Secrets of Wealth in MANOR LORDS 

I didn't realize that lvl three burgage plots were so lucrative, thanks for the info

Or you can do as I did, built only chicken plots apart from perhaps 40 needed "industrial" burgage plots, some 30 goat farms and 10 artisan buildings. Got some 1,2k citizens, most of them unemployed, did get the achievement of 100% approval in a mega city. The trick is that basically any chicken plot is self reliant, it pays for itself in food and has no logistics attached, the latter being the most important. You can´t tier them up of course, you just build endless tier one chicken double plots and only upgrade what is necessary to level up the town. Eggtown as I call it is easy mode even on challenging difficulty since logistics are kept to minimum and that is where many of the problems arise. It takes one villager once a month a walk to the granary to deliver one egg, that´s all there is. As for variety in food I have no problems, eggs are eaten first which is part of the trick but they do eat berries once in a while creating a surplus of eggs, but since they do eat eggs first I never run out of berries. The third food isn´t really needed much since most plots are tier 1 but I do buy 200 meat a month. It started as a weird experiment but I just kept going, it´s easier if you have a golden mine since you change production and sell various stuff in the market, take them off when prices go down and just sell something else (don´t like to exploit the market, so I don´t do it).

pretty sure you cant have an ox in the trading post.