MAKE A CITY WAGE FROM A SMALL FARM S5 ● E42 

This video is a serious game changer for us as we are switching careers. The transparency and actually teaching something that makes sense with why we get into business in the first place. My husband has become now addicted to watching your videos and just leaned over to me and said, "I need to send you to his farm to learn fast!" 😆 Hopefully, you offer online classes since were in the Pacific NW of USA 😊 Thank you for the amazing content 🧑‍🌾

Thank you Richard for sharing your holistic approach, expert knowledge in helping present and future generations have the tools to not only feed theirselves, families but future generations. This should be shared in all educational establishments in UK, Europe. You instil joy in farming for many and I salute you and your team. Keep up the excellent work. May God continue to bless you.

What a spectacular find. Richard this channel is a total gamechanger. We have started down this path already, now its time to turn it up.

After reading your book and following your videos I just want to openly say a big thank you for your inspiring methods of transparency and bringing regenerative farming into an appealing, profitable market space that can flourish, thrive and change the very way out markets work. Thank you very much Richard & familRidgedall the team at Ridgedale that have helped towards the cause.

Nothing is stopping us Richard - even we are not youngsters anymore .... we will keep going as long as we 'kick the bucket'. :-) Looking forward to the unknown world (in a process of moving to the place we have never been) and finding our own piece of land to build our homestead. Thank you for sharing - such a valuable information as always.

after watching this video all I could think was, Amen! Practically a manifesto. Thank you Richard.

This is so refreshing. To me, you are applying true permaculture principles because of the way you evolve the systems and keep it economically viable. Thanks for inspiring us to take action. I am sharing this with my friends. Thank you!

Richard, for the moment, you're the most interesting farmer i know. Thanks for all that share and videos

I wish I could upvote this several times. I've been a subscriber for well over a year, have watched every video, and upvoted and video, but this one might be my favorite. It is very dense, and while none of this is necessarily new info, I don't think you've ever done such a great TL;DR type video. I feel like this video could be shown to anyone and make them a convert away from Big Ag. Thanks for all of your hard work

the reason many are into homesteading but few are making money, is because the public at large doesn't support them. for example, I grew 200 heads of beautiful romaine, which about 195 of them went into the compost pile despite aggressive marketing at my local farmer's market in a small metro area of 250000 people. The people are consuming this stuff at restaurants and grocery stores and warehouse club stores, they are happy doing so, and they aren't interested in buying high quality locally grown produce from small producers. So once you realize you can't make a living selling the stuff, but you still want to eat healthy and grow your own food for health and exercise, then you give up on the commercial aspect of it and just grow for yourself.

Thanks Richard, excellent information to act on.

Wow!!! This was an amazing presentation Richard. I just came across your channel today from a man named Josh Sattin of Sattin Hill Farm in North Carolina, U.S.A. Currently, I am stuck in a big city in Texas and am really wanting to get out and get onto some land and start my life over. Videos like this are such an incredible inspiration and I thank you for making this knowledge available to people. In the U.S. we do not have the type of schooling options that many have in Europe to seek out apprenticeship type schools or schools that specialize in a particular skill. Our school system has been extremely corrupted and I'm sure you would be quite shocked to learn, if you're not already aware, how zombifying and cookie cutter our system is. You have to fit into a prescribed, government mandated box, or your chances of success are destroyed. Thank you again for your channel and I will be spending a good amount of time studying your information.

Thank you Richard. Very inspiring for the future. At our farm for too long, tradition has controlled the profit and livelihood of the tenants of the land. Your words has helped us see a possible better future.

OMG - What an inspiring message you give, Richard ! Thank you, THANK YOU. I am on the verge to convert from non-sense city work to humble, yet intelligent business. This makes so much obvious sense. I wish i will find the courage to make that noble step. Congrats, this is fantastic content.

“Because land is expensive and the work is hard” that being said No excuses!

I’m so glad I found this episode! You’ve articulated exactly what I was trying to work out in my own desire to be a homesteader with market garden principles and I’m so much more encouraged that we can do this! I am going to order the book this weekend 👍 Thank you!

We keep sheep but have been contemplating chickens as well (and/or rabbits, quail, etc) - smaller animals for a smaller scale. The market garden fills most of our time, but what I appreciate about your videos is that they always challenge me to wonder "well, could we?"

