We found this, and many other, black walnut trees after having lived on the property for 3 years. Photo by J&J
When you first buy a property it can be very easy to let some typical thoughts into your mind. You know you want to earn an income for one purpose or another, so you set out to think about what you could do to earn money.
Hobby Farm Income:
Some classic options jump to the a new homesteaders mind.
- Raise chickens and sell excess eggs
- Raise livestock and sell the offspring
- Grow vegetables and sell them at the farmers market
- Grow fruit trees and sell the fruit, ciders, juices, jams and other products you can make from them
This was certainly what we thought, and the same mistake we made. Mistake may be too hard of a word – it certainly was not the best first step, or so we learned.
Natural Resources:
To find the natural resources on your property you likely need two things: Experience and Time. You see, we lived on this property for 3 years before we ever identified a tree that is only 60 feet from our front door as a Black Walnut Tree.
True, a part of our problem was that the tree is no longer producing hoards of nuts. Even now we only find a few nuts under the tree. It is either well past its prime, malnourished, or ill.
However, had we known how to identify a Black Walnut Tree we would not had to have wait until the nuts actually fell from the tree to figure it out. Knowledge is power, so learn or find someone who can help you.
Now, take your time. Depending on how large your property is, this will be an exhaustive journey. Do you best to identify each plant and animal life you can find. Big or small, new or old.
For example, nut trees have a “prime”. They start out not producing nuts, then they do, then they slow down and are only good for lumber. It does us a disservice to clear out small trees which are what will be needed as the older trees stop producing nuts.
Resource Diversification:
Now that you have taken all that time to find your natural resources, be sure to make full use of them. As I mentioned, a nut tree does not loose its worth after it stop producing nuts – the lumber has a value as well.
What is more, the nuts themselves have many uses. For example, the shells can be used to make a natural fabric dye that is marketable.
Whatever the case is, try to think outside of the box and find as many uses for a single resource as you can. Make baskets. Sell seeds.
Doing these things can help set you off on a course to not only respect the environment, but to prosper on the land.
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Watch our video about Natural Resources by clicking this link, or by watching below:
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