I'm just a Lowly Acorn Farmer

It's been several years now, and I have to say that I am so glad I took this up. What we are doing is trying our hand at acorn farming. See, we have acres and acres of white oak with tons and tons of acorns just lying on the ground. The problem is how to get them all vacumned up and processed into something worth selling. About 5 years ago I hit on an idea: run all those acorns through the intestinal tract of whitetail deer and wild turkey, then harvest the critters. Those deer and turkeys just naturally go around hooverin' up those acorns, and I'll tell ya' it's downright fun chasing them down and converting them into all sorts of yummy stuff.

Self-sufficient? Not yet, but we're getting there. If my experiments keep working out, we'll be able to move out there permanent one of these days soon.

Acorn farming is not like other farming. In other forms of farming, you pay folks to come and help with the harvest, or you invite your friends in. In this case, after you and your friends have harvested all you want, you can advertise and have complete strangers come and help harvest.

The country is a strange place I found out. Folks will come and mow your grass-- acres and acres of it, just for the clippings. This is just as strange.

The whole thing works off what's known as a "day lease. " You can advertise and say, in essense: "Come pay me $200 a day, and pick what you like." The catch here is "No guarantees you'll find a single acorn." Imagine that sort of deal flying with a U-Pick-'em orchard or berry patch!

The key here is that I'm running the acorns through deer and turkey in what's known as a "value-added process". That's city talk for turning sow's ears into silk purses. Folks love those acorns once they've been run through a nice big deer. They'll pay good money just for a chance to do it.

That's what I'm banking on. One of these days, when I'm too old to go harvest the acorns myself, I'll just advertise in the paper. "Come Pick my Acorns--$200/day!" The acorn harvest starts with squirrel season in August and runs clear through until the end of deer season in January, and then it starts up again in the Spring with the turkeys. That's close to half a year that folks can come and gather acorns on my place.