Best video for me yet. Thank you for your passion and for your insight. Don’t know if you’ll see this but see you in a few weeks in wales. You’ve really changed my outlook on life and my future.

As an aspiring homesteader, I have condidered farming commercially for pretty much the same reasons that other homesteaders have: I'm growoing it already anyway, why not go bigger? At the end of the day, a homestead still needs income, however off-grid their philosophy is, especially if you have kids. I appreciate hearing that this line of thinking is shared with others such as yourself and Jesse Frost from Rough Draft Farm (No Till Growers Podcast), especially when you folks are demonstratinging succesful small-scale farm business by example. Sure helps to be reassured such things are not a pipe dream!

I'm trying, Richard! I'm getting past the fears which held me back for a while, but marketing in my area is like pulling teeth and moving elsewhere is not an option currently. It's beef country, behind the curve culturally, and people do not spend money on vegetables. The nearest 5 star restaurant doesn't have any interest in micro greens. I've scoured the rules for my state and every loophole for processing one's own broilers has been plugged. The egg market is saturated with hobbyists giving away eggs from their pets. Also... because I had so little confidence I had trouble making social connections. Without social connections (capital) you would not have that 4 chicken egg packery, or free lumber, or the glass for your greenhouse, or the knowledge to smoke chickens. Nobody wants to be friends with someone who's too afraid to try anything. I've made progress on that, which is the reason I'm in business at all. I'm using your no-dig method for opening new garden beds this year. I'm easily growing more than I can sell.

Richard. What a fabulous and encouraging speech, mixed with a crazy intense visual run through last years season! Highly appreciated!

Great video Richard you are doing really powerful things thanks for sharing it with the world.

The money you are making at Chickens is crazy and maybe more towards a country like Sweden that generally is one of the best off countries in Europe. Chicken here in Ireland is cheap and its hard to find a market for better chickens. (Im a butcher so know customers who want good chicken but refuse the price).

I am working my way toward revenue... I have spent a lot of time learning and putting pieces together. Your farm is just amazing! I love it! You must be super-organized! Man! this is such excellent information!

wow, such a succinct and encompassing description of the problems and solutions facing land stewardship and food systems today. More power to you Richard and crew.

Most helpful and applicable video that I have watched in a long time.

;We take the value of life we want to live and ensure that the same quality of life will be available to our grandkids'. beautiful practical way of thinking about homesteading.

Love the vision and passion, its infectious!

That's amazing! Thank you for your work. Regenerative farming and pasture rised meat is the way to go.

Thank you for this inspiring video, really liked the input and output costs, time input and graph at the end. Puts things into perspective. Your setup is great, I have an active interest in all the aspects of farming you do, creating that cycled system which builds up great soils, biodiversity too. Currently studying OU BSc Environmental Science (wanted a career change' so went back to studies), finding myself drawn to permaculture/agricology, you’re the only person I’ve seen (so far) promoting the farming aspect of permaculture, love it! Currently have mini 1/2 acre homestead I’m gradually building up (veg, fruit, poultry and sheep). Have run my own business before, but have lost confidence to really crack on with a rural enterprise promoting small scale farming. Partially because I feel I’m lacking experience and knowledge of parts of the industry and nervous to take that leap again when you first start up. Would love to visit your place, it looks amazing! Thank you for the videos!

Feel my farm getting closer and closer. Good luck Richy P with your next venture in Flowers. Peace Tommy

WOW! Your work is so inspiring!! Thank you for sharing your ingenious, practical approach to regenerating the ecosystem and continuing the supply of REAL food. I grew up on my grandfather's farm, so my heart is connected to this lifestyle and work ...you give me inspiration and ideas about how I can manage a small scale farm. We are so grateful for the work that you do and how you share it on a large scale. Keep up the amazing work :)

Such a wealth of information, you bring hope, thanks Richard!!!!

Oh Man..living in the U.S. we are overwhelmed with making millions by doing very little instead of making a life worth living and enjoying your time here on Earth. I work in Health Care and see a direct correlation between health and being connected to the land. Knowing where your food comes from, knowing the people who produce it, and dedicating some of your time into some sort of connection to Spirit in nature. I tell people allll the time go volunteer at your local farm, farmers market, grow a single tomato plant on your deck in NYC or in a window ..anything!! I live in NM where we have limited rain and evaporation is intense but we grow beautiful vegs and sell with every farmers in the Rio Grande valley which gives us a wide variety. Support your local Co-OPS. You are doing great work and I love to see the diversity on your Homestead.

