGINNER FRIENDLY & POPULAR FOR WEDDING SEASON
SELL EGGS
Chickens are a great first farm animal to raise. There are a ton of ways you can do so for cheap. Sell the eggs. People pay for farm fresh, free range, organic eggs. We sell ours at $5.00/doz. I know other farmers that will sell them for more. It’s a great way to start building customers, when you get started.
RELATED: RAISING BACKYARD CHICKENS FOR BEGINNERS
HATCHING EGGS
Make money from your coop by selling fertilized chicken, duck, turkey, guinea fowl, pea fowl eggs for hatching. Offer a barnyard mix with a variety of breeds with one rooster for an arrangement of coloured eggs.
Heritage and rare chicken breeds can go for a lot of money. It’s not unheard of to make $1000 a month hatching and selling day old chicks
DAY OLD CHICKS
Incubate any of the above eggs yourself to sell as day olds. Or use a broody hen to hatch the eggs for you or even a teacher to hatch with their class. I’ve written a beginners incubation guide to hatch your own eggs to help you improve your hatch rates and make money from the chicks.
Sell your day old chicks as straight-run, which means they aren’t sexed. Some will be roosters and some are hens. Mixed breed chicks go for $5 each, where as pure heritage breed chicks will go for much more. Anna has a great guide on hatching chicks for a profit.
PEOPLE PAY $20 + FOR LAYING HENS
Raise chicks until they are at the point of laying eggs. There is a popular market for hens that just started laying eggs. This is a longer investment, and costs more to raise the chicks to the point of laying and requires more space than just selling chicks. Point a lay hens average about $20 + each.
LEARN HOW TO RAISE CHICKS TO EGG LAYING
RAISE MEAT BIRDS
Raising chickens for meat is one way to make money from your homestead. Raising meat birds can be a lot of work to get started, but its a quick and profitable return. Sell raise broilers during Spring and Summer and raise and sell enough to have enough chicken to last the year.
LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW TO RAISE MEAT BIRDS
RAISE MEAT RABBITS
Meat rabbits is a great option for making money raising small livestock if you space is limited. My friend Leah, at Leah‘s Lovely Lops has a great website about her Rabbitry business and how to start your own.
SELL GRASS FED LOCAL BEEF
Raise a herd of beef cattle to sell. Depending on the size of property you have, you might raise a few steers for butcher or have a herd of cows and a bull.
SELL CALVES
If you raise beef, consider selling beef calves once weaned from their mothers and sell them as steers or a pregnant cow.
RAISE LAMBS
Lamb is a specialty meat that most people like to purchase straight from the farmer. You can easily get a lamb for $150 to keep the grass down on your field and at the end of the season send them in to butcher. We had success selling lamb our first year on the homestead.
TURKEYS
I recommend raising turkeys for fall celebrations. Whites are a high yield bird and most people want a farm fresh pasture raised organic turkey to feed their family for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Want more...
HOW TO START RAISING FARM ANIMALS FOR BEGINNERS
SELL POOP ... YUP
Sell Manure to gardeners. We are able to sell horse manure, cow manure and chicken manure. Urban gardeners are happy to know where their manure source comes.
COMPOST
Compost is a great way to help gardeners fill their raised garden beds quickly and is more cost effective than buying bags of compost and soil from the store.
CUT HAY
Use your own hay equipment to cut and sell hay. We've found many neighbours that will exchange the hay for your services. It's a great way to save on hay for your own animals if not get enough for free.
Start your own hay cutting business. We bought old used equipment and with a little elbow grease we got it up and working in time for haying season and it paid it self off with the first few cuts of the season.
HAY SALES
Selling your hay off the field may be an option if you have lots of unused fields. Cut hay with your own equipment or pay a farmer to cut it for you and sell it off the field for 2x as much as you paid the farmer to cut it.
MAKE MONEY HOMESTEADING
YES! It's totally possible, we make money selling hay every summer...
GROCERY STORE FARMERS BOX
I've seen other homesteaders in my area offer a weekly seasonal farm box for sale on facebook, community groups and postings for approx. $20. Set a price and fill boxes with seasonal produce, eggs, honey, whatever farm products you currently have excess of.
Offer a pick up time at the farm or do deliveries. It's a great way to start building customers.
