Working on my farming business plan...even though I have as yet no place to farm.

Criteria for inclusion in this plan :

• Permaculture/Restoration Agriculture/Agroforestry crops. Trees and perennials have priority.
• Crops which will grow readily in our climate without excessive care and fussing.
• Crops which store well and do not need to sell within a few days have priority, although there are some exceptions, such as berries. Will probably need a BIG freezer in order to deal with these. Still- I do *not* want to deal with a hundred pounds of lettuce or baby salad greens per week, panicking to move them before they wilt. And speaking of baby salad greens...
• Low/minimal labor.
• Crops for which there is a ready market/demand. It would be very cool to grow medlars, however I am not going to be the one to create that market. Belgian endive, for example, would be a wonderful crop to grow, if and only if there is a market for it.
• Multi-use crops, multi-harvest crops, and crops whose "waste" has a practical/productive use are preferred. For example, fallen/substandard apples make good livestock feed and the prunings are good for smoking wood or barbeques.
• Conservation/heirloom varieties or species.
• Multi-function crops. For example, narcissus bulbs deter gophers from eating tree roots, as all daffodils are toxic. Even though daffodils aren't edible, they are worth planting for this reason alone, and the blooms can also be sold as cutflowers, which will not affect the deterrent qualities of the bulbs at all. Also, harvesting the blooms will cause the bulbs to multiply more readily, and the extra bulbs when divided, could be sold.

This is just for plants and trees. I have seperate (but similar) criteria for animals.