If you’ve recently gone ahead and bought a small homestead, or if you’re in the process of considering one, you’re probably looking for ways to get the most out of it. While the most common choice is to use it for farming on a small scale, of course, you actually have a lot of other options as well.

Here is a handful of the best things you can do with your homestead to maximise the profit you’re making of it - and to make it as easy as possible for you to manage. That way, you can feel a bit more confident about your investment.

#1 Grow leafy greens

Small homesteads mean that you have a bit less space to work with in terms of farming. Growing hundreds of apple trees may not be the right choice, in other words, since you don’t really have the space to farm with them - but you can always choose to farm something else that takes up less space.

Leafy greens grow incredibly quickly and won’t take up too much space on your farm at all. They are prone to certain problems, though, so it’s a good idea to read up in everything you can about farming with leafy greens before you decide on anything final.

The pros, on the other hand, are quite clear; they grow fast, are easy to manage, and can be sold to restaurants in your area.

#2 Farm with ducks

If you’re not as interested in leaves as you are in animals, you might want to consider farming with a type that doesn’t require too much space to roam. Ducks, for example, and specifically Pekin ducks are easy to raise and will be happy as long as you provide them with some sort of shelter.

Have a look at the field shelters from Vale Stables, to begin with, and keep in mind that you can have them custom made to suit the number of ducks you’re planning to keep.

#3 Turn it into an Airbnb

Finally, you don’t actually have to farm with anything on your small homestead unless you want to. Just take advantage of the picturesque scenery and the fresh surroundings by renting out a part of it as regular B&B or just an Airbnb.

You can go all out as well, by the way, and set up a small farm-to-table restaurant if you’re able to grow some of the crops yourself. Use the space you have to grow all of the vegetables you might need, for example, and rely on your surrounding farmers to provide the meat; it may even grow to become a bigger business if you manage to run it right.

When you own a small homestead, you actually have so many choices in terms of what to do with it. Raising plants or animals, and even turning it into a hospitality service - the space is all yours.