Ideas for a money making crop on 3 acres of land please

[lindsay]

Hello

We have about 3 acres of land which is a mix of clay and reasonably good soil. We are thinking about planting one crop on it, to sell. Any ideas about what would grow well? We are in Lincolnshire, the land is slightly sloping, south facing, and has kind of strips of clay and soil alternating along the length of it. I think it used to be a ridge and furrow field and somebody levelled it off, leaving long strips of different soils. We have no water apart from what we collect off the roof of the big building on the field. Does any crop immediately spring to mind for a field like this? Access problems mean we can get a tractor down there but nothing bigger than that, so we need something that we can do by hand. (So not rape or anything like that.)

We also have about half an acre of very stony land. We cleared tons of builders rubble off it and have manually destoned as best we could, but it will take years to get it all out. We have now planted a winter mix on it and want to plant something on it next spring. Again, any ideas about what would grow in soil like this? We wanted to do potatoes but there is just not enough soil between the stones! We think we need to plant something that grows above the soil rather than below, and that rules out quite a lot of stuff.

Any suggestions would be welcome as we need to start making the field pay for itself.

Thanks.
Lindsay

[pelmetman]

Have you thought about growing willow, I note there are quite a lot of farmers growing this at present.

From what I can gather they sell it on for wood pellets and as its carbon neutral it goes well with ish principals.

Sue

[grahamhobbs]

Whatever you grow, make sure you can sell it before you sow it !!

[Thomzo]

Any particular reason why you want to grow just one crop? Is this a permanent thing or will you rotate? Why not try a few different crops on test patches this year and see what grows well? That way you aren't putting all your eggs in one basket.

Zoe

[Green Aura]

My thoughts exactly. Plus you'll get all the problems of monoculture on an area that size without (presumably) the income to deal with it. Unless you can invest in machinery and chemicals that can support it. Do you see yourself hand-picking 3 acres of lettuces?

My suggestion would be to try a mixture of things and see which work for you and your potential market - maybe the stony area could be planted up with trees - I don't think they mind them much. Then maybe a six-area rotation (1/2 acre each) that will allow for a fallow period. Spuds, legumes, root veg, brassicas and onions with herbs/salad in any gaps.

Also then, if you're at all dependent on revenue from your crops, when one fails you'll have the others to fall back on.

[southeast-isher]

And you could grow certain bee-friendly crops and keep bees too, and maybe sell some honey if you have any left over...

[Thomzo]

You could try putting cut flowers into your rotation. They can be sold and would provide food for the bees. Daffodils for early season cut flowers and bulbs later. Sweet peas are a good cut flower and also fix nitrogen.

How is your land bounded? Could you plant hedges of blackberries, nuts and sloes (blackthorn)? Aha - there's a thought. You can't sell sloe gin without an alcohol license, but what about selling 'kits' - sloes, sugar and some spices, in a pretty bottle. Just add your own gin!

A few chickens into the rotation, or even some pigs, would help to turn the soil over, get rid of any roots and insects and fertilise.

Are potatoes really worth the effort? They are so cheap in the supermarkets, I just can't see how anybody can make a profit from them. In your stony soil they are going to be very marked. For roots, onions, beetroots and radishes tend to sit more above the soil than in it. Maybe they'd be better? The little round carrots are unusual so may get a better price and might suit your soil better.

How are you going to sell? Via a wholesaler or through farmers' markets? If the latter then I'd go for unusual stuff. It should get a better price and you will have less competition. Multicoloured beetroot, purple carrots, orange cauliflowers, that sort of thing. Check out what's already being sold and then think of complimentary produce that won't compete but people can buy alongside. If there's someone selling veg, then you should sell salad, or fruit.

Can you tell, I'm jealous (in the nicest possible way) of your land. Do let us know what you chose and how you get on.

Zoe

[Helsbells]

How about Christmas trees, I know they take a few years before you get any money from them but could be good.

[boboff]

Do what I do, grow Brambles, Fern, Docks, etc you can do this without expending any energy or money on machinery or subcontractors, financially speaking it gives the best return.

(I REFUSE TO USE A SMILEY HERE TO MAKE IT CLEAR THIS IS MEANT AS A LIGHT HEARTED COMMENT ON THE FACT GROWING ANYTHING BUT WEEDS IS BLOOMIN REALLY HARD!)

[lindsay]

Ha ha Boboff, we already have a very successful line in brambles, nettles, thistles etc.

Thanks to everybody for your comments. We had been thinking about planting one crop and selling to a supermarket or the local crisp factory, but I have an idea 3 acres is not big enough for the commercial people to bother with.

Zoe, you seem to have given it a lot of thought! Most of the things you suggest are on my list of things to research, and I am liking the idea of growing the unusual stuff. I'm just worrying about the soil quality, and I reckon planting 'test strips' of different things might be the way to go, just to see what grows best where. This is what we did in our new vegetable patch on the land and pretty much everything grew well, although the soil in that area is the best of the lot.

The idea of planting trees on the stony patch is a good one. We had planned to plant ten fruit trees on part of the 3 acres, but I think we will move them to the stony area instead, now that it has been pointed out. Our boundaries are largely blackberries and sloes, so doing something with them when they are ready is definite. I love the sloe gin kits. I will do a few and let you know how they sell! We have twice sold stuff at our local country market but the bog standard vegetables are so cheap you just don't make much money unless you are growing and selling in huge quantities, which we are not yet doing.

Sue, I've looked into willows since you suggested it and again, for 'commercial' use I don't think three acres is really enough, but I am going to do a bit more research on this.

These are all brilliant ideas. I know we are in a very fortunate position to have this land (and the huge old piggery on it) and it has so much potential. We are hampered a bit by the fact that we live 15 miles away from it, so keeping animals on it is not possible yet. The planners have said we can't build a house on it, but it is in a village so we are hoping to move out there (renting) when circumstances permit. Any more ideas will be welcome and I will let you know what we decide to go with...

Thanks!

Lindsay

[boboff]

Lindsay.

Have you looked at Argrofrestry? www.agroforestry.co.uk it's forest gardening, and following a recommendation from Graham on here in the Spring I think it is a great solution for a piece of land like you describe.

I went on a cource at Schumacher college and it was excellent.

In essence it's turning it into untended "pernenial weeds" but only ones you can eat.

I plan to do this, and commercially make Jams etc, and build a couple of clearings to have a camp site in, sort of eco tourism, them moving forward possibly run some cources of my own there, as well as cultivating the key plants for this sort of thing, and selling those too.

Productively apparently you can feed 70% of a family from about 1 acre, and it's the most efficient form of agriculture when you balance energy in against food produced.

[Green Aura]

Much as I love Graham (of course ) I'm getting bored with you keep thanking him for my suggestion - I think you'll find I suggested forest gardening and Graham suggested fruit trees

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/forum/ ... 26#p223126

Sulk over

[southeast-isher]

You tell him Maggie! :-P

And how's the Swedish snus going Boboff?

Edible forest gardeing is the way forward Lindsay! :-)

[boboff]

Much as I love Graham (of course ) I'm getting bored with you keep thanking him for my suggestion - I think you'll find I suggested forest gardening and Graham suggested fruit trees

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/forum/ ... 26#p223126

Sulk over

Oh wow!

That would have annoyed me too! I am so sorry, really I am, thank you for your suggestion it has been inspirational, and I owe it all to you!!!!

Snus wise, well it takes a bit of getting used to!

[southeast-isher]

good article from yesterday here...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... CMP=twt_gu