Newbie Homestead Projects

In the last few months, I’ve changed the directions of my thinking towards how my sweat equity will affect my great-grandchildren’s future. For myself and my husband, I don’t believe we will see the majority of the trees on the properties produce abundance yet I believe my grand and great-grandchildren will see them produce food crops. In order to start preparing you for that mindset, if you haven’t already sat down and mapped out your one to five year plan of food abundance, now is the time to sit down and do so.

I would recommend that you take on one large project at a time until you get into the habit of seeing if you have the energy to not only keep up with the first project, but begin the engineering of another project. If you have children, now is the time to take them under your wing and start showing them how to provide not only for themselves but for their siblings should something happen to you or your spouse.

While many individuals want to take on setting up their whole homestead in one go, you will likely develop what we call, “Homestead Burnout” and it will negatively affect your family. Yet again, I’ve done my research to narrow down the most successful and productive projects that experienced homesteaders have found success in and even listed the projects they recommend avoiding. You can find videos and articles on how to set up the projects or care for the animals in various locations online that are recommended.

Recommended Projects:

• Medicinal Garden
• Vegetable Garden
• Chicken Coop w/ small flock
• Herbal Garden
• Perennial Fruit Trees
• Sweet Potato Patch
• Planter & Vertical Gardens
• Trained Farm Dog
• Mouse Hunting Barn Cats
• Hutch w/ Breeding Pair of Rabbits
• Rain Catchment System
• Worm Composting

While you may be tempted, there are some projects that really aren’t worth the financial or time investment for new homesteaders to explore. Just because The Little House on the Prairie did it, doesn’t mean you should take it up tomorrow.

• Planting Grains/Grasses – the land requirement for growing grains/grasses is quite a lot which means your price per acre will be very expensive, the processing of these plants will require heavy machinery which will put you in debt and the chemicals used in commercial farming are fairly toxic.
• Raising Cows & Goats – Not only are you ill advised to purchase these animals as a new homesteader, but they are a herd animal which means a significant financial investment to get a decent sized herd. If you add to this the incredible financial hit of feeding them and their veterinarian care you’ll see them consume any potential profit from side hustle business.
• Bee Hives – There is such a delicate balance within the bee hives on any property that you truly must have a fair amount of experience to navigate bringing this particular project on your homestead. Yes, you do get honey, propolis, and young queens and even sell entire colonies as a form of income, but the time investment and knowledge required is not for new homesteaders.
• Exotic 4-legged Animals – Most “exotic” animals like llamas and alpacas are nothing more than financial losses due to them not bringing in any real income for the homestead. Yes, you can have them as something unique on your farm for visitors if you are running that type of farm, but all they do is consume food and occasionally attack people and other farm animals. They are not worth the time or investment for even the petting zoo type homesteads.
• Turkeys – These creatures are known to be territorial and aggressive so they will attack children and other farm animals. The only financial investment you might see is the seasonal purchasing of a bird around Thanksgiving or Christmas and you have to wait almost all year just to see that while investing a fair amount in feeding them.
• Exotic Birds – With the exception of Guinea Fowl as a natural property alarm, most exotic bird species like quail, peacock, emu and ducks are not worth the investment. They can be particularly aggressive, but there just isn’t a good chunk of cash these animals will bring into the homestead. Oh, and just a special shout out of discontentment towards ducks, those guys poop everywhere they possibly can!
• Large Green House – If you are a small 2-4 person family living on an acre or two, a commercial sized greenhouse is not worth the financial investment if you live in the state of Florida. Here in the Fire Nation, you will get all the lovely sun and heat you could possibly need and with such a small window of true winter temperatures you can get a small table style or vertical small greenhouse for your vegetable starts to grow in.
• Horses/Donkeys – Feed, Housing and Vet costs will assure that you will never recoup your initial cost and to top that, you need many acres otherwise the poor creatures will potential suffer health consequences. At times, these animals can be quite aggressive and will have no problem stomping small animals or children if they are startled or feel threatened.
• Pigs – While an experienced farmer could take on the task of these creatures, a new one shouldn’t due to the need for vet care, multiples acres to accommodate rotational grazing and feed cost.  If you decide after a few years that you want to take one raising these creatures, I would recommend watching videos and reading books by a farmer named Joel Salatin.
• Nut Trees – In many other states you can freely have the weather conditions needed to establish mature nut trees on your property, however the only two real meaty nut trees we Floridians can have are pecans or chestnuts. Due to the amount of time it takes for nut trees to mature, it’s certainly not worth the financial investment to plant acres of them but a handful in your food forest is acceptable. Though, I would caution against investing money in these in the first few years until you have established other projects.
• Growing Mushrooms – While there are numerous videos of individuals who grow mushrooms in their home, it involves a fairly decent up front cost and the education needed just makes it something first time homesteaders might not invest in.   Even with the education and time, you still have to find a buyer at a local restaurant that will happily take your excess.
• Aquaponics – There is a large upfront cost, especially if you want to use fish in your set up, this is not for the faint hearted. I honestly don’t think this would work well in a grid down scenario if you don’t have solar based set ups for all the electronics that can be woven into these set ups. If you do decide later to try aquaponics, I would recommend not attempting growing non-native fish species. There are some aquaponics commercial set ups out there trying to do salmon but they require such specific care that the cost of them will be passed onto the consumer. Tilapia is fairly commonly raised fish but in recent years we  have seen this species get into the natural Florida waterways and cause problems. Chanel cats, bream and bass are great natives to grow for you eventual set up.
• Cut Flowers – If you want to include flowers for pollinators within your gardens above, that’s a logical addition but when I say cut flowers I’m referring specifically to the side hustle of growing flowers for the purpose of income. While seed is cheap, you will have to know your market and will need to assure that all flowers are blooming at almost the same time for u-pick.