What Your Skills Are Worth: Side Gigs for Your Homestead
The skills you’ve been building on your homestead (fermentation, preserving, seed saving, soil work, cooking from scratch, etc.) have real value to the people around you who don’t have them yet. You’ve been treating them as personal knowledge, which they are, but they’re also something more. They’re expertise, and that has a market.
This isn’t really a post about hustle culture or turning your homestead into a business empire. The goal here is to realize that the work you already do can generate income on the side without forcing you to compromise what the homestead is about or run yourself ragged in the process.
Start with What You Already Make
The most natural entry point for most homesteaders is selling what you’re already producing. If your garden gives you more than your household can eat, that surplus is income waiting to happen. A simple farm stand at the end of your driveway (even an honor-system stand with a cash box) can move a surprising amount of produce during peak season. Tomatoes, zucchini, herbs, sweet corn, winter squash, and fall greens are all very popular because they’re where grocery stores drop the ball in terms of quality and freshness.
Eggs are another good starting point if you have chickens. Fresh eggs from pastured hens sell fast, and you’ll build a loyal client base pretty quickly. The same is true for honey if you’re keeping bees, especially since raw local honey has both medicinal and culinary value you can’t get from the store.
Seedlings and starter plants are worth considering if you start more than you need each spring, which most gardeners do. Tomato, pepper, and herb starts sell well at farmers markets and through local buy-sell groups, especially if they’re heirloom or unusual varieties you can’t get at big-box stores. If you grow native plants, seedlings, starts, and saplings can augment your garden-related offerings.
Food from the Kitchen
Tennessee’s cottage food law lets homesteaders and home producers sell homemade, non-hazardous food products directly to their customers. That includes things like baked goods, jams, jellies, candy, and dried herbs. You don’t need a commercial kitchen license, either. Direct-to-consumer sales, a farm store on your property, farmers markets, and craft fairs are all options. Before you start selling, check the current Tennessee Department of Agriculture guidelines, since the specifics can change. If you’re located in another state, check with your department of agriculture.
Becoming a cottage food producer opens up a lot of options. If you’ve been making sourdough bread, jars of fig preserves, or batches of apple butter as part of your regular kitchen work, you’re already most of the way to a cottage food side gig.
Jams, jellies, and preserves are probably the most reliable option because they have a long shelf life, transport well, and people love to give them as gifts. If you’ve already got a canning operation going at the end of tomato season or during berry season, doubling a batch and selling the extra is worth considering. The same goes for pickles, herb-infused vinegars, dried herbs, and herbal tea blends from the garden.
At Stoney Creek Farm, our back porch store is open from daylight to sunset and carries fresh eggs, sourdough bread, cinnamon rolls, and honey. It runs without us needing to staff it, and it serves the people who already know us as a way to support the farm between classes and events.
Herbal and Apothecary Products
If you’re already growing or foraging medicinal herbs, those can also be great choices for market products. Tinctures, salves, dried herb blends, herbal teas, and infused honeys sell well and don’t need a commercial kitchen license to make and sell in most states.
Herbal teas and dried herb blends give you a pretty simple entry point. Dried goldenrod, chamomile, elderflower, lemon balm, peppermint, and tulsi all hold their quality well and sell well.
Tinctures and infused honeys take a little more time but also give you more profit. Plus, the raw materials are often free from your property, and if you’ve been making these things for your own family, you already know how.
Salves and balms made from herb-infused oil and beeswax are also good choices. They also have a long shelf life and are pretty easy to transport. If you keep bees, the beeswax is practically free.
Note that in some states (including Tennessee), salves, balms, infused oils, and other typical products don’t fall under cottage food law since they’re not food products. Check current regulations before selling, and don’t make any sort of health claims.
Specialty Crops with a Small Footprint
Not every homestead income idea means you need acres of ground or a ton of money. Some of the most profitable crops per square foot can be grown in a basement, a spare room, a greenhouse corner, or a few trays on a sunny porch, and they produce year-round regardless of what’s happening in the outdoor garden.
Microgreens, sprouts, and shoots are at the top of this list. These are the seedlings of sunflower, pea, radish, broccoli, cilantro, or amaranth harvested at seven to 14 days when they’re dense with nutrients and flavor. A single 10-by-20-inch tray costs a few dollars to plant and can sell for $15 to $25 at a farmers’ market or to a local restaurant.
Anyone with a cool, humid space can also grow mushrooms. Oyster mushrooms are easy to grow for beginners and can go for a decent amount at a market.
Your Property as a Destination
A working farm or homestead with character is a draw in its own right. If yours has interesting gardens, good light, a barn, or that farmhouse aesthetic, there’s a market for it as a photography location. Photographers looking for backdrops for senior portraits, engagement photos, and family sessions will pay to use a property that looks like a real place rather than a rented studio.
Beyond photography, think about farm tours, hands-on experiences, harvest events, and workshop days. People who live in suburbs and cities want that connection to how food is actually grown and made. A farm tour that ends with a sourdough tasting and a jar of jam to take home is an experience worth paying for. Think about what you’re already doing in the course of a normal week and whether there’s something a visitor might find interesting or valuable.
Don’t Go Too Big, Too Fast
The mistake most people make when they start thinking about homestead income is trying to do too many things at once. Spreading yourself thin across multiple side gigs means none of them gets the attention they need.
Pick one thing and work on it until it’s actually generating income and running smoothly. Then consider adding something else. Homesteaders who manage to turn skills into income tend to have gone deep on one or two things rather than shallow on a dozen.
The Skills to Build It
If you want to build the skills that make these side gigs possible, the online classes cover everything from soil health to food preservation, fermentation, herbalism, and sustainable growing. In-person classes at the farm, including our Southern Sourdough classes, let you get your hands into it.
For ongoing inspiration and practical content through the growing season and beyond, follow Stoney Creek Farm on YouTube and Facebook. And if you want the philosophy behind building a life and a livelihood from the land, our book Dirt Rich is the place to go.
Drop a comment below and tell us what side gig you’re thinking about starting, or what’s already working on your homestead.
