decisions, choices, and all that jazz

Lately we have been doing a lot of brainstorming on ways to make a living (or at least nicely augment our living) by farming. That was always our eventual goal, and now we've gotten to a place where we are ready to dig in and make a plan. We've kicked around all sorts of options, from raising critters for fiber (like angora bunnies and cashmere goats) to meat critters to produce. There are so many options to consider, and so many little details required of each one, all of which take time and, most importantly, money. It's hard to decide what would be the most profitable, and the most worth our time and effort. There is so much preparation that would have to be done. For starters, the groundwork to prevent the upper field from flooding so that we can use it for livestock or crops; fencing for goats, or llamas; housing for rabbits; tilling, irrigation, the list goes on and on. I think eventually we hope to try out all the grand ideas we've had. After all, we don't want to put all our eggs in one basket! Right now, though, we're just trying to figure out which of all these ideas will be our primary goal, and hopefully, moneymaker. Given our setup here, available land for cultivating, etc, we're strongly leaning towards herbs. They don't require huge amounts of land, are virtually pest-free, and have a fairly good profit margin. Plus, there are so many goods and products that we can expand to over time that would include the use of our herbs (herbed goat cheese, dips, flavored oils, teas, infusions, tinctures, sachets, lotions, soaps, etc, etc, etc!). It also doesn't hurt us at all that I am, and have been for a long time, pretty obsessed with herbs of all kinds. Of course, this doesn't mean that we won't still grow pumpkins and tomatoes and lots of other goodies, we'd just be primarily focusing on herbs, with the goal of eventually expanding to other, herb-related products. So. There it is. The Big Idea. Now we just have to figure out how to start putting it into action.