This was an excellent insight. Thanks Richard, and loving your content 👍🙏

This video really sums things up for me. This is the direction in which I am inspired and want to pursue. Thank you so much for sharing your invaluable knowledge and experience 😁👍

The biggest challenge to my view is not so much the production, but getting rid of all the stuff you produce... Keeping a thousand hens might be easy for sbdy with a little experience...but marketing a thousand eggs a day...affords loads of extra knowledge, time and communication skills...

Great video this, can't believe I missed it when it came out. Even though I'm mainly working on the homesteading aspect and not so much on the business side of it I do agree with most of what you are saying. More people getting into small scale farming could solve so many issues in our society, it is the perfect replacement for so And I did identify the nursery enterprise as something that makes a lot of sense on the less than 6000m2 that I'm working with.

Brilliant presentation! Wonderful overview about how different systems work co-operatively. This offers an inspiring future of farming possibilities...Thank you.!!

Thank you for sharing. I appreciate your candid and realistic approach. My husband and I are getting ready to purchase land in Hawaii and start our homestead. We want a simpler life as well as a life that makes us a living and is beneficial to the community. You are very practical and I relate to that. We are excited to get started. Thank you!

Wow! so inspiring! I'm turning 60 this year and am so excited to start doing this multi-generational/ legacy type venture! Thank-you for putting this together! I think I will be getting more training from you soon.

Richard, thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience so generously. I value and appreciate your insights. I’m wanting to get farming and feeling stuck. I’m taking the opportunity of being in lockdown mode to focus on reading your book and making a commitment to find the place to get started with my farm career. I hope to visit your farm and learn more from you as I move forward. Thanks again. With loads of gratitude 🙏 Courtney

As always, very informative and candid. Thank YOU.

Excellent video, Richard, as always! Thank you

Wow! so much to like. You starting your own currency was my favorite

What you are doing Richard is so appealing, in a primal sense. It also MAKES sense but do I want to work that hard? Well it's a beautiful kind of work isn't it...super gratifying! Who wouldn't want to live the life of a homesteader? If you can prove that this small farming works, and you are showing the evidence that it DOES work, perhaps I WILL get on board. For me, the proof that this works is the tipping point.

Thank you Richard, there are several ideas and models I believe we can use here in Australia for 2 x oldies about to retire…change careers rather.🙏💕🇦🇺

That was a great video. Thanks for sharing, and please share more of your presentations if possible.

Money and regulations are stopping me. Here we are not allowed more than 100 poultry at a time so that rules out eggs and broiler production. I don't have enough land for larger livestock. My only option is market gardening but the market is very saturated in my area with quite a few small producers doing csa and very few people willing to buy the premium price. The best I can do is making a very small income on the side to help paying off the expenses of my homestead.

Thank you so much, your ideas are simply great!

This video was super inspiring. Thank you.

Awesome awesome content Richard. I am currently teaching a small ag class I Australia and trying to implement a number of these ideas. It is exactly what is needed but even the students are resistant as their mindset is stuck in traditional agriculture. You are an inspiration.

Best clip show ever!

Mr Richard, you a blessing to me because the first time I have from you, you have answered most of the questions which have been troubling me. Iam a Zambian from Africa to be specific. Organic farming is not appreciated, as you know we are still in the of coping. Please, help me how how to raise chicken in the organic way, such as pairing and also how to penetrate the market.

Awesome video! just getting into farming and this is inline with what I want to do

Excellent vid. Thank you very much.

Keep up the great work and help building. The future generatiins

Mind blowing. Truly inspired

Cost. Plain and simple. I can buy a fresh roasted chicken 12 months of the year for $9 (CDN) in the grocery store. Why would some one buy a chicken from me for $30? Consumers in my area arnt high end, or very quality conscious. Educating a market is very very expensive.

For when it snows grow things that give fruits in the winter too like perennial fruiting trees there are super cold hardy kieis and other fruit trees even a few very few tho but there are a few actually sweet blueberries that can tolerate it.

You are doing a great job. Great video..

