The Problems with Making Money on the Homestead (in Georgia)

I’m sure all of you who are starting to homestead or looking to homestead have seen the countless homesteading blogs with lists of ways to make money from your homesteading adventures. I’m here to bring some reality to those lists.

I spent a lot of time looking into how to make money off our homestead. I stay home because we wanted someone to be able to focus on starting our homestead dreams among other reasons. So while my husband makes the dough, I run the homestead. I do all the research, feed the animals, maintain the garden and work on projects. All of this is in addition to taking care of the house, making most of our food from scratch and taking care of our pets. While all of these tasks provide value to our lives, they do not come with money. Meaning my husband’s paycheck has to fund everything and that isn’t something that is going to work for us at this point in time, so it has become important for me to find ways to make the homestead pay for itself.

Common Money Making Methods

Sell Eggs

In the state of Georgia in order to LEGALLY sell eggs you must take an egg candling class ($5). There are also extremely strict labeling requirements.

http://agr.georgia.gov/egg-candling-class.aspx

Sell Milk

Selling raw milk for human consumption is ILLEGAL in the state of Georgia and you must be licensed under commercial feed laws to sell it for pets.

http://www.realrawmilkfacts.com/raw-milk-regulations/state/georgia

Sell Cheese and Other Homemade Milk Products

You can sell raw milk cheeses in Georgia. I cannot find any more info besides that, though I imagine you need some sort of license.

Sell Meat Birds

Requires a Poultry Dealer Broker License ($35). You must keep records of the poultry you buy and sell so they can track outbreaks of disease.
http://agr.georgia.gov/poultry-dealer-broker-app.aspx

Sell Baby Chicks

Requires a Poultry Dealer Broker License ($35). You must keep records of the poultry you buy and sell so they can track outbreaks of disease.

Sell Turkeys, Ducks and Geese

Requires a Poultry Dealer Broker License ($35). You must keep records of the poultry you buy and sell so they can track outbreaks of disease.

Have a Fish Farm

Requires a License depending on the type of fish.

http://www.georgiawildlife.com/node/731

Sell Extra Produce

This is one of the only homestead income I have been able to find that does not require any license as long as you are selling directly to consumer.

Sell Homemade Baked Goods

Requires a cottage food license ($250), a home inspection (the requirements for your kitchen are kind of crazy), and a well test.

http://agr.georgia.gov/cottage-foods.aspx

Sell Preserves, Jams and Jellies

Requires a cottage food license ($250), a home inspection, and a well test.

http://agr.georgia.gov/cottage-foods.aspx

Sell Honey and Beeswax

Does not require licensing as long as you are selling directly to the consumer

Sell Mushrooms

In order to sell wild foraged mushrooms you must take a GADPH approved certification course to obtain an official permit. If you are farming them it’s the same as other produce. You must sell directly to the consumer.

Raise Compost Worms

There doesn’t seem to be any regulation!

Sell Dairy Cows or Goats
Sell meat goats, sheep, cows

Can’t find any info on it however it seems unlikely that they regulate ALL poultry and no livestock

Keep male animals for stud services
Sell Fiber (wool)
Sell Homemade candles, soaps etc
Sew or Crochet Fabric goods
Use Carpentry and metal working Skills to make goods
Sell compost

There does not seem to be any regulation on the sale of homemade compost

http://rules.sos.ga.gov/nllxml/georgiacodesGetcode.aspx?urlRedirected=yes&data=admin&lookingfor=391-3-4-.16

Rent out pasture
Sell firewood
Sell seedlings

Requires a license.

http://agr.georgia.gov/live-plant-license.aspx

Sell seeds

Must have a license ($100). They also require you to prove the germination rate of your seeds.

http://agr.georgia.gov/see-dealers-license.aspx

http://agr.georgia.gov/seed.aspx

Create a U pick farm
Run a bed and breakfast
Blog
Teach classes
Write a book

There are a number of ways to make money on the homestead, but a majority of them require significant effort or money to do them legally. When I look at lists like these I tend to get a little frustrated. The authors make it sound like it’s just as simple as selling some eggs. It really isn’t that simple, not if you don’t want to get into legal trouble. Sure not every state is this regulated but chances are you will find some regulation on most all of the typical homesteading money making ventures.

One of the other things I never see anyone talk about is insurance. I feel a little concern about what happens when a backyard egg seller, even following all the state laws has a customer who has a bad experience. What protects you the producer? This is something I still need to look into but it is important to consider when you try to sell your homestead products.

So what do you do about it? For us we plan to start with selling eggs. As a backyard producer all we need to do is take a free class and learn the labeling requirements. As long as we charge a reasonable amount that covers the extra costs involved with adhering to state requirements, it should still help sustain us. We are going to take that money and save it. We will use it to help fund other licenses so that we can legally increase our homesteads money making potential. From there we will extend our available products and services.

I’m not saying these lists are wrong, I’m just saying it’s not that simple. You can’t go out and market your homestead products today. Please make sure you’re being smart with your homestead business!

The list I used:
http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2015/01/make-money-homesteading.html

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