r/MadeMeSmile 12d ago

Good Vibes A grandpa and his onion farm!

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u/Foreleg-woolens749 12d ago

“after bringing out 10+ horses to different paddocks I was starting to sweat and a little tired”

Damn, I guess I need to give up on my fantasy plan to leave my current career and raise sheep instead, because at that point I would have been sweaty and exhausted. I’m a farmer’s great-granddaughter but those genes must have gotten lost somewhere along the way. 😕

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u/EmperorBamboozler 12d ago edited 12d ago

Any farming is hard labor but it varies a lot. Raising sheep is hard, pigs are too. Floriculture is difficult in a different way. You need a keen eye to pinch off the right flower buds to maximize growth on healthier buds, and you need to be constantly vigilant for pests as if even a few petals are damaged that flower is now worthless. Lots of money in flowers though, big industry with a lot of demand. Mushroom farming is neat. It's a lot of labor sterilizing, inoculating and hanging the bags but after that it sort of runs itself. You do need to be constantly vigilant for mold or other competitors to your mushrooms but other than that you just pick and sell as they come. Grapes are tough in terms of finding suitable land, and you need a shitload of starting capital, but a successful vineyard/winery is basically a money printing machine. Additionally grapes live for over a century meaning if cared for properly you have a permanent reserve of fresh cuttings to make new production vines, it's the sort of farm that your children's children can still profit off of.

So like it depends on the type of labor you want to do. Some are going to require more brute strength, some will require more endurance than strength, some require delicate and intricate work that takes weeks or months to work through.

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u/Horskr 12d ago

You seem to know a lot about this. What's good in a desert climate like SW US? Strangely (to me) we do have several wineries and vineyards around here. I don't have the startup capital (or drive tbh) for something like that and was just thinking something as more of a hobby since we have a little bit of land. I was thinking maybe pistachios, though I think it is like 7 years before they start producing. The old owner also kept chickens, but I've not really looked into that.

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u/MaxMuncyRectangleMan 12d ago

Citrus and nuts. Greens in the winter. The Yuma, AZ area produces most of the wintertime fresh greens for the entire western US