Fire!! Dude thank you so so much

Mind blowing... It's farming on totally different level. Wish I could have more land and graze grass with chickens. I have 5000m2 half of it covered with fruit trees and grapes, bees and egg laying chickens. Can't keep up with demand for produce and last year was quite unproductive. This year also troublesome, especially very late frost. At 29th of may! I think I need some broilers and microgreens...

Great as usual. As your talking about quick start ups and there has been some very good detailed chicken videos in the past few weeks. Could you do another video on micros, kinda like a part 2 of the one you done this winter. Summer production of micros. Thanks, love all the videos great stuff.

Thanks for the great information Richard

Wow, so inspiring! Got the land; want to eat like that; let's go!!!

We're homesteading as i grow food bank gardens on donated land. One being a food forest to keep time to a minimum.The goal is to learn one thing. Then get good and on to learn the next thing. That also helps keep it in a budget we can handle. One modest income for a family of five. Budget rules. But we have received some miner donations. Every little bit counts.

😊😊😉😉thank you so much for this amazing 🤩

thanks. for u information. richard. i ftom mexico. i lern. w u vidios.

well done mr Perkins

Thanks, great video

May I know How big is your farm? I love your holistic approach to farming !

Great video, loved every second of it! I can't wait to start my own, I just need some land that is close by and I will be in buisiness.

I think that, while homesteading and commercial farming do have the food production aspect in common, they still are two vastly different occupations that dont necessarily appeal to the same people. On top of that, one of my personal reasons to homestead in the first place is to be more independant from the economy and its rules and dynamics. I want to produce what i need so i dont have to produce chickens for money if i'd rather go for geese.

Thanks for this!

We started with pastured layers and they were very profitable and the demand for pastured eggs is unbelievable, they sell themselves. However, after a few years we started downsizing and now we only have 30 hens, they mostly produce eggs for our own consumption and for a few neighbours. The reason why we downsized was that we got tired of butchering so many chickens every year. We just didn't want to do it anymore. The hens really only lay well for 1.5 years max and then they have to be butchered or you won't be able to deliver your egg orders. Also, the hens cannot stay on pasture for more than 5 months max here and that leaves 7 months of indoor housing. We got sick of watching the hens pecking each other. No matter how hard we've tried to provide them with as nice and natural indoor environment as possible and an outdoor pen as well, and very good nutrition, we have found that once you put them in groups larger than 8-10 hens, someone gets pecked and tortured and we just hate to watch it. So, we've downsized to what we have time and existing infrastructure to house in groups of 10, and that is 3 groups. Every group has to be serviced separately and that takes time. To service 1000 layers housed in groups of 10 would take all day and then you'd still have 800 eggs to clean and pack and deliver. We have thought about switching to market gardening as an income stream instead, and we have some honey bees as well, about 10 hives at present, so there's some income coming from the bees as well. Milking goats produce our own milk, we have virgin milkers so no regular slaughtering of animals. We have a few cows as well, but they've become pets and we don't want to produce milk from them because that would mean we'd have to send the surplus animals to the butcher and we get too damn attached to those creatures! So, there's bees and market gardening left. We produce all of our own vegetables and some for the neighbours. To produce enough to earn a city wage, however.... I'm not sure how much time it takes and how hard work it would be and whether I' would be able to do it now in my late 40s. And then there's the problem of market demand. Eggs are easy to sell here, as is honey, but people just don't seem to want to eat much veggies. Eggs disappear from our self-serve farm stand as fast as I can carry them there but my delicious, organic, very reasonably priced fresh vegetables move only occasionally. My husband keeps bees but he finds that 15 hives is about maximum he can handle and that is what the market demand is currently so there's no point in producing more than you can market. Bee keeping has become incredibly popular here so there's lots of competition and the local honey market is probably saturating. So yes, honey is a side income for us, but I don't think it's reasonable in our context to try and earn a city wage from it. Like Richard says in the video, animals are more profitable than vegetables but you have to want to slaughter them, a lot, every year, no matter what kind of animal you choose to raise, if you're going to earn a city wage doing it. As a homesteader you can downsize your own wants and say, okay, the hens stopped laying for a while, we won't eat eggs for a couple of months then. Also, you can feed them food scraps and whatever you want, there's no regulations when you're producing for your own consumption. No need to heat the leftovers or keep a detailed record of every apple peel. You can make decisions based on what's ethical and ecological in your circumstances, without having to worry about all the regulations. And also, on homesteading scale, you can do many things that reduce your inputs but what would be totally uneconomical on a larger scale. Like gathering leaves and drying them for winter consumption for your goats. In conclusion, I think there are pros and cons both in homesteading and in professional farming. I'm not sure what road to take.

