I;m planning on starting a greenhouse(nursery)/market garden farm and just set up a stand for the produce by the tables for the plants. But these types of businesses either seperate or together are seasonal. I need some ideas for generating some income during the winter/early spring. I live in central Indiana (zone 5), and I need some ideas other then animals as I don't plan to have very many.

My husband works off farm, & I (plus 2 young boys) will be running the farm.

Please give as many ideas as you can think of?

Thanks

animalfarms

-- animalfarms (jwlewis@indy.net), February 06, 2001

Answers

How about using the greenhouse to grow potted herbs and houseplants? Grow lots of hot peppers and dryable flowers and make wreaths and arrangements from them for winter/holiday sales. Some type of craft that would tie into the gardening might help tide you over through the winter. What area of the country are you in? Jan

-- Jan in CO (Janice12@aol.com), February 06, 2001.

DUH. Guess I need a caffiene fix! I see you are in Indiana! Sorry! Jan

-- Jan in CO (Janice12@aol.com), February 06, 2001.

Hey animal farms! When we still had the orchard in production, I looked into ways to make the farm a year round operation too. I made a time-flow sheet; it looks sort of like a cash flow sheet, with the months across the top - but instead of just writing income and outgo under the months; I also wrote down what I would be doing each month.

In January, I seem to recall that I had planned to do green plants for local funerals and forced flowers. It wouldn't provide much in the way of income; but I wasn't going to have much time then anyway, because I would be busy with starting bedding plants in the greenhouse and getting my equipment checked over and ready for spring. February, I planned forced flowers for Valentines Day and the plants for income; and continue working on the bedding plants. March was early bedding plant sales - broccoli, cabbage etc; with a few tomato plants for those folks who just have to jump the season. April and May had bedding plants under income; along with baskets and bowls of plants/flowers for Mother's Day. I would be planting tomatoes under cover in March, along with peas and salad greens. Asparagus was also an income producer planned for April into May. Plants to produce veggies for sale would go in the ground in April and May also. Veggies would sell from May - Oct, Strawberries in May and June; Peaches in July and again in August, Raspberries in July and Sept, Apples in Aug - Nov and don't forget the cider. Then, in Nov and Dec; Christmas trees and to make even more money than with trees - cemetary greens and also wreaths and table top arrangements for the holidays. Also, baskets with homemade jams, jellies etc... at the holiday season. Selling firewood was an option for us also as we have about 30 acres of timber.

On another note, Illinois has a specialty crop growers workshop put on by the Cooperative Extension Service each year - I think ours is Feb 15th this year in Effingham - no cost.

Another thought - do you really have to generate income during these times? Or can you spend the time producing something that will give you income a little later in the year? For instance - wooden puzzels or blocks from skid wood, placemats and napkin sets, other crafts? Good luck with whatever you do!

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), February 06, 2001.

Have you considered belgian endive? This is a winter crop, and sells for a high price to the gourmet market. You sow the seed in the spring, dig the roots in late summer or fall, and force them in the late fall through early spring. Radicchio can also be forced this way. Each root can be forced and harvested more than once, too. I have heard of four cutting per root.

There's also the baby salad green market, but I just HATE picking millions of tiny leaves!

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), February 06, 2001.

cook books cook books find out how to make all the flavors of tvp. then all the recieps you can make out of it. then while your at put togeather a cook book for crock pots and size everthing where it can work for one person then others can double or triple it. number and sign each one. enter my order for number one. heck it was my idea.

Bob se.ks.

-- Bobco (bobco@hit.net), February 06, 2001.

I don't sent it unasked for, but you would be welcome to a free e- book copy of my book, "How to Earn Extra Money in the Country." Hey, comes with a money back guarantee.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), February 06, 2001.

Holiday goodies made with dried fruit from your summer crops. Dried soup mixes and bases. Dried veggie "wreaths" that could supply a cook with a nifty and useful holiday gift. Preserved and canned stuff from earlier in the year, including chutneys and such that you make with the stuff that did't sell.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), February 06, 2001.

Dried flower arrangements, wreaths, and such for christmas and other winter holidays? If you grow ornamental wheat and such and are handy, there's a craft market for braided corn dollies and such. Or if you have evergreen on the property, perhaps winter holiday decorations with evergreen boughs, cedar, and such -- swags and wreaths. You may be able to market those to florists if you make nice ones, better than the mass produced ones they sell at lumber yards and such.