LEARN MORE ABOUT SELLING AT A FARMERS MARKET
SELL MILK
If you raise goats or cows, consider selling their milk. I suggest checking your local regulations for fresh milk products before diving into the business of selling unpasteurized milk products.
RELATED: RAISING GOATS
YOU PICK FRUIT PATCH
Choose a high valued fruit crop that grows well in your area, and a "you pick" that isn't for miles and the customers will pour in. Hopefully this year we will have enough blueberries that we will have to start a new tradition for our family.
RELATED: HOW TO PLANT FRUIT TREES
SELL FRUIT FROM THE ORCHARD
Selling fruit from your orchard may be one way to make some extra cash. Mark up the fruit higher if you picked it yourself and sold it as a roadside stand, at your local farmers market or to a local grocery store.
MAKE MONEY HOMESTEADING
YES! It's totally possible, we just planted our orchard and I can't wait for this next step in our business plan!
MAPLE SYRUP
As a Canadian Homesteader I should already be doing this! There's a huge market for this liquid gold, maple syrup. Selling maple syrup is a great niche if you already have maple, birch and walnut trees on your property.
Trees are tapped and maple syrup is made during the off season of farming and gardening. Ashley from Practical Self Reliance lays out the ground work for starting your own small maple syrup operation. I also recommend getting started with this guide.
WRITE A HOMESTEAD BLOG
In searching for ways to make money from home and from our homestead I often found that most homesteaders are writing about their experiences as bloggers.
Blogging is a great way to network with other Homesteaders. Learn how to make money FAST when you start your own homesteading blog. Check out my list of resources for homestead bloggers to get started today!
LEARN MORE ABOUT STARTING A HOMESTEAD BLOG
SELL CANNED GOODS
With a bountiful garden and orchard, it's easy to preserve food for your family and sell the excess. If you love canning, you could also offer your services to others that might like their fruit turned into yummy jams or jellies etc. Apples are a great fruit to preserve.
Check out our recipes and labels to help get you started.
CHRISTMAS TREE FARM
I have a friend that grew up on a Christmas tree farm. I remember going to a Christmas Tree farm, cutting down the tree, having a cup of hot chocolate and a cookie and really enjoying the experience. If you love the magic of Christmas this might be an option for you, and shockingly enough it doesn't take up a ton of space!
Read more about starting a Christmas Tree Farm here.
CRAFTING
What homestead handiwork are you exceptional at? Wether it's knitting, crocheting, sewing or needlework there's always a market for homemade crafts.
Create an online marketplace on Etsy, sell through instagram and facebook. This is a great option for keeping busy during the winter and selling at holiday markets.
START YOUR OWN ETSY SHOP
My best friend sells hand knit toques on Instagram alone!
Here are some craft ideas to get you started
SOAP
This seems to be the number one selling item at farmers markets. If you have livestock and a herb garden you can easily make soap using your own ingredients. You can sell soap on facebook, farmers markets and on Etsy. I'll be learning from this book.
HONEY
Beekeeping is an art form and with its success comes liquid gold. I suggest you do your research first and take a course from a local beekeeper. I also recommend the book, Beekeeping: Everything you need to know to start your first beehive. Crystal and Karl have a great article on how to package, store and sell honey.
HIDES
If you raise livestock, it's a good idea to use as much of the animal as possible. My husband is currently working away at the essential homesteading skill of tanning hides. He hopes to tan our Scottish Highland hides. These go for thousands of dollars to the right buyers. I suggest starting with smaller animals like rabbits.
RENT SPACE
Rent a field for grazing or a stall for animal boarding. Wether you rent a room with Airbnb or your house and live in the trailer for the summer.
BOARD ANIMALS
If you have a paddock, a stall, hay storage or just a field you can earn a minimum of $100 and up a month per horse. We offer self horse boarding on our property.
Read more about boarding horses as an income source here.
HOST AN OPEN HOUSE
The farmers market in our area is not as exciting as it used to be. We love purchasing from other farmers to just get a sneak peak at what they are up to on their properties.
It's part of the experience. Hosting a spring plant sale, harvest festival or holiday craft fair is one way to bring customers to your products.
OFFER FIELD TRIPS FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES
By offering a tour of your homestead and farm, children learn valuable lessons. They learn animal husbandry, they learn about where their food comes from and they get excited about being outdoors.
It's a win win for your community. Have the children help with farm chores by feeding scratch to the chickens, collecting eggs, planting out seeds in the garden etc.