Inspiring!

Great work bro 👍🏼

This is very inspiring

Great video.

very inspiring... just bought your book. not sure if you've thought about spreading your message in India, which is where I am based. we havent gone to 'industrial chain' yet, have very small farm holdings which in a perverse way is a good thing for this new way of farming, but the farming methods are not informed in the manner you talk about. so, currently, we are stuck in the worst of all situations, and being led down the same path as the west went down 4-5 decades ago...if a small movement can be catalysed, the impact could be huge...but it needs a messenger with scars and street cred

Man you are just awesome!

You gotta love that kid with bucket shoes ! Hahah

Hi :) we have followed you her and you are a true inspiration! We also have you book :) So after your inspiration we started this year. We have one eggMobil (200 chicks) and market garden. Sadly we started with a long cold winter and as you know,no rain. Wen we transplant to the garden, it simply die 😥 we give them water every evening. I have bin looking in your video’s to se what I am doing wrong. But I can’t find anything where you explain about transplants. But thank you for your inspiration to us! We hope we can do similar.

Thanku

We have a farm and NGO called Baza Ulmu in Romania, I am a friend of Gabriel who used to be a garden intern for 6 months at Ridgedale. He is very serious into production now and that"s all good. Our NGO is focused on natural building and permaculture design. It"s on a mountainous area with very high slopes, we have a 300sq meters garden for us and the crowd when we do a workshop with us and other speakers but currently we are not a commercial operation. Since the beginning we were focused on building our houses from our own means as it is illegal to take money from the NGO to build a living space for a family. We have to finish the buildings first so we have shelter, only after can we focus on other aspects on the farm, there is no point in losing construction days with growing vegetables and then in the winter we have to live in the city. There is a long term design and we are on our way good but it"s a little slow as we don"t want to get a loan from a bank. Vegetables in Romania are abundant and cheap as well as chickens, you can find even at 1.5 euro per kg, wages here are small and few can afford a premium when food is abundant especially farmers markets. I know how the food is in Sweden and it"s very bad, horrible if I may say so when compared to Romania. I live in Stockholm since November, work as a manager to get money for my house, so I know what I"m talking about (fresh produce availability). So yeah, in regards to your question why aren't there more profitable permaculture farms I could answer only about my circumstances. Mountainous land with high slopes, not having a roof over our head yet, not wanting a loan. Do we want to run a profitable farm? Yes but only when the time comes and we will hopefully be in on this in 3 years or so. Thank you for taking the time in reading this, I really appreciate your videos, seen them all and follow the rest of the great vloggers also with great interest. If you want to find out more about Baza Ulmu you can check out our facebook page: facebook.com/bazaulmu/?ref=br_tf Doing a PDC in September and I will surely talk about you and Curtis and your take on things. Both of you have great books by the way!

Top content 👌

brilliant!

Amazing! 👏👏👏👏👏👏🌞

Excellent

Hi thank you

WOW!

Richard your place is absolutely gorgeous. Immaculately planned and laid out. Just discovered you recently, and am super inspired. Well done. I’m in the front range of Colorado, which is high desert, and my next career, soon, is in the regenerative space (I’m an engineer and teacher in the material sustainability world now). What’s keeping me anxious is the uncertainty of financial sustainability. How can I identify my market an secure a niche? More to come!

Getting rid of idealism, ..good definition of Enlightenment by default logic. Because it is vertically integrated bio-logically. This is actual genius.

Very nice and informative video. Don't you have predators for your birds? We lost 20 chicken the other day from a pack of coyotes and few years ago about the same number to again coyotes. We've got raccoons, ospreys (sea hawks) eagle, cougars... Would be nice if you could make a video of some of the downside so it paints a more complete picture like the ones you showed with bolted asian greens. from a small scale intensive permaculture based farm in Oregon. Thanks

need this

Love your videos. How long do you chill your chickens before freezing them?

The only thing stopping me is the market. How to find a place to market my produce. Flea markets are out for me.

very nice

I would love to volunteer on your farm to learn.I do not dream of a city life when I am older.Better start now