The other day I read a post over at Agwh's blog: Grow Your Own (Food) about the value of our homegrown veggies. Now, this may be "preaching to the choir", but I think at seed ordering time and especially when we hit "pay using this card" we all could use a reminder of the rewards of what we do, financially speaking! I also came across a post while researching this on my own at "kitchengardeners.org" that is worth a look! I copied it below, but you can read more of Roger's post here.
To do your own value, just replace his numbers with yours, fun for a cold winter's day! Of course much of our produce is given away, donated, etc, but even with a worst case scenario, I think we all pretty much pay for our seed orders with less than half of our tomato harvest! The prices also vary of course depending on the region you live in, BUT STILL!
Thomas at "a growing tradition" made the statement the other day that sums the reality of our gardens up... "Not that it really matters since I'd still grow my own food even if it costs me more to do so. The way I see it, there are just some things that you can't place a value on and growing your own food just happens to be one of them."
How true, he beautifully stated what we all are thinking! Enjoy the winter math...
If any of you have copious amounts of free time to do this, post your total values in the comments section, I would love to see our combined worth, hahahaha!
Ooo, I've always wondered how much we grew but have never had a scale to weigh it on. A produce scale is on my wish list. Our bathroom scale just doesn't work very well. Maybe next year....
ReplyDeleteOh, and great totals!!!
Judy
Judy, I wish... but those aren't my totals, those are the totals of the blogger who developed the list! I am hoping to figure mine out soon. I got my scale last summer and it was soooo worth the expense! But my husband always wants to use it for his homebrewing stuff and I won't let him since he is hard on "delicate equipment"!!
ReplyDeleteIt's not that we have copious amounts of spendable income (ha!), but I feel every single penny spent on seeds, organic addiments, soil testing, whatever for the garden is absolutely, positively worth it.
ReplyDeleteThink of the physical (and mental and emotional) benefits we get from actually working in the garden! (Okay, that's the same reason many people DON'T garden . . . too dang much hard work. Have they never heard the expression "Use it or lose it?") I feel WONDERFUL getting the gardening exercise I do. At 66 I can still work circles around other gals half my age. Seriously.
Many studies tell us food that is grown locally (this doesn't mean even 100 miles away but rather within a mile or so of where you live) is nutritionally the very best we can consume.
You simply cannot get food any fresher, and therefore beneficial in so many ways, than that grown in your own garden.
You save money on gas and time you spend going to a store to purchase produce you could be growing in your back yard.
I have a garden idol in my community. Two years ago (last time I talked with her) her whole garden (with the exception of her onions) was planted with seed she had saved herself! How much did her bountiful crop cost her in $$$ paid out?
Glad you did this post, Erin. Maybe in these days of economic depression it just might urge a couple of people to try gardening this summer.
How cool is this! I just spent all morning with my spread sheet, and figured the value of my 2009 harvest (minus expenses) to be $2327.20! It may have been slightly less, as I didn't keep track of all my expenses (but had most of them written down), and some of the veggies cost less at our local farm stand than his listed prices, but I used his figures for comparison (where were his beets and raspberries?). My seed costs were low, as my daughter bought most of them as a Christmas gift, and the tomato seeds were free.
ReplyDeleteI have to get a scale too. Where did you get yours at?
ReplyDeleteI am totally impressed that Annie's Granny had the numbers handy to figure this out for her own yard! I'm going to try harder this year to keep track of actual pounds of food that the yard produces---what a conversation-starter (or stopper?) that would be!
ReplyDeleteThis month, I've brought in 11 ounces of collard leaves. Not exactly a huge harvest, but the year is new, and the collards were delicious.
-Amy, NW of Atlanta
OK, I goofed on my harvest totals. I decided to blog about it, and it wasn't until I did a screen shot of my spreadsheet I realized it was the wrong one! It was an incomplete one that I kept in the wrong folder! My actual totals were $3,200.41, Less expenses: $231.10, Net value: $2969.31. LOL, I had about 200 pounds of tomatoes on the correct spreadsheet that weren't on the incomplete one.
ReplyDeleteI will have to make a point of doing this next year. I was telling Gran how I just spent a lot of money at home depot on materials for my indoor seed starting setup and had to remind myself that I would not have this kind of expense every year. I also had to remind myself that if I had to cut back on anything, it would be my cable bill, not my garden!
ReplyDeleteI think we should start a campaign to make such expenses tax deductible!
Go Granny! I can't wait to figure mine out when I get a free minute... right now I am cleaning file cabinets prepping for taxes...FUN! Don't worry, I won't blog about that! Thomas, I know, huh?! Depreciate the seed starting equipment, lol! I just started last year so I had the seed flat, heat, lights, etc do deal with then. I think this year I am good on that except for my soil starting mix. Heehee, I actually did a post last spring about killing the cable to cut expenses, but I couldn't do it! Having hubby gone for months on end would be a real pain without my crappy TV shows to pass the time :)
ReplyDeleteI kept track all last year. My total was $750 for a 230 sqft of growing space. Which is pretty good. But like Granny some of my gardening expenses were taken care of with gifts.
ReplyDeleteI just broke down and added you to my on-blog blogroll; I'm missing reading using other tracking.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if you could easily find regional prices somewhere. Beats going to the market with a spreadsheet and pencil! Although it would be easier to track specialty prices. Also, they change over the growing season -- would you want to price them at their cheapest, or when you have them, in case it's early and they are more costy. . .
Good idea, Erin! We could do this to help justify farmers market prices people to folks too.
ReplyDeleteDani, that's a really good total for 230 sq ft! Stefaneener, thanks for the add on the blogroll! And you have a point about the seasons... I bet most of us would still make out well even with the lowest market prices. I do wish more folks would use the farmers' markets like you, Jo. But like Thomas said, even if we came out spending a little more, I know we all would still do it!
ReplyDeleteHey Erin, you won the giveaway! Email me at dsdorso@msn.com and leave me your address and I'll get it in the mail for you.
ReplyDelete