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Well I was less looking for "start up farmers" and college town "food scenes" and more looking for the kind of place where Billy Bob and Mary Ann live on the same patch of land that their ancestors claimed when they got here from Europe.
You know old school, country, a bit stuck in time.
I also looked at the USA map of places that have bad cell and no broadband service and those places sound even more appealling
Oh, so then either you are either looking to eke by on welfare supplemented by eggs and tomatoes or you have a trust fund then.
Oh, so then either you are either looking to eke by on welfare supplemented by eggs and tomatoes or you have a trust fund then.
It would be a hobby farm...I don't intend to make a living off crops at least until I get the hang of it after years. I build and things for a living and work for myself my $ is portable. These places seem like good places to raise a kid. Those states I chose because they don't have as much of a rural meth epidemic as say Montana.
I find VT being good for farming hard to believe. Vermont carry is bad ass but aren't vermonters the most highly taxed per capita of all Americans?
It should also be noted that there are some misleading issues to the farming statistics. First, any place where people grow at least $1,000 worth of flowers is considered to be a farm, so there appear to be quite a number of farms in non-farming areas because any decent sized florist is a farm, according to the USDA. Also, there seems to be a whole lot of "family still owns the farm, but they are farming for a big company" these days.
Between this thread and the other one you posted, it seems like each state you mentioned has some good places. In Ohio, there seems to be a whole bunch of manufacturing and farms, and not many white-collar jobs along the I-75 corridor from Piqua to Findlay. Two other good places that would meet your criteria well and still be in contact with civilization are Washington Court House and Chillicothe. Chillicothe is in much hillier terrain than most of Ohio, and so the farms around there are much smaller. Washington Court House seems to have quite a number of factories and warehouses for something the size of Washington Court House (15,000 or so people), although having I-71 and two US routes run through town is probably a big factor.
The comments following the article that you linked contain advice from Vermonters who do not think Vermont is the best state for start-up farmers.
Apartment rental rating websites also have many negative reviews and very few positives. There typically aren't a good many who show up on such sites to write glowing positive reviews, as would seemingly be the case in this instance wouldn't you think? What would be the incentive exactly?
I find VT being good for farming hard to believe. Vermont carry is bad ass but aren't vermonters the most highly taxed per capita of all Americans?
Yet you find Maine or New Hampshire on either side viable options? That doesn't really make sense. Vermont's tax rate per capita is $4351, which is 14th largest....not exactly hardship status.
Yet you find Maine or New Hampshire on either side viable options? That doesn't really make sense. Vermont's tax rate per capita is $4351, which is 14th largest....not exactly hardship status.
They are viable options because they are both not as left politically. The geography is perfect the weather is gorgeous but NH is the most libertarian state with a growing movement of libertarians actually moving there and electing libertarians into office which is mad appealing to me (Google free state movement) also very low tax burden (49th) also less hippies, Vermonter heroin problem, I don't want my kids going to school with the kids of the kind of people who live in Burlington (I've been..lots of men with dreads and women with hairy legs)
And Maine is probably the last truly wild and unspoiled part of the northeast
Hilly terrain is less economical for mega farms. The hilly ridge and valley area where I lived in southern KY was dominated by small farms that were usually less than 20 acres. Many people in my family grew tobacco or raised cattle.
This. Hilly land can't be farmed with the big mega-machines; it has to be farmed with significantly smaller and cheaper machines. Because it takes so much more labor to farm, hilly land is much cheaper to buy even if it has good soil.
Think of it in terms of start-up costs. Fertile, flat land like in central Illinois/Indiana or Kansas/Nebraska is $12,000 an acre and you need (minimum) 1000 acres, plus a huge tractor, 2 huge headers (one for beans and one for corn), and 2 huge combines. This equipment will all have to be pretty new because they didn't make the huge stuff 20 years ago. You could rent the land, but that's still really expensive and you'd still have to buy the equipment which is (I'd guess) at least $400k total.
Hilly land, like in Southern Indiana/Ohio/Missouri/Kentucky/WV is much cheaper per acre, maybe half the cost. You only need 300 acres or so to make a go of it, and you can buy smaller, older equipment. My father-in-law told me he's spent less than $40,000 alltogether for all of his equipment.
You should see the places where the Amish farm in Ohio. Some of their tracts are so steep that it's hard for their horses to walk up it.
It would be a hobby farm...I don't intend to make a living off crops at least until I get the hang of it after years. I build and things for a living and work for myself my $ is portable. These places seem like good places to raise a kid. Those states I chose because they don't have as much of a rural meth epidemic as say Montana.
I find VT being good for farming hard to believe. Vermont carry is bad ass but aren't vermonters the most highly taxed per capita of all Americans?
What crops are you looking to farm?
Doing it small-time means you'll have to buy your land because no one with any sense will rent their land out to a hobby farmer. Even without land costs, startup costs for corn/beans/wheat/pigs/cows are so high that you will probably lose money if you just do it small-time. There's lots of people who do that (they treat it like any other hobby that costs them money but brings them pleasure), but I just don't want you to get into this hobby thinking that you'll make money.
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