Farms that grow something unusual: fruit orchards, maple syrup, Christmas trees, cut flowers, hops, cranberries, mushrooms, and pick-your-own farms. Many are small family businesses with a strong local following.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Pomologist (Fruit Crop Scientist): Studies how to grow better apples, peaches, cherries, and other fruit, from new varieties to orchard design. Typical pay $79k.
Tree-Fruit & Nut Orchard Operator: Owns or manages an orchard producing apples, cherries, almonds, pecans, or other tree crops. Typical pay $90k.
Licensed Pest Control Adviser: Walks specialty-crop fields and writes the legal recommendations for which pest treatments growers may use. Typical pay $95k.
Cranberry Grower: Manages cranberry bogs and floods them at harvest so the floating red berries can be corralled. Typical pay $65k.
Hop Grower: Grows hops, the climbing plant that gives beer its bitterness and aroma, on tall trellises. Typical pay $70k.
Sod Farm Manager: Grows fields of perfect grass that get cut into rolls by machine and trucked to new homes, golf courses and sports fields. Typical pay $62k.
Wine Grape Grower: Owns or runs a farm that grows grapes for wineries, deciding how to prune, water and protect the vines and when to pick. Typical pay $70k.
Starter: fastest way in
Maple Syrup Producer: Taps maple trees, collects sap, and boils it down into syrup and maple products. Typical pay $45k.
Christmas Tree Grower: Plants, shapes, and sells Christmas trees, which take 7 to 10 years to grow. Typical pay $45k.
Mushroom Farmer: Grows mushrooms indoors on compost, logs, or sawdust blocks, from button mushrooms to oyster and lion's mane. Typical pay $50k.
Cut-Flower Farmer: Grows dahlias, zinnias, peonies, and other flowers to sell to florists, weddings, and farmers markets. Typical pay $38k.
Market Gardener / CSA Farmer: Grows many kinds of vegetables on a few acres and sells them through farmers markets and weekly CSA boxes. Typical pay $35k.
Agritourism Farm Operator: Runs a farm that visitors pay to experience: pick-your-own berries, pumpkin patches, corn mazes, or farm stays. Typical pay $45k.
Seed Corn Detasseler: Walks seed-corn fields in July pulling tassels off corn plants so seed companies can control pollination. Typical pay $10k.
Orchard & Vineyard Pruner: Prunes, thins, and trains fruit trees and grapevines so they grow the best fruit. Typical pay $36k.
Fruit Packing House Worker: Sorts, grades, and packs fruit and vegetables for shipping to grocery stores. Typical pay $36k.
Truffle Grower: Plants orchards of oak and hazelnut trees with truffle fungus on their roots and waits years for prized truffles to grow underground. Typical pay $50k.
Ginseng Grower: Grows ginseng, a slow-growing medicinal root sold mostly to Asia, either under shade cloth in Wisconsin fields or wild-style in Appalachian forests. Typical pay $35k.
Date Palm Worker: Climbs date palms in the California and Arizona deserts to pollinate the flowers by hand, thin the fruit and cut down the heavy bunches at harvest. Typical pay $38k.
Microgreens Grower: Grows trays of tiny edible seedlings like radish and pea shoots indoors in about two weeks, and sells them to restaurants and farmers markets. Typical pay $30k.
Industrial Hemp Farmer: Grows hemp, a legal cousin of marijuana, for fiber, seed or CBD oil, with every field tested by the state to keep THC under the legal limit. Typical pay $35k.
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