My aunt used to knit afghans and slippers all winter long, and then sell them in summer at the bait shop. She almost always sold out of the afghans over the summer, but if you've got an outlet, there's no reason you couldn't sell them over winter instead.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), February 07, 2001.

Hubby and I are planning the same thing! We figured that January and February is just going to be slow no matter what we do. Everyone's got "shopping hangovers" from Christmas AND they're probably broke (not only because it's just after Christmas, but taxes coming up soon). We're thinking if we really hump and save our money during the selling seasons we could survive the off seasons, maybe even take a month off the nursery biz starting at Christmas. Come late January we wouldn't be open, but would be starting plants for sale in March. Throughout the spring/summer/fall we'd be open of course. For fall/winter we're thinking of selling (home-grown/homemade if possible) braided garlic strands, chili ristras, pumpkins, corn-stalk decorations and seeds (ones that need to be planted in the fall ~ especially wildflowers, poppies, larkspur, etc.) along with the usual broccoli, cauliflower, etc., transplants. We also have a firewood business, so we'd be selling that of course. Is there anyone you know of who sells firewood, but doesn't have a place to display it? Could you work out a consignment-type deal with them? If you can't sell cords, you could sell stacks or bundles ~ buy a cord of wood already split from someone and wrap them into bundles yourself. We charge $150 for a cord delivered and stacked. We make twice the money per cord selling bundles wholesale at $1.35 each. You could sell them for half-again the wholesale price and make a bundle! (Pun intended! LOL! If you need tips on how to do this, send me an e- mail. I'd be happy to help.)

For the dead of winter, you can't forget Christmas! That will probably be your biggest money-making time besides late spring/summer. Along with selling trees, you can make all sorts of things throughout the year for selling at Christmas:

beeswax candles ~ You can raise your own bees, then package the honey in a gift basket with a homemade candle or two and maybe some honey recipes or homemade skin salve/soap. If this interests you, e-mail me about that, too ~ I have some good links on homemade hives, homemade extractors, candle-making forums, etc.

ornaments ~ Let your imagination run wild! I crochet snowflakes, make beaded covers for regular balls with seed beeds, remove the paint from glass balls (with a little clorox water ~ easy) and pop popcorn in them (pop them in the microwave ~ they're so cute!), make dough ornaments, dried flower ornaments (one is a dried rose bud with a small sprig of dried baby's breath and a dried leaf tied with thin gold ribbon ~ SO elegant!), tiny painted terra-cotta pots hung upside down with some sort of clapper (like a bell), and the list goes on and on and on! You could even string real popcorn and cranberries and sell garlands (so much per foot maybe?). That would be a great thing to do to kill time in between customers.

poinsettias ~ There's a trick to growing these, but you may could do it and they sell like wildfire!

roses ~ These are easy to start in advance from cuttings of most any old bush and when dressed up in a pretty pot with a few ribbons and a card with a poem about roses printed on it, they make an excellent gift! Especially if you can get your hands on heirloom or old fashioned roses. If you plant some bushes now, you will eventually have a source for the cuttings as well as the dried blooms for Christmas ornaments and wreaths. I get all the plastic pots I can use for free from the local country club/golf course. (I wash them in a tub of clorox water before bringing them anywhere near my greenhouse.)

rosemary topiary ~ These take a while to allow for growing, but they're easy to do. Rosemary plants respond well to pruning and you can use the cuttings to start more plants, to dry and use in cooking, potpourri, bath or drawer sachets, etc. You could shape them like little Christmas trees or with a chicken wire form, you could shape them into candy canes, stars, traditional ball-topped topiary forms or squares that you can "wrap" with wide ribbon to look like a Christmas gift.

wreaths ~ Glue dried rose buds from your bushes (or any other dried flower you've grown) on a wreath form (styrofoam?), completely covering it, and add a ribbon in a complimentary color ~ JUST GORGEOUS! Or grow some rosemary bushes especially for trimming near Christmas and making rosemary wreaths and garlands.

garden gift "basket" ~ Put some seeds in a clay pot, wrap with colored plastic wrap and add a bow. You could do some only veggies, some only flowers and some a mix of both. Also, you could add other things and charge more ~ garden trowel, gloves, painted pot (that you paint yourself), garden marker stakes, etc.

dried bean "soup mix" ~ Grow beautiful colored beans like Jacob's Cattle and Christmas Limas, dry them, then put them in a nice mason jar topped with a circle of fabric cut with pinking shears ~ either put it on under the ring of the canning jar or tie it on top with sisal twine. With more sisal twine, tie on a recipe card printed with a good bean soup recipe. You might even could round up everything they'll need except water and perishables like ham hock, put it all in a muslin bag and tie it on, too.

force some bulbs ~ Really ANY plant that has an attractive bloom and is blooming nicely would make a great gift or home decoration at Christmas time.

cedar trellises ~ Hubby cuts cedar as well as firewood so he has access to lots of "staves" (small posts or 1" or 2" diameter branches). I screw, bolt and wire them together into attractive trellises. Soon I'll try my hand at arbors, benches, end tables, etc.

