It constantly pops up in my mind. My goal in moving here was to homestead to some degree, feed myself as much as possible and make a few bucks. I'm not all that far from retirement age but will be living solely on SS so I'll need tiny bills, including food and a little income.
Yesterday I was thinking about how I need my mater starts to be more consistent in size and also get bigger quicker. Both are a matter of good watering habits and fertilizing them earlier than I have been.
Right now, I can criss cross them during lean and lower, rig something to hang in a totally different direction etc. Will be a bigger deal in the tunnel with the goal of high production which means close spacing and a lot of plants.
There will still be oddball starts so my first thought was, sow lots of seeds and sell the oddball starts.
Do you have, or have access to cheap (or free!) cattle panels? My BIL made some collapsible tomato cages long ago. Those things could withstand a tornado!
https://www.1905farmhouse.com/make-your-own-tomato-cages/
(This is a helpful site all the way around.)
As far as uniformity on the crops you’re growing, if you are going to sell tomatoes in the future, grow ‘Celebrity.’ That’s the one we grew for restaurants and for market. Pretty much a perfect red slicer. :)
And, at my other farm I had great traffic flow, so I sold extra starts of tomatoes and peppers in the spring, as well as eggs, pesto, cut flowers, etc. It was a fun little enterprise. Won’t work here, as I’m 2 miles from a not-well-traveled road. And all my neighbors garden, so they don’t need to buy my stuff. 12 miles to town. Profits would be eaten up in gas running things here and there.
But, there are a lot of ‘income streams’ you can have when you have some land. I am still trying to talk Beau into taking advantage of all the woods we have, as far as FREE hardwood (we have a TON of Black Walnut and that stuff goes for a good price!) and firewood (Governor Dodge State Park is nearby, as is Blue Mound State Park - campers!) and wood for home heating/fireplaces.
So many ideas, but so little ambition the older we get, LOL!