I’m lucky to own/operate a small farm I live on. It doesn’t produce almost any real money for me but it serves as a good collection of hobbies/food. My primary income is industrial and doesn’t scratch that itch. But, it pays the bills and affords me a schedule that let’s me maintain the farm. So, what would your ideal small farm setup look like?
I don’t know about a whole farm, but I suppose that the plant that I’d most personally be likely to grow would be some sort of hot peppers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Capsicum_cultivars
Not a lot of work, and nice fresh in small quantities — so having some growing there is nice. Plus, it’s something where a grocery store is only gonna have a limited selection of options relative to what’s out there.
Whether that’s a good choice is gonna depend on climate where one lives.
I also kind of like pineapple guavas. Those are hard to find in stores (unavailable in many places) as they don’t ship well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feijoa
If I didn’t personally have to take care of them, probably a variety of fruit trees, grapes, berries, maybe squash. Dad planted stuff around the back yard when I was a kid planned so that there was always something edible out there year-round. Grafted stuff on there too, so you had plumcots on one of the apricot trees, a peach tree that was half yellow and half white, a bunch of types of apples and plums (IIRC seven types on one tree) and so forth. It was neat from a consuming standpoint, but I wouldn’t personally want to deal with caring for each. If you enjoy the hobby, though…shrugs More fun than just having a ton of one thing. Not optimal from a cash crop standpoint, though.
EDIT: Oh, strawberries. Not that they’re hard to find, but store-bought strawberries are really watery, as they’re sold by weight or something like that. If you’ve ever had strawberries that aren’t as heavily watered, like, wild strawberries, it’s a neat experience. Much stronger flavor.