The question I am asked most often about homesteading or working a small farm is how do I/ we get started?
Obviously, there are as many ways to do this as there are people asking the question. In my experience there tend to be two types of people asking the question, do’ers and planners. Do’ers tend to have more specific follow up questions such as how do I get the soil tested on a property I’m looking at or what population base do I need in a 60-mile radius to make an income selling ______?
Today’s post is for you planners. There is nothing wrong with planning, it is critical to running a successful small farm enterprise, but when the sheer volume of planning outcomes has you in analysis paralysis you are no longer being effective or productive. So if this is you, my answer is to just start something. Realize that there is never the perfect time or place unless you have just won the lottery, then I’m sure a real estate agent could find it for you. My point is to start SOMETHING. If you live in a small apartment grow herbs on your windowsill, learn to preserve food, buy a dehydrator. Learn to knit or sew. Whatever homesteading means to you, pick one skill that you could take on right now and learn to do that skill. If you are trying to save money for a place, stop buying $5 lattes at your favorite coffee shop and sitting there looking at farms for sale online. Take ACTION.
I know a young woman who wanted to grow vegetables. She had been born and raised in the city, but she wanted to have a garden and sell vegetables. She was working in a small town here in Nova Scotia and lived in a small apartment in town. She had met me through work and I happened to mention something about our pigs. That was how the conversation started. This was before we had a market garden but I knew a few vendors at our farmers market so I said if this was something she really wanted to do she might be able to find a way to learn from these farmers. She was in her first job since graduating from university, and was working long hours to pay for her student loans and living expenses, so she wasn’t sure how she was going to make this work.
I introduced her to three different farmers, she began buying her vegetables from them, she learned that if she came to the market a little later in the morning, things were less busy and the farmers had time to talk. A couple of weeks after I had introduced her, she had figured out a plan.
She approached each of the farmers and asked if they would be willing to teach her about growing and running a market garden in exchange for free labour. Two of the farmers agreed. One farmer had trouble finding people to work at the markets. Surprisingly people don’t like getting up at the crack of dawn on Saturday. So she began getting up bright and early on Saturday, she came to the market and worked at the market stand for a local farmer, she helped set up the stall and display the produce. She talked to customers, learned what people were looking for. She spoke with the farmer about the difficulties he faced in getting a product to market and a host of other things.
When the market was over for the day, she would help the first farmer break down the stall. She would then load her bicycle into the second farmer’s truck. She would drive with him to his farm and spend the rest of the day working on his farm before cycling back home. If the weather was good she would also bike out to the farm on Sunday and work with the crops again.
While this may sound exhausting, you will soon find out if market gardening is something you will truly enjoy. This young lady continued this schedule for the rest of that summer. She obviously made an impression as the second farmer drove her back and forth the following spring so she could help in the greenhouse, and learn that side of the business. She continued to work for the second farmer the next summer, trading work for a CSA share and some cash. The next winter she was transferred to another town. She decided she had enough knowledge to begin gardening, so she made some inquiries and rented a garden plot from a local farmer this spring and is now growing her own vegetables. The last time I heard from her was last month, she is thinking about buying a 2 acre piece of land and starting a small market garden.
So, as I said, there is never a perfect time to start anything. I am sure plenty of people told Lindsey that she would have to wait until she paid down her student loan or got married or some other well intentioned advise.
My point is that sometimes you have to get creative, there may be no obvious avenue to begin your journey, but where other is a will there is a way.
The internet has made it possible to have in-depth knowledge of every skill you could imagine at your fingertips. It allows you to connect with like-minded people from near and far. After all, it is how you came to be reading this.
Decide on a skill, learn it. Choose another, and repeat. You have now started your small farm dream. It may not look how you thought it would, but you have started a base to build on.
Hope this has some of you thinking. Have a great day everyone.
Little Turtle Farm 