As a teacher, I often bring my class to see where chicks we hatch live etc. The students love it.
HOST AN EVENT
Like I said above, rustic farm weddings are all the rage right now. There are many young couples looking for a farm to host their wedding at. People will pay at least a $2000 to rent a field. My advice is to make sure you have proper event insurance.
MAKE MONEY WITH A CAMPGROUND
Campsites seem to over flow these days. Open a field as a designated campsite in the summer seasons. Just make sure to check with your bylaws first.
I know a family that is able to live the homestead dream with a campsite on their property and a small farm market that sells seasonal produce, local meats, baking and of course ICE CREAM!
Not wanting to create a whole campsite on your property? Rent out a corner of your land for campers to pitch a tent and use Hip Camp to do so! It's not until I was writing this article that I found this awesome site.
OFFER SELF STORAGE
Offer open air storage or unused equipment sheds to rent storage space for RV's and boats. Renting storage is an easy way for passive income. Research costs in your area for storage.
GRAFT FRUIT TREES FOR PROFIT
I just bought a grafted Gravestine apple tree from an apple farm and signed up for her summer grafting course. I've been reading what others have to say when it comes to grafting fruit trees! Check it out.
RELATED: HOW TO PLANT FRUIT TREES
GROW OR HARVEST WILD MUSHROOMS
Mushrooms are a specialty crop that be grown on a small property. Oyster and Shiitake mushrooms are a booming market. Foraging wild mushrooms such as Chanterelles are a great option for urban homesteaders.
LEARN MORE ABOUT MUSHROOMS HERE
GROW LAVENDER FOR ESSENTIAL OILS
Who doesn't love the smell and sense of calm brought on by lavender? Lavender is a specialty cash crop. It is a great option for small growers. Options for selling lavender include fresh bundles, dried lavender sachets and aromatherapy oils.
LAVENDER LOOKS BEAUTIFUL DISPLAYED IN THIS CENTERPIECE
MORE LAVENDER FARM PRODUCTS IN THIS POST
WORM FARMING
This book helps you get set up worm farming all you need is red wigglers to start. People will purchase worms for their compost piles, their gardens and for fishing.
GROW FRUIT TREES FROM SEED
It's easy to grow fruit trees from seed for profit with a little know how. Citrus trees like lemon and orange trees can be started and grown indoors. Read this guide here for details
PUMPKIN PATCH
This is our favourite fall harvest activity to attend in October. A local farmer hosts a pumpkin festival with all things pumpkins including a large variety of heirloom pumpkins for purchase.
Sell pumpkin pie & pumpkin lattes in your barn. Bowl with pumpkins or purchase a pumpkin to catapult into an empty field. Grow a corn maze or build a small children's hay maze. Have a photographer come and take festive photos. The ideas are endless. Everyone loves pumpkins!
OFFER A CORN MAZE
There is a local farm in our area that has a fun corn maze as the draw to a harvest festival. Here's this article on how to do it and do it well.
TURN YOUR HOMESTEAD INTO A FULL TIME INCOME
There are endless ways to make money from home. No matter the space you have, the ideas and options are endless. Don't let those ideas go to waste or become a source of overwhelm! Let me help you with the next step.
MAKE MONEY HOMESTEADING
YES! It's totally possible, let me help you turn that money sucking hobby into a profitable side hustle you'll be proud to talk about.
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This list of course is just a start on the endless ideas out there but one I hope you'll refer to later as you discover ways to add to your homestead income. I'd love to hear what you think and how you make money from your homestead, please comment below!
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Promises To Make To Your Husband says
Thanks for the excellent content. Wish to see even more shortly. Thanks again and keep up the great work!
Jen says
These are some great tips. I am not a homesteader but my SIL would love to read this. Gonna pass it along.
Sandra Tanner says
I love these suggestions on how to make money at home. These are very sustainable ideas.
Desiree says
Wow, so many ways to earn a living! Who knew!! Great read.
Amanda says
These are great ideas on how to make money on a homestead! Thanks for sharing.
Ariana Dagan says
What a great list of ideas! I thought I had planted a small herb garden last year…whoa. I have enough dehydrated goodies to last us a few years. I had to freeze stuff, give stuff away…maybe this year I should experiment with the excess and see if I can sell it….thanks for the inspiration!
Diana says
Best of luck!