How to Raise/Grow Your Own Food for Economic Purposes

This is an article to give you ideas on how to raise and/or grow your own food. This might be good if you expect less income and don't want to buy food at the store or can even get you started making money off the food you raise! Find out what ideas I have for you.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Money budgeted for purchases--can be less than 50 dollars on up to 5,000 or more depending on the path you choose to grow food.

1. If a mini farm is what you would like to do, follow this step--otherwise skip to step 3.
   This step requires a shelter building for animals. If you have a structure already that is suitable--great! If you have one that will work with modification, do the necessary modifications--make an area large enough to keep one cow and a separate area enough for at least three chickens. They all will need hay for bedding so make sure you have plenty for them all.
2. Buy at least one cow and three chickens so you can have eggs and milk at your convenience. One of the chickens should be a rooster if you would like to sell baby chicks for profit.
   Also make sure you have enough food for the animals. Although the cow may be able to graze on your lawn if it's long enough--you may want to grow some crops such as corn in your garden to use for feed.
   Make sure you have all necessary equipment such as a basket to gather eggs, a way to milk the cow--which can be as simple as using a milking bucket, and any animal care supplies you might need to keep the animals healthy.
3. This is the crops portion of the how to.
   You can grow crops in many different manners. A garden is simple--till or work the soil, plant the necessary seeds, water them appropriately, weed when necessary and eventually you will get some food crops. To get the best yield--choose crops suitable for your area and soil type.
   If you get enough crops, you may be able to sell some of it to other people, but make sure if you need an agricultural license--get it.
4. You can also grow a container garden just about anywhere. For this you may order the strawberry pots, specialized tomato plants, or whatever else the mail order catalogs are offering in containers and grow them indoors, outdoors, or in a greenhouse. The companies that sell them should supply the necessary instructions to grow your plants.
   Otherwise, other crops may be grown from scratch using a an extra large pot and potting soil. Lettuce and other types of plants should be able to grow this way if they are not overcrowded. I believe carrots could be grown this way as well, but I've never tried that. Any type of climbing plant is likely to fail unless you have it outdoors with a trellis or pole to support it.
   You might also want to pick up a book with hints on container garden growing to assist you with growing your plants.
5. Another way to get an abundance of food is to plant fruit trees. You may be able to get by with one tree but two are recommended for pollination purposes.
   This is a great way to have fresh fruit and even maybe make a profit! make sure you pick trees that grow well in your area if you plan on making a profit--otherwise you will likely end up with really tiny fruit or none at all.
   I know from experience you can make a profit off of an overabundance of fruit on fruit trees. When I lived in the city, I had pear trees on my property and neighbors would come over offering money in exchange for picking fruit off the tree. This may not work in higher class neighborhoods as they would likely rather just go buy it from a store or an orchard with a good reputation likely.

Tips & Warnings

• Get books to help you grow your food or help you raise livestock properly.
• Ask advice from people who run farms or grow their own food.
• Crops and animals that thrive well in your location are best--if you would rather have a goat than a cow, for example, go ahead.
• Obtain proper agricultural licensing if it is needed.
• Cows can kick people and injure them--be careful to learn how to milk one properly.
• Keep your cow and chickens separate for animal safety.
• If you have a pick-your-own fruit tree business, make sure you put up warnings about ladder safety. Try to only make short trees available to customers to minimize risk of falling. Also provide safe ladders.