Alternative and Specialty Crops and Value-Added Products for the Small Farm

Aquaculture means farming aquatic plants and/or animals. For example, you may raise trout, catfish, oysters, clams, baitfish, crawfish, or tilapia. You can raise aquatic plants and animals in ponds or in seawater depending on their needs - for example, oysters are raised in salt water while trout can be raised in a freshwater pond.

Specialty vegetables can mean anything from heirloom varieties of typical farm-grown vegetables, to using greenhouses or hydroponics to grow out-of-season crops, to farming medicinal and/or edible mushrooms, such as shiitakes or agaricus.

Here are some ideas for specialty vegetables you can grow:

• Microgreens. These are tiny leafy vegetables grown from seed to eat. Common microgreens are beets, broccoli, Chinese cabbage, kohlrabi, mustards, and radishes. They are harvested when less than 2 inches tall.
• Mushrooms. Some of the more commonly grown mushrooms include white, criminis, portabella, oyster, shiitake, maitake, enoki and beech mushrooms.
• Peppers. If you're in a warm climate, you may want to grow specialty peppers, such as hot peppers like jalapenos and habaneros for salsa.
• Sprouts. Pea shoots, broccoli sprouts, mung bean sprouts and more are all sold to consumers for topping salad or just eating by themselves. Sprouts grow very quickly but freshness is also a concern - they have a short shelf life.

Growing feed and forage for livestock is another specialty area. Consider growing plants for birdseed, too: sunflower, millet, and canary grass are popular. You could grow turnips and rutabagas for livestock to forage. If you have the right pasture, you can grow hay for other farmers.

Edible oils like flaxseed and borage, castor beans and sesame can be good alternative choices. Also consider sunflower, comfrey, jojoba, lupine, milkweed and safflower.

Fruits and nuts are considered specialty crops. Heirloom apples, Asian pears, berries of all kinds - gooseberries, elderberries, blueberries, strawberries, cranberries and currants - as well as rhubarb, grapes for eating or for making wine (can be sold to the home brewing market), and more, are some good choices.

If you have maple trees, making maple syrup is another possibility.

Love growing plants for others? Grow extra vegetable starts and sell flats of them in the spring. Or consider transforming your farm into a nursery. Sell trees, bedding plants, perennials, annuals, bulbs, and more.You can also sell field-grown cut flowers for arrangements or drying.

Agroforestry means, basically, farming trees. Christmas tree farms, bamboo, firewood, tree seed collections and wild nuts are some of the options in this category.

Specialty livestock are those animals that are not commonly farmed. Here’s a list of some potential specialty livestock: beefalo, buffalo, deer, elk (for meat and antlers), pheasant, alpacas and llamas, goats, horses (draft horses, miniatures, exotics), mink, mules and donkeys, rabbits for meat, Angora rabbits for hair, worms for composting. In the poultry category: balut (partially-incubated duck eggs), partially developed chicken eggs (for Asian markets), ducks for meat and pate, doves, geese, guinea fowl, peafowl and peacocks, pigeons, turkey, and quail.

Consider what kind of value-added products you can make on your farm. Some ideas include: beeswax products like candles, propolis products for healing, herbal products made from wildcrafted or farm-grown herbs like tinctures, dried teas, and salves. Kombucha, sweet and hard cider, beer, wine, cheese, tanning hides, dried fruits, furniture, wool for spinning or spun into yarn and dyed, processed meat like jerky, salsa, soap - the possibilities are nearly endless. Here are some product ideas in more detail to get you started:

• Kombucha
• Elderberry Jelly, Syrup and Tincture