Growing your own food just a hobby?

DJ,
great photo. It says it all. Food on the hoof and feather, big garden and nice pasture growth. I can see your point spending time with that and having satisfaction from it all. I know it's hard work as well as your 'hobby'. Looks good!

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The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man.

I garden on a very tiny scale compared to most, and I treasure what I learn each year, it's all a learning curve up here in the land of the midnight sun. Most of you are blessed to have long growing seasons, and warmer climates that can provide a wider variety of crops than I could ever imagine here in Alaska. Everything in my garden I started indoors, in March (except for a few exceptions) and I grow a lot of annuals too. Produce is horrendously expensive here, even on "sale". I am not having much luck with my green bean variety this year, so will spend the $$ and go to the U pick farm here about next weekend, see what's available.....they don't use chemicals either, thankfully.

I learned this year that I simply must take up my neighbors offer of rabbit manure, and get that worked in this fall. If I could, I would have a garden easily six times what I have now, but soil is a premium product here, and amending it to something healthy and fruitful is a long process! (Anyone ever hear of feeding your soils compost tea with soybean meal and a bad of molasses? to feed the microbes??)

I can like a mad woman, pick all the wild berries I can manage, buy local spuds to can (no space this year, I usually can about 100 quarts/pints), buy my beef from neighbor who practices closed farming, and in general, try to have a pretty well stocked larder at all times-including a couple hundred pounds of flour, etc. Each year I take one half of the state's bounty given us, and stock up at Costco, etc. People think I am nuts, but there is nothing to replace that "I did it myself" reward from all the gardening, the work processing, etc...it's satisfaction I don't get from anything else.

I am trying to talk my hub into a 48 foot greenhouse, hahaha! (Yes, I might be certifiable!)

I'm no expert, but they called them bronze meat turkeys at the feed store. They are too heavy to fly - they taxi alot, but never make it off the runway. Dumb as rocks, but alot of fun, actually. They impinted on us, and follow us around. I had to keep backing up when photographing as they were coming to me.

Yea, Moonwulf, nice pasture but small. We’re in dry part of WA.
Tomorrow will sell a heifer and will have more feed.

Pouncer, my first gardening was near Fairbanks. Grew some nice potatoes in the backyard. I take it back – my first gardening was in my college dorm room growing radishes in the window sill. I figure use what you’ve been given, it’s a challenge everywhere. Someday in the rest home I’ll be trying to figure out growing in pots or something.

Ugh. No, grape jelly won't pay the bills. BUT the money that you won't spend at the store on grape jelly WILL pay the bills. Why does no one get that?

This year I put in my very first garden. I'm very mindful of money so I wanted it to be profitable. Between hiring someone to till and buying seed I spent about $100. I planted the foods that are more expensive. My family eats a LOT of vegetables. I planted tons of winter squash because we love it and it costs $1 per pound for winter squash at the store. One butternut squash can cost $4!

I will easily recoup my $100 investment and save even more... And this is just my first year

RedTartan

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Great thread! I also had someone once say to me "yeah, but you could buy those onions in the store for only $2!". As we know, though, there is much more to it than that on several levels.

As for the costs of growing your own vs. store bought, I've heard the argument before that if you count your labor then it makes growing your own MUCH more expensive. To that I say, if we're counting the "cost" of labor then I believe I come out WAY ahead of store-bought produce if all "costs" are taken into consideration, including:

--the cost of the gym membership or exercise equipment I would have had to have to get the same exercise for my body.
--the enormous benefits emotionally (no Prozac here!) of being outside
--the enormous benefits physically from breathing fresh air all day and absorbing some vitamins from being in the sun (but not too long LOL!)
--less trips to the doctor because you are ingesting less chemicals

And I'm sure the list could go on. These all could have "costs" attached to them. I believe that when all the costs are tallied, growing your own comes out far ahead, even if your only counting dollars.

I just saw this after my post. I would join you in the garden!! DH and I are like you, we love to spend time with others walking thru their gardens, helping clean out barns, walk thru fields, chop wood together, etc. We find these to be great ways to spend time with your friends and family. Trouble is finding people who are like us!! And actually, this is the way the Amish do things. Alot of their "social" time is spent while working together.

I share your frustration about that. We know so few people (including our children ages 21 and 25 not living at home) who think this way or enjoy these things. We have found lots of times that the old-timers are more willing to do so than younger people unfortunately. How sad. Well, I say they don't know what they're missin' and if they're lookin' for me they know where they can find me...

Oh, and I couldn't agree more about the grape jelly thing. Grape jelly DOES help pay the bills! I also do not understand why people don't get this. The more you can do for yourself means the less money spent on those things and the more that can be diverted to pay bills or whatever. I think people don't think it "pays the bills" because they see it as such a small paltry amount of money, and it is. It's when you combine a lot of little things that you see the larger picture. Every pint of jelly, ear of corn, etc. is money in the bank.

To keep beating a dead horse, look at it this way; buy at the groc. store those onions at $3, carrots at $2, potatoes at $3, apples at $4, corn at $3 or $4, peppers at $1 each, lettuce at $1.50 or more... and whatever else you buy like maybe a watermelon at $5, cantaloupe at $2, etc etc. and then you do that once a week X 52 a year, plus your chicken and eggs... THAT'S a lot of money.

Some may call it a hobby, way of life, doing what you were taught, call it whatever floats your boat. Given the size of veg gardens, tater patches, corn patches, etc it must be a huge hobby.

I spend around $300 each spring on seed and transplants. Buy seed in bulk for reduced prices. $300 is a mere drop in the bucket for what you get in return financially, not to mention quality and taste. DH & I process, can and freeze our goodies not to mention eating fresh. You can't beat it. Sure, it's alot of hard work but worth it. You forget your stiff back and blistered hands from hoeing when you bite in those fresh vegetables.

