Multiple Income Streams

If you corner an avid nut-grower he (generally, not she) will be fixated on the amount of edible kernel he can produce and extract. This is his market product. It is peculiar that in a species where edible kernel tends to be the lowest percentage by weight of any of the fruit’s components (shell and husk are the others), and where larger industry has successfully commercialized walnut shell, that the smaller grower has not caught on to the importance of multiple income streams as counting towards the effective bottom line. If shell and husk are trashed without further thought, the bottom line starts to look pretty thin. My calculations have shown, for example, that if shell can be monetized to 25% of kernel value, the general proportions of each allow equal returns from a 20% kernel line if the shell can also be sold, and a ficticious 40% kernel line where the sole product is the kernel. I say fictitious, because I have only seen data confirming occasional 38-39% kernel percentage in some lines, with this value often being influenced by environmental factors.

And what if we could also sell environmental services? What are they? How could we calculate them? Perhaps that is for another post