Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have toiled with the idea reveral times, and if I can swap barra and vegies for roo and beef i will be so happy. That to me makes this adventure a cash crop. How about the old universal bartering system works for me, and I think others around me aswell

I'll be doing like TCL soon, Trout for free, gutted for $5

All fish must be gutted before leaving the premises

I don't like turning a hobby into a job. But for everyone that can and does enjoy it. All the best to them. Was telling people if they wanted a fish come and get em. Until the other half turned them into pets.

i'd be happy to barter, but every other bastard around here thinks food grows at the supermarket

Don't most of your neighbours think that car bodies and old couches grow in front yards Steveo

ha ha

A hobby with perks is the key, as a paid labour job we would all be in strife. My daughter was 2 when she looked at our chickens and said "When they get bigger we can eat them daddy", obviously not as oblivious to the chicken and rice dinners as first thought.

An AP set up that sold vegies and fish, with a restaurant that also cooked them would be the go. Problem is it would be just about impossible due to all the regulations.

....where there is a will there is a way

I have an informal farmers market going with my friends, neighbours and family. We all grow for our own needs and swap the surplus. No cash no measurements. For example, before goingto my mums house i call and tell her what we have surplus of and she tells me what she would like. When i get to her house she tells me what she has surplus of and i take what is offered. I try to grow extra to accomodate others and it helps even out gluts. I have about 8 households that i swap with, and they all swap with others so i got offered a baby fig tree the other day that my neighbours dad grew. I have never met my neighbours dad, but i swap produce with my neighbour and he swaps with his dad, so i got a fig tree.

This is barter in the true sense of the spirit, as what is being given would be wasted but instead is sold for unspecified future or past payment. It only works on a small personal scale as anyone who does not put in produce does not get offered produce.

DP I have a similar situation, but generally only with my folks, my sister has stone fruit every year, but not that much.

But I did just get 1 kg of fresh honey last night from the old man! :-) Yum... that was in exchange for peppermint, of which it has been requested I grow more (Not really a challenge)
Every1 who wants peppermint has been getting roots and all. They plant, harvest and realise there's none left, and it grows slow.
Me, I can't harvest it quick enough to keep it out of my GB!

I do so like honey.

So I think the answer to the original question is yes there has been some small amount of cash made but it is a small amount so far.

Perhaps a better way to think of it is, how much money did you spend on food before and how much money to you have to spend on food once you have a mature AP system? Don't forget the fact that the food from the AP system will be fresher and therefore healthier plus, to a large extent organic. Now add to it the healthier lifestyle after all the exercise washing gravel and the fresh air. So perhaps it will take quite a while to recover the initial set up cost but the ongoing cost of feed and pumping is probably well within what the fish and produce would cost at the market.

Now one probably could make some more pocket money by selling stuff from their systems but I know here in Florida, there are lots of regulations that would make some of that difficult (at least the fish and any live plants) though produce might not be as difficult if one has a good location to set up a produce stand but then you are spending time keeping an eye on said produce stand.

even well sighted people cant get work around this area. if you are not kin you are not in. so i was looking high and low for something i could do from home.

sadly everything i could come up with that required little or no startup funds was not legal with local gooberment.



it amazed me that its 20 miles to any town and nothing is here but yet they would not let me make small consignment shop in my shed.

das verboten komrade! said they

BUT thanks to my blind services counselor , he suggested that i sell veggies on roadside stand and that state and local gestopo could not stop me. i was leery of this so i called them and asked nicely

afterall my motto is :its much easier to stay out of poo than extricate ones self from it

i was surprised when they said "we are an agriculture based county
and if you produce at least 65% of what you are selling for a crop we are fine with that. so i now had their blessings and even them willing to add me to local database for small producer

problem was my land is awful , my helper is crippled and im almost blind so tradtional in the dirt garden was no way, no how, no go

now i find AP , and new friends that have forgotten more than i will ever need to know to get it all stated.

im right beside the main highway, you could put grandma's rubber boots out front (the ones that leak) and someone will stop and want to buy them. its so bad that when i go out front to work i put "not for sale" signs on my toyota or jd tractor just so people will
not keep bothering me or sneek up on me and tap me on shoulder
and scare me



im not kidding or exagerating. i have sold 4 cars , 2 boats a wheelchair and 2 small trailers out front and none lasted more than 3 days. yard sale junk usually will sell 2/3 easily.

so i know for a fact if i can grow AP veggies especially early they will move. especially if i have friendly looking stand and put lesia out there. i look like a wookie or the unibomber, so she will be much better than me on meet and greet. plus she call tell a 5$ bill from a 1 hahahaha

ill keep you posted if we do ever make a dollar from my new hobby

best regards and highest respects, johnny

go Johnny!!! Have fun Lesia!

im going to run with this just as hard as i can. at best it will do fine
and help us. at worst we still have great veggies that i know where they came from. veggie sales are go. fish i wont pursue except for us and home.

florida blind services goal is me back to some sort of work since they took me on.
they have even hinted at possibly even helping me, IF i could submit a biz plan. they were willing to relocate me to talledega alabama as there is blind/low vision employer there. but cheapest rent i could find was 700 and i have this place thats almost mine and its 106 per month. it made no sense to move away from my home

but being really frugal makes it to where if we could add say 200 bucks per month , then all would be quite grand here at club possum. if FBS not help me get set ill sell all my woodworking tools, toy trains and maybe even my toyota 4x4. cant use any of them anyway

tomatoes were last time i looked 2.69 per pound and peppers almost 3. lettuce was not even touchable by us. so yes i think this is a real blessing and im thankful i got lead to it.

hope is good stuff