What Are Some of the Best Ways Homesteaders Earn Off-farm Income in the Winter?

Reader Contribution by Heidi Hunt

What are some of the best or most common ways that homesteaders earn off-farm income in the winter? I’d like a steady, off-farm job, but an employer who is willing to let me work only 5-6 months a year and have the rest off (to grow food, etc.)

Dan Taylor

Ellsworth, Maine

This is a question commonly asked by folks who are beginning their new farm life. Making a living while trying to provide a sustainable life for your family is not as easy as it seemed on Little House on the Prairie.

Let’s break this down into pieces. Unless you are trying to do it all — farm with horses, milk cows and make cheese, cut your own firewood, make lumber and sell your crops at a local farmer’s market — there will be large chunks of time during the growing season when you are not busy with farm work full time. So the question might be, what kind of jobs are available that will give you the flexibility to be a farmer as well as provide some cash to pay the necessary bills.

Comments (0) Join others in the discussion!
    Online Store Logo
    Need Help? Call 1-800-234-3368