262. Homestead Q&A: Make an Income, Find Land, Build Community | Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms

Nov 5, 2024

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If you know anything about homesteading, you know who Joel Salatin is. Joel has been farming and teaching about farming for decades, and he brings his wealth of experience to this conversation for the new homesteader. What is the bigger picture of homesteading? How can you make money on a homestead? What should you avoid when purchasing land? If you are hoping to start a homestead or have already started your homesteading journey, this episode is full of the encouragement and practical knowledge you need!

In this episode, we cover:

How starting a homestead in 2024 is different than previous generations
You don’t need as much land as you think to start a homestead
If you can only have one stream of income from your homestead, do this!
Can you actually save money raising your own meat?
The top small farm mistakes to avoid
What to look for when shopping for homestead property
How to expand your farm offerings if you want to make a living on your homestead
An explanation for the rise in agrotourism and the opportunity it presents to homesteaders
The importance of building a strong community among farmers and homesteaders
What is the point of homesteading anyways?

View full show notes on the blog + watch this episode on YouTube.

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ABOUT JOEL

Joel Salatin calls himself a Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer. Others who like him call him the most famous farmer in the world, the high priest of the pasture, and the most eclectic thinker from Virginia since Thomas Jefferson. Those who don’t like him call him a bio-terrorist, Typhoid Mary, charlatan, and starvation advocate.

With 12 published books and a thriving multi-generational family farm, he draws on a lifetime of food, farming, and fantasy to entertain and inspire audiences around the world. He’s as comfortable moving cows in a pasture as addressing CEOs at a Wall Street business conference.

He co-owns, with his family, Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia. Featured in the New York Times bestseller Omnivore’s Dilemma and award-winning documentary Food Inc., the farm services more than 5,000 families, 50 restaurants, 10 retail outlets, and a farmers’ market with salad bar beef, pigaerator pork, pastured poultry, and forestry products. When he’s not on the road speaking, he’s at home on the farm, keeping the callouses on his hands and dirt under his fingernails, mentoring young people, inspiring visitors, and promoting local, regenerative food and farming systems.

Salatin is the editor of The Stockman Grass Farmer, granddaddy catalyst for the grass farming movement. He writes the Pitchfork Pulpit column for Mother Earth News, as well as numerous guest articles for ACRES USA and other publications. A frequent guest on radio programs and podcasts targeting preppers, homesteaders, and foodies, Salatin’s practical, can-do solutions tied to passionate soliloquies for sustainability offer everyone food for thought and plans for action.

RESOURCES

The Lean Farm books by Ben Hartman

Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith

The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer by Joel Salatin

Polyface Micro by Joel Salatin

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CONNECT

Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms | Website | Instagram | Facebook

Do you have a question you’d like me to answer on the podcast? A guest you’d like me to interview? Submit your questions and ideas here: bit.ly/SFLquestions.