How much money can you make on 1 acre? We fill one acre with 9 ways to make money, one item at a time, and do the sums for each: money in, money out, and what's left. Every number comes from university farm studies and USDA reports.

The 9 items: elderberries (with vines on the fence), shiitake mushrooms on logs, honeybees, laying hens, meat chickens, salad greens, garlic, cut flowers, and selling smart.

Some of it surprised us:

60 laying hens lose about $6,500 a year on the University of Missouri's own budget, once the farmer is paid for his time.
700 meat chickens leave $575 or $14,404. Only the price changes.
Salad greens are the best item on the acre.
Hardy kiwi has no published price, so we show the vines but count them at zero.

We also look at why a cow doesn't fit on one acre, the home-kitchen rules for elderberry syrup, how much water the beds drink, and what a rain tank can and can't do.

Then we open the notebook and add it all up. In a normal year this acre sells about $51,000 and keeps about $9,600 after costs, with about $15,000 to pay once at the start. We check that against real small farms that kept their books for years: the typical market garden under three acres sold $13,586 per acre and worked about 2,000 hours.

This is a worked example, not a forecast. Your soil, your prices and your hours will be different.

▶ Watch next: How much a tenth of an acre of garlic can earn → [garlic 0.10-acre video link]
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CHAPTERS
0:00 How much money can you make on 1 acre?
1:06 The fence (paid once)
1:33 Item 1: Elderberries
2:59 Vines on the fence
3:35 Item 2: Mushrooms on logs
4:58 Item 3: Honeybees
6:18 Why not a cow?
6:44 Item 4: Laying hens (why 60 hens lose money)
9:00 Item 5: Meat chickens (price decides)
11:40 Item 6: Salad greens (the best item)
12:53 Item 7: Garlic
14:14 Item 8: Cut flowers
15:20 Item 9: Selling smart
15:37 Water: drip lines and rain tanks
16:42 The notebook: adding it all up
17:36 Start-up costs (paid once)
18:02 What if chickens sell at the average price?
18:21 How real small farms compare
19:27 The answer
19:42 3 things that decide your income

SOURCES
University of Missouri Extension: AF1017 Growing and Marketing Elderberries; G716 Elderberry Planning Budget (Oct 2024); G741 Mobile Laying Hen Planning Budget (2025); G742 Mobile Poultry for Meat Planning Budget (2025); MX801 Missouri Farmers Market Reported Prices (2025); MP685 Controlling Deer Damage
University of Wisconsin Extension, Elderberries; University of Vermont, Growing Elderberries (2015 survey)
Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Cottage Food: what can I make
Oregon State University Extension PNW 507, Growing Kiwifruit (2021); University of Minnesota Extension, Commercial kiwiberry production
Cornell Small Farms Program, Economic Report for Log-Grown Shiitake (2019); Northeast SARE, Best Management Practices for Log-Based Shiitake
USDA NASS, Honey (March 2026); USDA Farm Service Agency, ELAP honeybee fact sheet (2025)
Certified Humane, Pasture Raised standard for laying hens
USDA AMS, National Pasture Raised Poultry Report (2025); USDA AMS Vermont farmers market report (Sept 2026)
USDA FSIS, poultry slaughter exemptions; Cornell Small Farms, slaughtering and processing of poultry
University of Nebraska BeefWatch, forage production and stocking density (USDA ERS / 2012 Census)
University of Kentucky CCD-CP-109, Organic Lettuce and Leafy Greens (2019); Iowa State University Extension, Mesclun
Michigan State University Extension E-2722, Producing Garlic in Michigan; University of Minnesota garlic grower analysis (2017); Penn State Extension, Garlic Production (2023)
SARE OW23-381, Flower Farm Financial Metrics (2023–25); University of Tennessee W1348, Cut Flower Summer Annual Enterprise Budgets (2025)
Purdue Extension HO-341, Water Management for Vegetable Crops on Small Farms; USDA NRCS, Selecting an Irrigation System (2023)
SARE LNC01-194, Profit by Planning (2002–04 data); University of Minnesota Extension, Financial benchmarks of local food operations (2014 data)

For education only. Figures are examples from the sources listed; your own costs and prices will differ.

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