>>1785582I hear what you're saying but honestly, I'm still skeptical. Now I haven't run a farm before and have no interest, but I do know something about financial self-sufficiency. So here's my take:
Small farm means manageable workload for one person but that and hand tools also means very little in the way of production. And what you don't eat you'll likely want to sell since otherwise I'd imagine it would rot and would be wasted. Selling your stuff means transport / a vehicle and that means more expenses.
And you will still need money coming in: you'll have fuel costs, fertilizer, water, property taxes, insurance, health care, plus some amenities, like telecom, etc. And you'll likely need more variety than what your land can produce, so we've still got a grocery bill, just smaller.
Here's how I see it likely playing out. First year is rough, but you have cash reserves after purchasing your land + maybe an offgrid shed + paying for a well to be drilled if possible, plus annual testing of the water. So, cash reserves are now lower. Go in town to get any chemicals you need to help the growing so another expenditure. But you're energetic enough to work the land, sweating your bag off and grow a bunch of veggies and maybe even have some chickens. Sell them somehow but at the end of the year, all of your bills are due and shit, the sale doesn't quite cover everything. Into the emergency fund again? Won't take long before that's depleted, so now you're looking at agricultural loans. Once you sign those papers, now you are trapped there.
Alternatively, you see this coming and think "gotta make more product to keep my farm alive!" so you invest in machinery and maybe hire some laborers. Now, instead of a kewl offgrid farm, you've got an agribusiness complete with higher overhead and maintenance costs.
Either way, have you escaped? LOL no. I think it's much better to just set up finances and after that, do what you want without the pressure.
