“Is anyone going to show up?” “Do we have enough insurance?” “Will we lose the farm?” At 9:01 p.m., the night before an opening, these and similar questions creep into my mind. These are the “What if’s” that can kill a beautiful dream. Of course at 9:01 a.m. the process repeats. –BUILD IT RIGHT, THEY […]

Dairy goats make a great addition to any homestead. They are a small, easy to manage dairy animal that most moderately-sized homesteads can support. There is a wide margin for profit with dairy goats. Below are some ideas to get you started.   The Obvious…Dairy Right?   It might seem obvious that the way to […]

I would raise fiber goats whether I made money on them or not. I love our goats, and I love working with fiber in all its forms. It is incredibly interesting to me to work with a product from its very roots (the goat) to a finished usable product, (a pair of socks, sweaters, blanket […]

Going to the fiber mill is one of my favorite things to do. We always go to the fiber mill after the second shearing in September. We bring our fiber to the Woolen Mill in Frankenmuth, Mi. There is a large chicken show held the second weekend of October, so we try to make a […]

If you have lots of extra goat milk, and you’re tired of just feeding it to your pigs and chickens, what can you do with it that would also bring in a little extra income? Most people immediately think of selling milk, ice cream, yogurt, or cheese, but those types of businesses require a big […]

Excerpted from Market Farming Success by Lynn Byczynski Scheduling After you have completed the exercise of figuring out how much to grow in order to meet income targets, you can get to work filling in your planting calendar. You can do this with a pencil on a big paper calendar or use a computer. First, […]

We are coming into our third harvest season in a couple of months. Hard to believe. I am sitting outside in one of my spots, watching the leaves fall around me. It’s one of those days where I can close my eyes and hear them falling onto the forest floor. It is unseasonably warm today. As […]

We plant rows of sunflowers every year here in the gardens at Pleasant Valley Farm. These beautiful flowers provide a surprising number of benefits! Our garden field is roadside, next to our farm stand. Each spring it’s exciting to see tidy rows of vegetable plants. But as the season progresses, it seems each year the […]

The Importance of Signage   We just closed down our U-Pick sunflower field for the year. The petals have fallen and the beautiful flowers have gone to seed. I was blown away by the turn out and interest we experienced this first year. With little advertising investment and a low traffic location I expected maybe […]

Create a Beautiful Homestead by Using the 3 R’s Franny has created a beautifully decorated space to operate her business from, and she did it with very low costs by reusing, recycling, and reclaiming! Find Homestead Hustle on Facebook – Network with us on LinkedIn! For more Homestead videos and good advice visit The MOTHER EARTH NEWS and […]