Some people climb mountains, ski, go shopping, etc. We grow food, I guess we eat our hobby! Take care and enjoy those gardens!

You bunch of anarchists. There are many anarchist sites on the internet that say growing and raising your own food is one of the most anarchist activities a person can engage in.

my dad was born in the 1920's and was a child during the depression. i think he understood how important it was to not only have a garden as an insurance policy, but to preserve the knowledge.

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this message has probably been edited to correct typos, spelling errors and to improve grammar...

"All that is gold does not glitter..."

Am not! I'm Catholic and don't even like spiders. I do like my garden though.

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"Only the rocks [and really embarassing moments] live forever"

"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands..." tick-tick-tick

What? Catholics can't be anarchists? I beg to differ! I can think of quite a few...

But I have been to the site that describes gardening as an anarchist activity. It rocks! I can't find it now, though... Hm... have to go through the bookmarks...

BTW, Carla Emery wrote a section in her book on Guerrilla Tree Planting. Guess that would make our late friend a bit of an anarchist, too, eh? Wow, I've been thinking about Carla a lot lately...

Pony!

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Our homestead-in-the-making: Palazzo Rospo
Eating the dream

It probably is cheaper, but less healthy to buy at the store or the local farmers market. Certainly for us it is a money LOSING proposition. We have to pay to rent a rototiller, pay for manure, pay for hummus, compost because all we have here for soil is clay and each year the same ingredients have to be put back in the soil, as the clay just absorbs it all.

And we have to pay for seeds, pay for water--per gallon, fertilizer, insecticide or any other RX we need for the garden, gardening tools, plus your time in the garden.

I bet if you added it all up, it would be really expensive for every item you get out of the garden. But, that really depends on each individual situation.

My garden is a hobby. On the other hand, I have made about 3 trips to the grocery store all summer due to the fact that I have so much fresh greenery around and a freezer full of meat.

In years to come, once we acquire more knowledge about how to be more efficient, I bet we'll be able to can, freeze, etc. I don't have any animals except a few geese and a dozen ducks. It's hard to gather that kind of fertilizer too cause it is so watery.

For us it is a hobby, for ME it is a necessity.

Pat

As the price of gas increases, so will the cost of produce being hauled from the other side of the country. By growing your own food, you are better prepared for disasters (whether natural such as hurricanes, or political such as terrorist attacks). You do not want to become dependent on foreign foods or foreing workers for your food. If there were to be a pandemic, you would still be able to eat without having to leave the homestead and thereby become exposed to the virus.

There are methods of gardening that do not require tilling, hard labor or recurring cost of soil (square foot gardening, for instance, only costs for soil initially and you use your own compost to replace the soil a cup or so at a time as you harvest and replant. With this method, there is no weeding or tilling needed).

So maybe it is “just a hobby” but as hobbies go, it is a useful one. Hunting and fishing are also useful hobbies. Paint-ball fights and surfing now…..threaten to take those up if she keeps giving you a hard time!

it is kind of ironic how many new hobbies cost about $2000. if you hunt, a gun and or bow, warm clothing, knife, license and a protable tree stand is in the neighborhood of $2000. so is a nice camera rig. skiing is the same way.

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this message has probably been edited to correct typos, spelling errors and to improve grammar...

"All that is gold does not glitter..."

I must be odd, but I don't think $4/doz is cheap corn! I spend $4 on seed corn and literally get 100 times that much corn in return.

At almost $4/gallon for cow milk at W*Mart, I don't consider my goats a hobby. They "cost" me a bit of hay and some grain on the milk stand... cheap, and hormone-free. The Yukon Gold potatoes being dug from my garden now will feed my family for the winter and I won't have to pay $40 for 85# like last year. At $2.48/doz of brown eggs at the store, my chickens more tha pay for themselves.

I guess my vegetable garden and critters are not a hobby for me, but rather a necessity.

Kitty

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Kitty

And people with absolutely NO gardening experience whatsoever think that if there is an economic collapse of some kind "I'll be ok, I'll just plant a garden." They fail to realize it is not a guaranteed harvest, Mother Nature may be "shaking things up" the year the need to plant! I know a lot of people who had better re-think that scenario!

Kitty

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Kitty

one thing is for sure...if you plant nothing you will harvest the same.

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this message has probably been edited to correct typos, spelling errors and to improve grammar...

"All that is gold does not glitter..."

not necessarily. One can spend much less getting into a hobby or activity, including gardening. For example, I've expanded my 'hobby' with photogrophy. Before, I had a SLR manual camera with accessories. It was way less than a $1000 for everything. Even over the years I didn't add much, except a lens and a tripod. In the past year, or so, I had to replace that camera. So, I got a digital SLR with 2 lenses, tripod, and that's really all I need. It was about $800 total for that. Same idea with cross country skiing and snowshoeing. For me it's mostly an activity to get out in the winter to pursue 'hobbies' with photography, trail making, etc. Cost for the ski outfit total was $300 and I'm pleased with it's make and use. Snowshoes cost $150.

Back to the amount spent on gardening. Each year my spending is approximately $300 for everything....that includes seeds, fuel for the lawn tractor use, any extra amendments to the fertilizers or organic pesticides, etc. That's for setting up and maintaining about 1/4 acre garden, or more.
I estimate the bounty of vegetable harvest for human consumption from that garden is well over $3000 if I bought it all in the store. The spinoff is how the garden also helps feeding my poultry, and they retrurn valuable manure fertilizer to the compost and cyles back to the garden. All in all, the value is much higher to homestead garden, than to not do it.

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The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man.