Thursday, February 14, 2008

Farm List of Income Streams

Here is a peek into the inner workings of our farm. I thought I'd just jot down a list of our current farm income streams in case some of you are interested:

- organic eggs - producing, cleaning, grading & marketing of eggs from our flock of 299 layer hens plus cleaning, grading & marketing of the eggs from two other 299 layer flocks that we have under contract producing for our markets.



- pasture-raised organic poultry - we're planning to increase from 550 to 1000 birds this summer.



- organic SK. Carmine Jewel sour cherries - 1400 lbs. last year, our first year of production. This year there will likely be more, barring inclement weather. This new product is gaining a great local following quickly, though there is also the reality of a glut on the market in the forseeable future because so many orchards have been planted in recent years that will soon be in full production.

We pitted the cherries last summer using a commercial pitter, got that done in 1.5 hours and then we spent the rest of that morning packaging the pitted cherries. We took them home and froze them, so we've been selling them frozen throughout the winter. The last 250 lbs. were just spoken for by a local resturanteur yesterday.

- farmer's market - we started with the local Community Farmer's market late last summer. My loveable Farmer & a couple of our sons really enjoyed this venue selling extra organic eggs, fresh & frozen cherries plus baked goods using the cherries and my organic whole wheat bread.


... and some possibilities for the future:

- market garden produce

- pastured beef

- pastured lamb

- pastured turkeys

- bees 'n' honey

We may add more, as God leads us along this agrarian entrepreneurial journey.

What kind of income streams do you have? I invite you to share ideas with everyone reading this by leaving a comment? Thanks.

And may God add His blessings to you as well.

1 comment:

Derek said...

Hi there,

My wife told me about your Blog through the yahoo homeschoolerhaven group. I am very excited to see your family running a small family farm. You see, God has put this "Back to the land" idea into my heart for a couple of years and I finally made the move 2 years ago. We lived now at Pefferlaw Ontario on 10-acre. I always wanted to start something in farming but I have read and seen so many farmers struggle, barely supporting themselves. I still don't have the courage to quit my day job and dive into farming. However, Lord willing, I hope someday I don't have to work outside but can stay home and help my wife to homeschool my 5 girls. I want to be able to teach them a correct working attitude by having them work beside me.
BTW, we also have a website about our faith, country life and health product.
http://www.littleapplesofgold.com

May I ask which part of Canada do you live?

Derek Chan