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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Just go to West Virginia and buy a nice working farm with plenty of land.  If you get the place from someone who is retiring, you can usually buy all their equipment along with the rest of the farm.  I've done that before.  Well, to have a farm, not a "family compound."

I'd recommend around 300 acres.  make sure 100 is functional farmland and the rest can be wooded (will be able to have a few "private" homesites spread around on it.

Goats are the devil to fence, I'd recommend starting with something easier like beef cattle.

I'd also recommend marrying a farm boy because otherwise you aren't going to have any idea how to actually do what it takes to have a successful farm.  Farmersonly.com may help you.
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For city folk, it's easier and probably more fiscally prudent to just rent out the workable farmland to other local farmers. Farmland has some very favorably tax treatment, IIRC.[/quote]

Well, I live on a farm and so does all my family -- we own half a dozen working farms.  I can tell you now that in most places, farmland rents for a pittance.  My dad has some health issues and just rented out 100 acres for $2,500 a year -- and everyone thinks that is fair.  I don't think it is "fiscally prudent" to plan any sort of dependence on leased farmland.  It's a little different in the Midwest -- I hear you can get better returns there -- but the farms tend to be big flat squares and you can see for miles.  I'd prefer something where everyone can have a bit of privacy without having to buy up the whole damn county.  Also, if OP wants to try her hand at farming, like her post said, she's going to need to actually have some land.  The reason I suggested 100 acres is that you can support yourself above the poverty line with that amount if you aren't a fool.

Tax treatment depends on your state to a large extent (ag land is usually taxed at a much lower rate than pure residential -- which makes sense because you have 1-2 taxpayers on 100 acres of farmland, and God knows how many on 100 acres of housing development.  also we pay taxes again when selling the products produced on the land, so Uncle Sam still gets his share but more based on how much you produce than the acreage involved).

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