Farming full-time for income
Updated May 28, 2025
Seeking
- 6-10 Total acres
- 0-5 Acres of cropland or tillable land
Desired locations
Searching for 1 acre in the Mt. Olive/Calypso area to start a specialty fruit and nut orchard for market sales.
Plan
I currently have a small food forest mainly for personal use and looking to expand to a full time business within 3-5 years. Initially I am seeking 1 acre to start the orchard as it will take about 4 years to amend the soil and for the trees to mature and produce fruit.
My long term goal is to expand to a 10 acre specialty fruit and nut orchard for u-pick and retail sales with an on-site facility for workshops, a greenhouse, community gardens, and pocket neighborhood. My goal is to have a fully functioning site for the purpose of demonstrating sustainable living practices and educating the community about food forests, gardening, growing and preserving healthy food, and eating fresh.
Desired infrastructure
Equipment and infrastructure details
Water must be available either at the street (if municipal), via a well, pond, or stream. Ideally, I'd like to have electric and septic/sewer on site or available for development later, any size shed or greenhouse.
Preferred type of opportunity
Opportunity details
I am looking for 1 acre tillable land with water available/nearby near Calypso/Mt. Olive. I can grow from here, but willing to consider other options in other areas for the right opportunity. I will not lease land or a farm.
Desired farming practices
Practices details
I aim to create a self sustaining and regenerative food forest complete with the 8 layers of a typical forest. The foundational structure will focus on soil health and plant biodiversity to demonstrate how permaculture practices, as an alternative to monoculture farming, can reduce soil erosion, produce high quality food, and restore degraded land and ecosystems. A food forest's soil health is predominately fungal therefore, community gardens will be integrated throughout the forest to provide hands-on opportunities for growing and learning about soil's bacterial health and how it plays a role in food production.
Production goals
Goals details
- Year 1: Acquire 1 acre of land and begin amending the soil with locally sourced compost and wood chips.
- Year 2: begin planting fruit and nut trees that have varying harvest times for year long harvests. I will be planting fig trees, paw paw, Asian persimmons, apple, peach, plum, pecan, and hazelnut trees.
- Year 3: Implement fruiting vines and bushes, herbs and strawberries for ground covers. Build a small building for produce sales, greenhouse for nursery sales, compost bins, community garden raised beds and plots,.
- Year 4-5: Open for u-pick and retail sales, advertise and market workshops, community gardens, and farm-to-fork events.
- Year 6+: Develop & build pocket neighborhood tiny homes.
Farm experience
Years of experience
10 total years of experience
5 years employed as a worker (non-manager)
Education, training, and employment experience
Experience details
My family owned a small scale cattle ranch in Oregon for 10 years and I was a real estate broker specializing in rural subdivision development. I later moved to upstate New York where I built my own home and was a homesteader for over 10 years while pursuing my career as a renewable energy consultant focusing on rural community solar development. I currently have a Bachelors' in Renewable Energy Technology and work remotely for a global accounting firm.