Lavender Farm and making a living
Tuesday afternoon, I played
hooky and went to the Scott
County Lavender Farm with my mom and some friends. The farm
seems like a great ecotourism business on the surface --- attract folks
to the beauty and scent of lavender, then sell them all kinds of
related products. Unfortunately, the farm was closed and going to
weeds.
Our visit just confirmed a feeling I've had for quite a while --- the
best homestead businesses aren't physically farm-related. We've
given various options a shot, from a little CSA to selling native
wildflowers. But when I do the math, I always discover that on a
small, homestead
microbusiness scale, these ventures barely pay minimum wage.
Even before our current recession, people in our area complained about
the lack of good jobs, a constant problem in rural areas. But I
feel strongly that in our current world, anyone with imagination and
gumption can make a living through learning a useful skill and taking
advantage of the internet. Then you can save your farming for
yourself, putting all of that love and time into your vegetables so
that it flows right back into yourself.
Several people have asked for advice on starting a homestead
microbusiness, and I've been starting to compile a lot of pointers
about what we've learned with Mark's chicken waterer
invention. Assuming I don't play hooky too many more times, I
hope to have an ebook out for folks to read in a couple of
months. Stay tuned!
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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