One thing we thought of doing to bring people in is having a "candlelit dinner/Christmas shop-a-thon" sort of thing one Saturday night just before Christmas. We'd be staying open late and serving some type of food (whatever's cheap) for everyone. We'd send out invitations a week or two in advance (we'd compile a list of everyone who comes into the nursery all year long and use that mailing list expressing that bringing as many friends and neighbors as they would like would be more than fine with us). The food would be free to customers and there would be LOTS of stuff on sale, maybe 10% off absolutely everything as well. Gotta' get rid of it, right? I have visions of doing this after dark with candles and torches all over the place, floating candles in the pond, white Christmas lights in as many trees and shrubs as we can get them in and a bonfire in the big thick middle of it all. If we were to serve finger foods, they could eat while they walk around and shop (we're making little red wagons for customers to use as shopping carts throughout the year ~ they will come in especially handy at this time). I don't know if the weather would be mild enough for you to do this outside at that time of year in Indiana (I'm in Texas), but maybe you could do this as a "Welcome to Spring" thing when the weather is better where you are? Christmas sales for the winter income and a dinner/shop-a-thon for early spring income and to let people know what you have for sale.

When you go about pricing your things, keep in mind that people will pay handsomely for quality handmade things so don't be afraid to put a dollar amount on them that reflects the time and effort you've put into them. Look around in other nurseries and stores for anything that resembles your offerings and note the price and how much better yours look.

Good luck! I hope your business is so successful that your husband has to quit his job to help!!!

-- Wingnut (wingnut@moment.net), February 07, 2001.

Rebekah--Liked your answer, because your ideas of raising baby salad greens, radiccio, etc. has been on my mind lately. I've been researching different greenhouse ideas. I'm going to visit a guy near me who supplies salad greens year round for the upscale restaurants about 60 miles away. He received a state grant to build a compost-heated greenhouse. Sounds quite interesting. Also, has anyone read the book SOLAR GARDENING by the Poissons? They garden year round with their own design of solar cones, solar pods, and extenders in, I believe it's New Hampshire. With the high (and climbing) costs of natural gas and electricity, besides environmental issues it seems a relatively inexpensive alternative to the typical greenhouse. Any feedback would be appreciated. Also, maybe this will help-animalfarms.

-- glory (mornglorfarm@ncconnect.com), February 07, 2001.

What about teaching some lessons? either every week or just like on a Saturday morning every now and then...

Hot to bake a cake. How to can. How to knit. How to make Christmas decorations. How to milk a cow. whatever you're good at, somebody may want to know how to do it too!!!

-- Suzy in Bama (slgt@yahoo.com), February 08, 2001.

There is a lady here who grows organic baby salad greens, about 20- 30 types of plants in her mix. There are edible flower petals and a lot of herbs and greens. It really is a nice looking mix. she gets about $12.00 a lb from it and as far as I know, makes her entire living from this business. She has cold frames and greenhouses for the winter and tender crops. I worked for her for awhile, but got very, very tired of picking millions of teeny leaves, one or two at a time. If you cut them with scissors, you have to pick through them a lot, which is even worse, and if you aren't careful, you hurt the plant so that it won't make more little leaves. She sells hers prewashed and ready to eat to restaurants, and delivers them.

I like the belgian endive idea better, because it's less work, and you don't have to freeze your fingers off picking in the winter. You also don't need a greenhouse- the endive can be forced in 5 gallon buckets in your basement.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), February 09, 2001.

Thanks everyone for the ideas. I think the main factor on what I will be able to do or not, will be my 2 young boys (2 & 4 years).

Thanks again for the ideas,

animalfarms

-- animalfarms (jwlewis@indy.net), February 11, 2001.

Hi, maybe since your boys are so young you should think about taking a couple extra children to babysit for a while. I am amazed at what they pay around here for day care and I'll bet your children would enjoy it also. So much of the farm stuff can go sour really fast with weather, neglect because a child is sick and can't go out etc. just a thought.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), February 11, 2001.